All you need to know about WhatsApp Template Quality Rating

What is Template Quality Rating?

The Quality Rating of a WhatsApp template is a rating given to that template as per the responses it receives from its receivers on WhatsApp over a period of the last 7 days. Meta computes a unique rating for each of such templates by garnering feedback from customers. A customer can respond to the template received from your WhatsApp Business Account number in any manner. But where can you find such ratings?

Where can I find the Template Quality Rating?

When you, as a WhatsApp Business Account holder, open your Meta WhatsApp Manager, there you can find the quality rating beneath its phone number tab. The Quality rating comes in different colors, signifying its low/high score quality states, such as:

Green Color for Quality pending
Green Color for High Quality
Yellow Color for Medium Quality
Red Color for Low Quality

Here, one does not list the particular score of the template quality but a color rating system.

Every message template created for WhatsApp has a quality rating. Such ratings are based on the usage of the template as well as its received feedback from the user. Its rating will appear in the WhatsApp Manager only when it has Active status.

What Affects the Quality Rating of a WhatsApp Template?

A user can block your business contact on WhatsApp for multiple reasons such as the following, which degrades the message template quality rating:

No Longer Needed
No Sign-Up
Spam
Offensive Content
Arbitrary Reason

In case the quality rating is medium or low, Meta allows you to see the reasons for blocking by hovering over the quality rating tab in the WhatsApp Manager. By this, Businesses understand why the template was blocked and amend and avoid using such low-quality templates. There is a risk that repeated poor message broadcasting can trigger the customer to block your phone number.

What happens when your Template quality changes/degrades?

When your message template reaches its lowest quality rating on an Active status, Meta will automatically pause the template for a brief period of time. This is done to protect the quality rating of your WhatsApp Business phone number.

The Template Pausing comes in three duration, such as the following:

The template gets paused for the first time for 3 hours
The template gets paused for the second time for 6 hours
The template gets permanently disabled on the third time

What happens when we try to send a paused Template on WhatsApp?

During the template pause period, you can’t send it to the customers. Also, you must halt any automated messaging campaigns relying on the paused template. You can resume these campaigns when Meta changes your template’s status to Active again.

Can a paused Template be edited?

Yes, Meta allows you to edit a paused template. Editing a template’s content can reduce the amount of negative feedback it receives. However, once you edit a message template and submit it again for approval, then Meta will change the Template status to review. You cannot send the template to customers until it has been re-approved by Meta. Only upon re-approval, Meta will turn the template’s status to Active and eligible for broadcasting.

Changing content alone will not lessen your negative feedback. You must also make changes to your business logistics, if necessary, such as targeting, delivery parameters, etc., if they are contributing negatively.

Does Template Pausing affect your WhatsApp Business Phone Number’s Rating?

Pausing a Template will not impact your business phone number initially. Also, it will not cause the messaging limit of your phone number to decrease. You can continue to send high-quality message templates from the phone number. But, if you consistently send message templates with each one reaching a low-quality status, then the phone number may get impacted.

Can consistently poor Template Quality Ratings affect the status of your WhatsApp Business Account?

There are three statuses in which a WhatsApp Business phone number can exist. They are Flagged, Connected, and Restricted. These modes are determined by the quality rating of the message templates sent from your Business account. If the quality rating of multiple message templates reaches low or is on track to be downgraded to a lower message tier, the Meta changes the phone number status to Flagged.

In case the quality doesn’t improve over 7 days when the phone number is flagged, then the status returns to Connected, but your messaging limit will decrease to the lower level.

Let us take an example of a WhatsApp Business number that sent 100,000 messages a day now has been Restricted to sending 10,000 messages because it was flagged and showed no improvement.

Statuses of WhatsApp Business Account:

The three Business Account Status statuses are as follows:

Connected: You can send outgoing messages from your phone number within the set messaging limit.
Flagged: When your phone number’s quality rating changes to low, then you cannot upgrade your messaging limit tiers during the flagged status.
Restricted: When you reach your messaging limit, irrespective of the quality rating, your status becomes restricted. Hereafter, you can’t send any messages until 24 hours. Note that you can respond to messages if initiated by the customers.

Save your Business Account from Flagging: Ensure a High-Quality Rating of Your WhatsApp Templates

As you have seen that a low-quality rating of your template can be detrimental to your Business Account, therefore you must take due care while designing as well as broadcasting them over WhatsApp. Some of the common recommendations for ensuring a high-quality rating for your template are as follows:

Each Template Message must follow the WhatsApp Business & Commerce Policy
Businesses must send template messages only to the users who are actual recipients of your messages
Engage the User by sending them highly personalized messages. Messages must be useful to them, and avoid sending open-ended welcome messages
Messaging infrequency must be maintained. You must not send customers too many messages a day.
The sent information must be thoughtful, optimized in length and content