WhatsApp Flow Forms are interactive, automated sequences within WhatsApp that guide users through a series of questions or prompts. They allow businesses to collect specific information from users in a structured way, like gathering customer preferences, booking appointments, or qualifying leads. These forms help streamline communication by keeping interactions focused and organized, and they can be especially useful for businesses that want to provide personalized responses or automate part of their customer service process.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the steps to create a WhatsApp Flow form in BotCommerce. This guide is split into three parts: first, creating the form , then integrating it into a fully operational chatbot and finally, checking results. Let’s get started!

Creating the form

Access the WhatsApp Bot Manager from the left sidebar. Choose the WhatsApp account you want to use.

Scroll down to the WhatsApp Flows section. You’ll see two buttons: Sync and Create.

• Sync: This syncs any previous forms created through the WhatsApp API.
• Create: Click here to make a new form.

Create a WhatsApp Flow. Click on the Create button to get started.

You’ll be directed to the WhatsApp Flow form page. Here, you can make any type of form you want for your business.

Name the form. This should be unique and not match any existing form names. Flow names must be unique within a WhatsApp Business Account.
Choose a category for your form. In this case, we are using Appointment Booking.
Enter a Screen Name. This should be lowercase, with no spaces or special characters.

Select the bot reply that your users will get after they submit the form. If you haven’t built one, you can do it directly over here. Just click on the Add button below the ‘Reply Sent After Form Submit’ box. It will open the Visual Flow Builder in a separate window.

Once in the Visual Flow Builder, double-click on Start Bot Flow. There’s no need to set any trigger keyword, just set a title for your flow. Optionally, add a label to identify the users that receive this message and have therefore filled the form. Now, drag a Text Message component into the dock, and write the message.

Save the bot and close the Visual Flow Builder. Back on the WhatsApp Flows form page, click on the refresh button below the ‘Reply Sent After Form Submit’ box. Look for the bot your created by its title and select it.

Now it’s time to design the form. Drag elements to the blank dashboard and customize them by clicking on the Edit button. Here are some of the elements that you can use:

• Header element: Edit the Label with a title for the form.
• Text Field: Use it for smaller text inputs (e.g., name, phone, email).
• Text Area: Use it for larger text inputs.
• Checkbox Group: Use these for multi-selection questions.
• Radio Group: Use these for single-selection questions.

When editing, consider that what you place in the Label field will be the question that your users will see. You can also add a Help Text to explain the answer you are expecting, and a Placeholder with an example. In Type, indicate the kind of answer that will be allowed: text, phone number or email. Check the required box to make it a mandatory field. When you are done customizing the field, click on the Edit button again to save.

Note that when using checkbox or radio buttons, you have two fields per option. The first column is for the actual answer your users will see, and the second one is the answer’s ID you will see.

When you have added all your questions, add a Submit Button to finalize the form. This is essential every time.
Here’s how our form looks like:

Save it. After a few minutes, you will be automatically redirected to the WhatsApp flows page and you will see the Flow Form you just created.

Just as in the image, the Status of the flow will be set as Draft. This is because you need to Publish the flow for it to be Active and available to use in your chatbots. However, once you publish, you will not be able to make any changes to it. Therefore, we recommend that you first open the Preview URL to make sure it looks as intended.

To preview the flow, go to the Actions Menu. Click on the portfolio icon beside your flow’s name to open it.

Then, click on the Preview Flow icon to see how your form looks on your phone screen.

In the Preview Flow screen, you can visualize how your form will look in different platforms and themes.

If you wish to make changes, go back to the WhatsApp Flows screen, and click on the Edit button inside the Actions menu of your flow. Then, simply perform the modifications and save.

When you are done making changes, click on the Publish button. Remember that once you do it, you will not be able to modify your form anymore.

Once your flow has been published, it will be available to use in your chatbots.

💡 PRO TIP: If you receive the error message “Integrity requirements not met” when trying to publish your flow, make sure you have a verified Meta Business Manager account, which is required to access the WhatsApp Flows feature.

Integrating the form into a chatbot

Now that your WhatsApp Flow is created, let’s see how you can integrate it into a complete bot sequence.

Create a new bot. Go to the Bot Reply page inside the Bot Manager and click on the Create button.

Configure the trigger. Once in the Visual Flow Builder, double-click on Start Bot Flow and, as always, set the trigger keywords. Optionally, add a label to identify the users that interact with this bot and Save.

Add a WhatsApp Flow Component. Double click on it to configure it.

Select the flow you created before. Add a header and a body for the message that will introduce the form. You can optionally add a footer too. Then, write a text for the button that your users will have to click to open the form. When you are done, save, and save the bot.

Now, whenever this flow is triggered, the users will be directed to fill the form. Then, your agents can see this information and use it to contact each user and provide an appointment date with relevant properties. Let’s see how.

Reviewing results

Go back to the WhatsApp Flows page, and open the Actions menu of your flow. Click on Report Data. This will open a window where you can see all the data that you have collected with your flow.

Tap on download report. This will download an Excel file where all the data that you collected from your customers will be stored. This feature allows you to conveniently download and analyze the data collected through WhatsApp forms from your customers.