All structured candidate-facing communication in Mercu is organized into campaigns, and each campaign must begin with a welcome message. This is a requirement from most chat app providers to ensure a transparent and consistent candidate experience.
Every Mercu account includes a set of predefined welcome messages optimized for delivery and performance, particularly on highly regulated platforms like WhatsApp.
If absolutely necessary, you can request a custom welcome message through your account manager. Note that all custom messages are subject to approval by both Mercu and the relevant chat app provider.
WhatsApp templates
Any business-initiated conversation on WhatsApp must begin with a template message (referred to as a welcome message in Mercu). It is not possible to initiate a WhatsApp message from a business to a user without using a template.
Each template must be submitted to and approved by WhatsApp before it can be sent. All welcome messages in Mercu have been pre-approved by WhatsApp and are ready for use.
When approving templates, WhatsApp classifies them into three categories: Marketing, Utility, and Authentication. Mercu cannot influence this classification, and appeals against WhatsApp’s classification decisions rarely succeed.
Since Marketing templates are subject to delivery restrictions on WhatsApp - such as daily limits on how many messages a user can receive across all senders - all Mercu welcome messages must be approved as Utility templates to ensure maximum deliverability. This places certain limitations on how welcome messages can be phrased.
Other message templates
In addition to welcome messages used to start campaigns, Mercu also uses templated messages for various other purposes:
Interview confirmations
Interview reminders
Interview cancellations
Interview reschedule requests
Application reminders
These templates are optimized for deliverability and designed to ensure a consistent and transparent candidate experience. They cannot be customised within Mercu, and we strongly advise against requesting changes to them.
If absolutely necessary, you can request changes to the other message templates through your account manager. Note that all custom message templates are subject to approval by both Mercu and the relevant chat app provider.