How to get website enquiries on WhatsApp
Four ways to get website form enquiries on WhatsApp: a click-to-chat button, the WhatsApp Business API, an automation tool, or a form alert service. What each involves.
- Updated
- Reading time
- 2 min
Short answer
There are four ways to get website enquiries on WhatsApp: a click-to-chat button, the WhatsApp Business API, an automation tool such as Zapier, or a form alert service such as Formcrier. Only a form alert service forwards the form you already have, with no business account or code to look after.
Key takeaways
- WhatsApp can't receive form submissions by itself. Something has to pass each one on.
- A click-to-chat button replaces your form rather than forwarding it.
- Using the WhatsApp Business API yourself means Meta verification, approved templates and code to maintain.
On this page
A "Chat on WhatsApp" button
The simplest option is a link that opens a WhatsApp chat with your number. It takes a minute to add and costs nothing.
It replaces your form rather than forwarding it. You get whatever the visitor chooses to type, not the details your form asks for, and it only works for visitors who have WhatsApp and are happy to message a business from their own number. Your number is also public. It's a good extra. It isn't a substitute for a form.
The WhatsApp Business API, yourself
WhatsApp has an official way for software to send messages. To use it directly you register a business with Meta, verify it, get a number approved, write message templates and have them approved too, then write the code that sends them. For one website's contact form, that is a lot of work.
An automation tool
Tools like Zapier and Make can connect a form to a messaging service. They work, and they suit people who already use them. You still need a WhatsApp provider behind them, each enquiry is a paid task, and when a step breaks the enquiry quietly goes nowhere.
A form alert service
This is what Formcrier does. Your form stays exactly as it is. When someone submits it, the enquiry arrives on your WhatsApp within seconds, from Formcrier's business number, with the main details and a button to see the rest.
Add your website: paste one line of code, or install the WordPress or Craft plugin.
Scan a QR code with your phone and send the message that appears. That connects the WhatsApp you already use. You need no business account.
Submit your own form to test it.
When more than one person needs it
Each person connects their own phone, and you choose which forms go to whom: quotes to you, bookings to the office. If an alert can't be delivered, it is emailed instead, and every enquiry is saved in your dashboard.
It's free for 10 alerts a month, with no card.
Tim builds websites for UK service businesses and made Formcrier after clients kept missing enquiries sent by email.