24-hour customer service window

Definition

The 24-hour customer service window is the period during which a business may reply freely to a person on the WhatsApp Business Platform. It opens whenever the client sends a message (text, button tap, reaction or attachment) and closes 24 hours after the last inbound message. Inside the window the business can send any free-form message: text, documents, images, interactive lists, with no template or prior approval. Once it closes, only an approved template can restart the conversation, and a reply from the client opens a fresh window. Under the per-message pricing Meta introduced in 2025, free-form messages inside the window are not charged, and utility templates sent while a window is open are free as well.

What you need to know

The window sets the operating tempo of a brokerage on WhatsApp. A client query received at 6 pm on Friday must be answered before 6 pm on Saturday to stay in free-form mode; after that the handler has to use a template, which is more formal and rarely suits a servicing conversation. The first practical consequence is organisational: a shared inbox with assigned conversations and a visible window indicator (ORIS shows Window Open, Awaiting Reply or Window Closed on each thread) prevents queries from slipping.

The second consequence is how follow-ups are designed. A renewal notice sent as a template with a "I have a question" button opens the window the moment the client taps it, so the handler can continue in plain language, send the policy schedule as a PDF and answer objections without another template. Reminder sequences are built around that mechanism: template, reply, free-form exchange, then a new template only if silence persists.

The third consequence is cost. A firm that answers quickly stays inside the window and pays nothing for the exchange; a firm that lets 24 hours pass pays for every template it has to send. The use cases describe the sequence for each journey, and the WhatsApp Business hub tracks Meta's pricing changes, which are worth checking against the official documentation before budgeting.

Concrete example

A client of a Lusaka brokerage replies "My debit order bounced, can I pay by mobile money?" to a premium template at 14:05 on Tuesday. The window opens, the thread is assigned to his account handler, who sends the payment details and a short confirmation at 14:30 and asks whether the bank account has changed. The client answers the next morning, extending the window again, and the whole exchange costs the brokerage nothing.