WhatsApp calls for business: why customers don't pick up calls from unknown numbers

Customers do not pick up calls from unknown numbers because they expect spam and scammers. A WhatsApp call from a company's official number arrives with its name and profile picture, right from the conversation, so the person knows who is calling and why. For businesses, these calls work through official WhatsApp and are answered in the browser or in a CRM.

Below we explain how WhatsApp calls for business work: inbound and outbound calls, why the customer's permission is needed, why calls sometimes fail, and how to take them in dashboard chats, Bitrix24 and amoCRM.

Every sales agent knows this situation: a customer leaves a request, you call back ten minutes later, and they decline. Once more, and silence again. They are not against buying, they just see an unknown number and assume it is another "bank" or a survey. Meanwhile, the same person calmly replies on WhatsApp, because there they can see who is writing. A call from that same conversation solves the problem: it comes not from a nameless number, but from a company the customer is already talking to.

Why don't customers pick up calls from unknown numbers?

Because an unknown number most often means advertising, a survey or scammers. People are used to declining such calls or blocking them automatically, and a call from a real company gets lost among the spam.

• a regular call comes without a name or a reason, so the person does not understand who is calling;
• phones and carriers mark some numbers as suspicious on their own;
• the customer is busy and not ready to talk, and will not call back an unknown number;
• after stories about scammers, many people do not answer calls they were not expecting at all.

As a result, there is a lead, but you cannot reach the customer. The agent wastes time redialing, and the customer goes to whoever replied in the chat.

What are WhatsApp calls for business?

These are voice calls inside WhatsApp to a company's official number. The customer taps the call icon in the conversation with you, and an agent answers in the browser, in the same window where they handle chats. No separate PBX, phones or new number are needed.

It works through the official WhatsApp Business API (WABA): Meta added calls to it, also known as WhatsApp Business Calling. The customer sees the company's name and profile picture, not a bare number. During the call the agent sees the chat history, the order and past requests, so there is no need to ask "remind me what happened". How official WhatsApp works and how it differs from the app is covered in the article "How WhatsApp Business differs from regular WhatsApp and the API".

Why is a WhatsApp call better than a regular call or personal WhatsApp?

A call from an official WhatsApp number comes from the company with its name, the agent sees the conversation, and the number is not at risk of a ban. A regular PBX calls from an unknown number, and personal WhatsApp lives in one employee's phone.

Comparison	Regular PBX	Personal WhatsApp	WazzaBee calls
Whose number the customer sees	An unknown landline or mobile	The employee's personal number	The company number with name and profile picture
Risk of losing the number	No	Yes: WhatsApp bans accounts for calling strangers	No: calls go through the official API
What you need to buy	A PBX, numbers, sometimes handsets	A phone with a SIM card for each agent	Nothing, a browser and a headset are enough
Does the agent see the conversation	No	Only on their own phone	Yes, the chat and customer card are next to the call
Who can answer	As many operators as there are lines	Whoever holds the phone	All agents on shift, the first one answers
If nobody picks up	Just a missed call	You have to remember to call back	The customer gets a message with buttons

A separate note on bans: calling strangers from personal WhatsApp is risky, the messenger treats it as spam and may ban the number along with the conversations. Why this happens is covered in the article about the reasons for WhatsApp bans.

How do inbound WhatsApp calls work?

The customer taps the call button in the chat with you, hears your greeting, and the call goes to all agents you have selected. Whoever picks up first answers, the call is recorded and stays in the customer's history.

1. The customer opens the conversation with the company and taps the call icon.
2. While the call connects, they hear your recorded greeting instead of silence.
3. The call goes to agents listed under "Answering calls" in "Calls", "Settings".
4. The agent talks through the browser and a headset, with the conversation and customer card in front of them.
5. After the call, its duration and recording are visible in the chat feed next to the messages.

If nobody manages to answer, the call goes to missed calls, and the customer immediately gets a message with the buttons "Call me back", "I'll write instead" and "No longer needed". Calls do not wake agents at night: working hours are set in the settings. Call recordings are kept for 30 days and then deleted automatically.

Can you call a customer on WhatsApp first?

Yes, but only with the customer's consent. First they receive a request, and an "Allow calls" button appears in WhatsApp. Once the customer taps it, the agent gets a "Call" button.

