Here is the list of all the steps available in the Bot Editor to send messages of different formats to your customers on the WhatsApp channel.

AI Bot ✨

This step allows an artificial intelligence API (NLP or generative) to respond to the client's last message.

See our dedicated article: Create your AI Bot scenario 

AI satisfaction ✨

This step is intended to appear after an AI has given a response, so you can collect customer satisfaction with the AI's response.

See our dedicated article: Create your AI Bot scenario 

First conversation

This is the main entry point to your WhatsApp account: it is triggered when the customer sends their first message, and your bot can greet them with a welcome message and a menu of choices for the rest of the scenario.

For each subsequent conversation after the first one that triggered the "First Conversation" step, the "Subsequent Conversations" step will be triggered: so it's just as important to write a good welcome message in this case!

Following conversations

This step determines the bot's behavior during a new conversation, as opposed to its very first conversation in the channel. It is triggered when there are messages in Alcmeon that formed a previous conversation (in the Alcmeon sense) for this client, and this client sends back a new message that is the start of a new conversation.

Note: When all previous messages from the customer have been “anonymized” (special action for GDPR compliance), if the customer sends a message, then this step is triggered.

Unexpected text

This step is used to intercept messages typed by a customer in the middle of the decision tree, when they would be expected to click a button presented to them instead. It is triggered when ALL of the following conditions are met:

• the customer sent a message
• this message is not a click on a button or on another element of the scenario), it is therefore a message typed by the client himself
• in the same conversation as this message from the customer, there is a message immediately preceding it which is a message sent by the bot as part of THIS scenario
• This previous message from the bot does not have a "free message entry" or "default response" output, because in this case the script should follow that output, which takes precedence over "unexpected text".

Welcome Message

This special step defines which messages will be sent as part of your entire WhatsApp account's "welcome message" to this phone number.

Welcome messages are sent to your customer when, and only when, they access your WhatsApp conversation for the first time AND nothing is typed in the customer's message input bar (at the bottom of their app).

In your Alcmeon bot's workflow, you can connect the Welcome Message step to any series of other steps. For example, if you connect it to a Single Message step connected to a List Message step, then your first visitor will receive these two messages as soon as they open the conversation with you.

WhatsApp cart sent

💡Advanced feature, please contact Alcmeon support to use it.

This step does not send a message, but is triggered when the customer has used multi-product messages to create a cart and validates it by sending it to you.

This step is typically linked to a message that says, for example, “Thank you for validating your basket, please click here: [payment_url] to finalize your order.”

The payment process must then take place on your website or mobile app, as WhatsApp does not offer an integrated payment process.

Message only

This step sends a simple text message to the customer.

This step must be connected to another step, otherwise the bot scenario will abruptly stop at this step for the client.

Message with buttons

This step sends the client a message with buttons that the client can use to continue the scenario.

There can be 1, 2 or 3 buttons (not zero or 4 or more).

When the user clicks on one of them, the label of that button is sent as a text message by the client and your bot's scenario can proceed to the next step.

The clicked buttons then become unclickable and the customer cannot use them a second time, while the others remain clickable.

Since it is not possible to send a “message with buttons” without a button, if you need to ask the customer a question that they must answer in free text, you must use the “Message with choices” step described below.

Message with choice

This step sends a message to the client and waits for a response described in the step, in the form of "1", "2", "3", etc.

In the body of the message, we automatically add the list of possible choices, so there is no need to add them in the text.

This step has been replaced by Meta's provision of "Messages with Buttons" and is therefore only really useful if you need to ask the customer a question that they can answer in free text, such as their name, email address, postal code, or simply type a message. The step will then take the output "other answer", which is the equivalent of a "free entry" message.

List Message

This step sends the customer a message with text and a button to open a categorized choice list.

It is mainly useful when you want to send more choices to the customer than the maximum 3 buttons in the “Message with buttons”.

When a user clicks this main button, a dialog box opens, containing between 1 and 10 options that can be organized into "sections".

There can be a maximum of 10 sections (but they are optional).

Each section has a title (maximum 24 characters).

Each clickable option has a title (maximum 24 characters) and a description (maximum 72 characters).

The user can choose a single option and click "Send." In this case, the title of the selected option is sent as a text message, and your bot's scenario can proceed to the next step.

WhatsApp template

This step sends a WhatsApp Template to the client. These are predefined messages that require validation from Meta.

Their use is billed by Meta (not Alcmeon) according to the rules detailed in this official article: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/pricing/updates-to-pricing

These message templates can be of different types and can contain customization elements. For example, your text can contain placeholders that will populate when you need to use it. This is true for texts, but also for media and even URLs in buttons.

For each template, a header and footer can be defined, as well as buttons.

Additionally, templates can contain multi-language translations for their text components.

Models available for your Alcmeon scenarios:

• Text Message Templates
• Media-based message templates, including images, videos, or files
• Interactive message templates, with quick reply, URL and phone buttons
• Carousel templates
• Coupon Code Templates
• Limited Time Offer Templates
• Multi-product message templates, linked to your Meta product catalog
• and more to come, as Meta releases them!

1. Creating Models

First, create your templates directly from Alcmeon , even if you don't have an administrator role in your Meta Business Portfolio (formerly Business Manager): go to Alcmeon's settings, then to the "Message Templates" section, and follow the creation process for WhatsApp.

Once created, your templates will be validated by Meta , usually within minutes.

If your model is rejected, you will find the information in Alcmeon. Rejected models cannot be used.

2. Choose and configure a Template for your scenario

Select the “WhatsApp Template” step and place it in your timeline. Click the “pencil” icon to edit it. All available templates approved by Meta are displayed by clicking “Select a Template.”

A list of models is then displayed, which can be selected with a single click.

You can view the different characteristics of the template (Title, Content, Buttons, Variables) and filter them by country using the flag at the top right.

If necessary, you will then need to populate the various variables in your template with text and/or custom fields. This allows you to send personalized templates with your customers' data.

Ice breakers

These special buttons were meant to be displayed to your customers when they first entered your conversation, but Meta announced in October 2024 that this feature was being discontinued until further notice.

Buttons from variable

The step “Message with buttons from variables” is used to send a Message with buttons or a List Message. The difference is that the buttons labels can be a list of variables instead of static ones.

This step can automatically generate the right type of message (with buttons or List message) depending on the number of variables. Up to 3 variables, it sends a Message with Buttons. For more variables, it sends a List Message.

The variables are commonly retrieved thanks to our “API Connector” step and used to build that message.

Typical use case: knowing the phone number of the client, your bot scenario can retrieve a list of offers he is eligible to thanks to the “API connector” step, then present those offers to the client.