Customers can reach you from your website: they tap a link to call or email you, message you on WhatsApp, or fill in your contact form. You answer them from your own phone and email: Zarla has no reply box or chat inbox.
Let customers call or email you
Your site turns your business phone number and email address into links. Tapping the phone link on a phone calls you; tapping the email link opens a new email to you.
- In the sidebar, click Site settings (on a phone, tap More in the bar at the bottom, then Site settings) and scroll down to Business Information.
- Type your number in Phone and your email address in Email, then click Save changes. Zarla also updates them in your site's buttons and links.
- If your site is already live, publish again so it shows the change: open Edit Site and click Publish Changes at the top right (Publish on a phone), then Publish Changes in the menu.
The phone link shows in places like your site's header, footer, contact section and map, and the email link in the footer, contact section and map.
Let customers message you on WhatsApp
- In the sidebar, click Apps (on a phone, tap More, then Apps).
- On the WhatsApp Live Chat card, turn on the switch at the top right.
- The first time, a window opens. Type your WhatsApp Phone Number with a + and your country code, no spaces, and without the 0 a local number starts with: for example +15551234567 for a US number, or +447700900123 for the UK number 07700 900123. Then click Save.
A green WhatsApp button then sits in the bottom-right corner of every page of your published site. On a computer it reads Chat with Us; on a phone it's a round WhatsApp icon. Tapping it opens a WhatsApp chat with you. If your site is already live, the button appears the next time you publish.
Reply to an enquiry
When someone fills in your contact form, the enquiry lands in Contacts, on the Inbox tab, and Zarla sends you an email alert.
- If they left an email address, click Reply to followed by their name (or their email address, if they left no name) in the alert (for example Reply to Sam) to write back from your own email. Don't press your email app's own Reply button: that sends your answer to Zarla, not to your customer.
- To open the enquiry in Zarla, click View lead in the alert, or find it in Contacts. Click Call to ring them, or Message to write to them from your own email app.
- If they asked for a price, click Send a quote to make one in Zarla. Zarla emails it to them in your business's name, and their reply comes to your email.
- To get back to them later, click Follow up and pick a time, like In 3 days. When it's due, it counts in Follow up today at the top of Contacts.
- After you talk, write down how it went with Log call, or keep any other detail with Note. Your customer doesn't see these.
Your customer's answers come back to your phone or email, not to Zarla.
Good to know
- Customers can only use your phone and email links, WhatsApp button and contact form once your site is published. Publishing is part of a paid plan: see How to publish your website.
- Added to the site as staff? You can answer enquiries, set follow-ups and send quotes. Changing the phone number or email, turning on WhatsApp and publishing are for the site's owner or an admin.
- Apart from the WhatsApp button, Zarla doesn't put a chat box on your site, and it has no video calls. If you already use a chat tool, you can add its code to your site: see Embed videos, maps, and widgets on your site.
- Zarla doesn't send text messages (SMS) to your leads. To text a customer, use your own phone.