Most admissions offices already run on WhatsApp — on counsellors' personal numbers, with no record, no handover and no compliance. Moving to the official Business API takes about a fortnight and changes how the season runs.
1. Business verification
You need a Meta Business Manager account, a verified legal entity and a phone number that is not already on WhatsApp. Verification is the step that takes longest, so start it before you need it.
2. Template approval
Any message you send outside a 24-hour conversation window must use an approved template. Write them before the season: enquiry acknowledgement, brochure delivery, application reminder, document request, fee reminder, event invitation. Approvals take hours, not weeks, if the templates avoid promotional language in utility categories.
3. Opt-in, properly
Collect consent at the point of enquiry, record where and when it was given, and honour opt-outs immediately. This is both a WhatsApp policy requirement and a DPDPA expectation.
4. The shared inbox
The operational gain is here. Every conversation lands in one inbox, is assigned to a counsellor, and is logged against the CRM record — so a handover mid-season does not lose the thread, and a director can see response times by counsellor.
5. Click-to-chat ads
Once the API is live, Meta campaigns can open a WhatsApp conversation directly. For admissions this consistently outperforms lead forms: the enquiry arrives already in a conversation.
What it costs
You pay per conversation to Meta, plus your platform's per-message rate. Budget against reply rates, not send volume — a channel that gets answered is cheaper than one that gets ignored.
WhatsApp Compliance Admissions