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  1. #1
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    Going interactive with hosting notifications

    Greetings,

    I'm not sure whether this belongs in this specific forum or not, but I'll let mods decide on that.

    One of the things I'm exploring doing with a current mod (for WHMCS) is working with WhatsApp. Since they've enabled a 'business' API and platform, it's possible for customers to message that and get messages back. I've got this already partially integrated into the addon (invoices created, ticket replies, etc) so the customer (and admins) will get notified. That part is easy.

    The not so 'easy' part of this is understanding a way to make this more 'creative', more engaging, so that the customer would have the ability to interact as it were. Not looking for 'how to' (that's already covered, too), but more'what', and gauging interest here. I have a few ideas that I'll be implementing in the next few days, but need more input on basic ideas. So far, I've come up with one line command (ideas) :

    invoices - open invoices
    tickets - tickets awaiting your response
    domains - domains needing renewal (maybe)
    credit - credit available on account (maybe)

    Security won't be that much of an issue I don't think. Client will have to login to their account manually, enable WA on their account, and add the # to their account.
    Additionally, admins will have the ability to turn each of these (and the global 'bot') on / off at will

    Any other ideas on what commands I might add? Input? Is this something you'd find useful from your provider?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Greetings,

    This is interesting and should be helpful. Few commands that you may consider:

    overdue - overdue invoices
    payunpaidinvoice - pay all unpaid invoices using default payment method
    contactsupport - initiate a whatsapp call to support (not sure if this is feasible)

    All the best,
    Ruchir
    ██ SoftSys Hosting ██ - 14 Years In Business - 24/7 In-House Support - Enterprise Class Replicated Cloud Servers For HA

    Cloud Hosting With Anti-Malware, IDS/IPS, WAF & Litespeed - Windows 2019 Shared Hosting w/ Plesk

  3. #3
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    Thank you for your feedback. I posted this to a number of discussion forums to get a broad array of feedback from companies and customers, and it all helps.

    Quote Originally Posted by Softsys Hosting View Post
    overdue - overdue invoices
    Didn't think about separating those from unpaid, will definitely have that done

    Quote Originally Posted by Softsys Hosting View Post
    payunpaidinvoice - pay all unpaid invoices using default payment method
    You're not the first one that's brought up paying invoices through this method, and that's one of the reasons I opened up discussion on multiple forums.

    I originally thought about doing this, but then thought about the ramifications of doing this. Given that this can only be done with credit cards, and it's rather common to see fraud chargebacks here, I'm not so certain this would be a good idea?

    I'm not adverse to it, I'm sure it can be done via API, I'm just not so sure it's a great idea to do.

    Quote Originally Posted by Softsys Hosting View Post
    contactsupport - initiate a whatsapp call to support (not sure if this is feasible)
    This (and chat) have both been brought up. In theory, great idea. In practice, I'm not sure. I'll have to do some research, and then add that to a future update, in order to not delay the current update (scheduled for the next month or so) any further. This isn't exactly the purpose of the current app (think notifications and responses), but definitely might work

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by whmcsguru View Post

    You're not the first one that's brought up paying invoices through this method, and that's one of the reasons I opened up discussion on multiple forums.

    I originally thought about doing this, but then thought about the ramifications of doing this. Given that this can only be done with credit cards, and it's rather common to see fraud chargebacks here, I'm not so certain this would be a good idea?

    I'm not adverse to it, I'm sure it can be done via API, I'm just not so sure it's a great idea to do.
    Hmm.. I did think about this but then if he's an existing customer and request is coming from registered WhatsApp #, it should be safe to process.

    Quote Originally Posted by whmcsguru View Post
    This (and chat) have both been brought up. In theory, great idea. In practice, I'm not sure. I'll have to do some research, and then add that to a future update, in order to not delay the current update (scheduled for the next month or so) any further. This isn't exactly the purpose of the current app (think notifications and responses), but definitely might work
    Yea, I can understand and agree.. this feature can wait for it's next update! :-)
    ██ SoftSys Hosting ██ - 14 Years In Business - 24/7 In-House Support - Enterprise Class Replicated Cloud Servers For HA

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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Softsys Hosting View Post
    Hmm.. I did think about this but then if he's an existing customer and request is coming from registered WhatsApp #, it should be safe to process.
    I agree, and it can be disabled by admins (default is off anyways), so it'll be added in. Long as it can be done with the WHMCS API (and it should be able to), I will get it in there

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