This is WhatsApp's own rule, not WazzaBee's, and it protects customers from cold calls. The limits are:

• a permission request can be sent no more than once a day and no more than twice a week;
• the request goes out only if the customer has messaged you in the last 24 hours;
• one customer can be called no more than 5 times a day.

In practice this is convenient: the customer writes in the chat, the agent suggests a call, sends the request, and a minute later they are talking. The person agreed to the call themselves, so they pick up.

Where can you take WhatsApp calls: the dashboard, Bitrix24 or amoCRM?

In WazzaBee, WhatsApp calls work in dashboard chats, in Bitrix24 and in amoCRM. The price of calls does not depend on where the call arrives.

Where	What it looks like	What remains after the call
WazzaBee dashboard chats	The call opens in the chat window in the browser, inbound and outbound	Recording and duration in the chat feed and in the "Calls" section
Bitrix24	Connected as a cloud PBX with three lines from the dashboard, the call arrives in telephony like a regular inbound call	Call recording, a new number becomes a lead
amoCRM	The call window opens over any amoCRM page and shows the customer's deal and last message	The call with its recording in the deal, a new number in "Incoming leads"

In Bitrix24 you can choose where calls go: only to the dashboard, only to Bitrix24 or both, and if Bitrix24 is offline, the call goes to agents in the dashboard. You can also call customers from Bitrix24, which requires a SIP connector license paid for in Bitrix24 itself. Details are on the WhatsApp calls in Bitrix24 page. In amoCRM, an agent calls a customer from the deal card via "Call on WhatsApp", and notes from the call window are saved in the deal. Other ways WhatsApp works in amoCRM are shown on the WhatsApp for amoCRM page.

Do calls work through WhatsApp Web and to landline numbers?

Calls to a company's official number are not answered in WhatsApp Web or the desktop app: agents answer in the dashboard, Bitrix24 or amoCRM. WhatsApp does not call landline numbers, a call is only possible with a person who has WhatsApp.

This causes frequent confusion. People search for "WhatsApp Web calls" because they want to talk to customers from a computer. For a business number this is solved differently: the call arrives in the browser, in the dashboard where the agent already handles conversations, and all that is needed is a computer with a microphone and a headset. If the customer calls from another country, the call goes over the internet, without roaming or international rates.

Why do WhatsApp calls fail?

Most often a call fails because the customer has not given permission, calls are turned off on the channel, or the browser has not granted microphone access. Check the causes in the table.

What happens	Why	What to do
No "Call" button	The customer has not allowed calls yet	Send a request, the customer will tap "Allow calls"
The permission request is not sent	The customer has not written for more than 24 hours, or the request limit is used up	Wait for a message from the customer or for the next day
The call does not reach the agent	The agent is not listed under "Answering calls", or the call is outside working hours	Check "Calls", "Settings"
The customer cannot hear me	The browser did not grant microphone access	Click the lock to the left of the address, allow the microphone and refresh the page
Calls stopped arriving in Bitrix24	The browser filled in its own saved password in the connection form	Paste the password from the dashboard again and save
Calls cannot be turned on at all	The number is not connected through the official API	Connect the number to the WhatsApp Business API

A call can also drop because of the customer's weak internet: the call goes over the network, and with a poor connection the quality drops, as in any messenger.

How much do WhatsApp calls cost and what do you need to connect them?

Calls are enabled on an official WhatsApp channel for a monthly fee, and call minutes are charged to the channel balance. An inbound minute is billed by the actual seconds, and the outbound price depends on the recipient's country. Current prices and a calculation by country are on the WhatsApp calls page.

To turn on calls, you need three things:

1. An official WhatsApp channel. Calls work only on the WhatsApp Business API, and connecting a number in WazzaBee takes 15 minutes. The process is described step by step in the WABA connection guide.
2. A limit of at least 2,000 conversations per day. This is a WhatsApp requirement. The limit grows by itself as you message customers, and fastest after business verification.
3. A browser and a headset. A computer with a microphone, no equipment to buy.

Everything else is set up in the dashboard in a couple of minutes: who takes calls, the greeting, working hours, call recording and an auto-reply to a missed call.