WhatsApp vs SMS for lead follow-up in India

In much of the world, “missed call → text back” means SMS. In India, your customers live on WhatsApp, and commercial SMS comes with regulatory overhead that makes it a poor fit for a real sales conversation.

What SMS is still good for

• One-time passwords and transaction alerts.
• Short, one-way notifications such as appointment reminders.
• Reaching people who do not use WhatsApp.

Commercial SMS in India runs on TRAI’s DLT framework: your business, sender headers and message templates all need to be registered in advance, and links inside messages have to be whitelisted. That works for predictable notifications. It is awkward for a two-way conversation where every reply is different.

Why WhatsApp wins for lead follow-up

• Customers already read and reply there, often within minutes.
• You can send brochures, floor plans, fee structures, location pins and voice notes.
• It is genuinely two-way: the customer asks, the assistant answers, and the booking happens in the same thread.
• Click-to-WhatsApp ads on Facebook and Instagram drop the lead straight into a conversation.

The rules you need to know on WhatsApp

Automated WhatsApp messaging at scale runs on the WhatsApp Business Platform (the API), not the regular WhatsApp Business app. A few rules shape how follow-up is designed:

• Opt-in: customers should agree to hear from you on WhatsApp. An ad form or a call to your business with a clear notice usually covers this.
• Templates: the first message you initiate must use a pre-approved template.
• The service window: once the customer replies, you can have a free-form conversation for 24 hours.

A practical split

1. WhatsApp for every sales conversation: missed calls, ad leads, bookings and feedback.
2. Voice AI callbacks for high-value leads who prefer to talk.
3. SMS only as a fallback for numbers without WhatsApp, and for OTPs.