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Contacting a prospect

This is the headline change in this release. On a lead's or a customer's detail screen, Call and Message no longer do what a rep's phone would do by default. A phone call still has to go through the handset's own dialler — there is no way around that — but WhatsApp, SMS and email now send from the company's own WhatsApp Business number and mailbox, composed and delivered by the server. Your personal WhatsApp and mail apps are never opened. That is not just tidier: only a company-side send can honour a contact's opt-outs, meter the spend, and land the message on the lead's or customer's activity timeline where the rest of the team can see it.

Every message is also composed in the right language for the person reading it, automatically — see Language below.

Where you'll find it​

  • Lead detail — two buttons above the details card: Call and Message. Tapping the lead's Phone row does the same as Call; tapping its Email row opens the same Message sheet.
  • Customer detail — the same Call / Message buttons at the top of the screen act on every reachable contact on the account. Tapping an individual entry under Contacts opens a small sheet with Call and Message scoped to that one person.

Both buttons grey out with an explanatory tooltip when nobody on the record can be reached that way — for example Call is disabled when there is no phone number on file at all.

Sending a message​

Tapping Message opens a sheet that walks through five steps:

  1. Pick what to send. The list of messages your company allows (for example Introduction, Follow-up, Missed call, Getting Started link, Confirm the visit, Thank you, and a free-form Custom message) — each with a one-line description and which channels it can go out on. Only Custom message carries your own typed words to the customer; every other message is fixed wording your company has approved, composed by the server when you send. Confirm the visit also asks you to pick the date and time of the visit before it can be sent.
  2. What they will read. A box at the top of the next screen previews the exact wording the customer will get — with their real name filled in (when you're messaging an actual lead or customer, not just browsing templates) and, for the quote reminder, the real quote number and amount. It's not a generic example: if the lead has no name on file, the preview honestly shows "Hi, " rather than inventing one. For a Custom message the box fills in live as you type. A small tag next to What they will read names the language the preview is in, and the preview refreshes automatically as you change who you're sending to or the language (see Language) — so what's on screen is always what is about to go out.
  3. Send to. Every known contact on the record is listed, including anyone who has opted out — they stay visible but disabled, with a plain reason such as "They asked us to stop messaging them" or "Opted out of SMS", so you know why someone dropped off the list rather than wondering where they went. You can also type in another number on the spot. Anyone with a language on file shows a line under their name, for example "Reads Afrikaans."
  4. How it goes out. Chips for WhatsApp, SMS and Email — only the ones the message supports and at least one selected recipient can actually receive on. Ticking both WhatsApp and SMS shows a note: "WhatsApp is tried first. Anyone it cannot reach gets an SMS instead." Anything you type for a non-custom message goes on the activity timeline as an internal note — your team sees it, the customer never does.
  5. Send, then a results screen names what happened for each person — sent, on which channel and in which language, or a plain reason it didn't go out (they've opted out, there's no number or address on file, this month's messaging budget is used up, and so on). Even a message that landed on one channel still flags a channel you picked that failed silently, so a landed SMS can never hide a failed email.
WhatsApp templates are pending approval

Your company's WhatsApp message templates are still awaiting Meta's approval. Until that clears, anything you send through the WhatsApp/SMS cascade currently goes out by SMS — WhatsApp will start carrying it automatically once the templates are approved, with no change needed on your side.

Language​

Messages are composed per recipient, in the language that person actually reads — you don't have to pick anything for the common case to work.

Where the language comes from, most specific first:

  1. A language you deliberately chose for this send (see below).
  2. That contact's own Preferred language, set on their contact record — see Customer Contacts → Availability & language for where to set it.
  3. Your company's default language.
  4. English, if none of the above apply.

Because it's resolved per person, sending to two people with different languages on file sends two different messages — each gets their own, in one tap. The note under the Language chips spells this out, for example "2 people · English and Afrikaans — each person gets their own. This preview is in Afrikaans."

Changing the language​

Above Send to, a row of chips lets you override the language for the whole send:

  • The first chip is automatic and its label tells you what it's doing right now — "Their language" (one recipient, using their record), "Each their own" (several recipients with different languages on file), or "Company default" (nobody selected has a language on file).
  • Next to it are quick chips for English, any language your company has actually written, and the language of whoever you've selected.
  • Other language opens a full list of every language the picker understands. One you pick here overrides the automatic behaviour for everyone on this send, until you change it back.

What's actually translated today​

English and Afrikaans are fully written by hand, in a formal, respectful tone appropriate for a security company writing to a prospect. Zulu and Xhosa are also written for every message. Not every language is written yet — Sotho, for instance, has no wording of its own today. Picking a language that isn't written yet sends the message in English instead, and the app always tells you so, right under the preview — for example "There is no Sotho wording for this message yet, so it goes out in English." You'll never discover this after the fact.

WhatsApp needs Meta's approval per language, too

Once your WhatsApp templates are approved, most of them still need a separate approval from Meta for each language before WhatsApp can carry them in that language. Until a language's variant is approved, messages in that language go out by SMS instead — automatically, with no error and nothing for you to do. SMS and email work in every written language from day one; only WhatsApp has this extra step, and it upgrades itself with no change on your side once Meta approves a variant.

Calling​

  1. Tap Call. If there's more than one phone number on the record, you're asked "Who are you calling?" first.
  2. CleverSales hands off to your phone's own dialler.
  3. When you come back to the app, How did the call go? asks for an outcome — Answered, No answer, Voicemail, Wrong number, or Call back later — plus optional notes on what was said. This only appears once you've actually left the app for the dialler and returned; if you back out before the call ever starts, nothing is asked.
  4. Once logged, Call logged offers two quick follow-ups: Send a message (pre-filled with the Missed call template after a no-answer or voicemail, or Follow-up otherwise) and Remind me, or Not now to skip both.

Everything lands on the timeline​

Calls, messages and notes all show up in the Activity feed on the lead or customer, each with who did it, when, and what happened — for example "Called Thabo — no answer" — so the rest of the team can see the history of every touch without asking around. A message sent in anything other than English says so right in the timeline entry, for example "Sent the quote reminder by WhatsApp to Anna in Afrikaans."

See also​