COD order confirmation on WhatsApp.
Automated with an AI call.

Every COD order that’s refused at the door comes back to you as a return to origin (RTO): you pay shipping both ways, the stock is stuck in transit, and the courier sees a worse delivery rate. Fake orders, impulse buys, and wrong addresses cause most of them, and a quick check before you ship filters many out.

Stores usually confirm in one of three ways:

This guide sets up the third: an AI voice agent that calls each COD buyer on WhatsApp, confirms the order, and sends them a WhatsApp message with the details. The screenshots come from Wapzen’s dashboard, set up for Sunleaf, a demo skincare store.

• A voice agent holds the confirmation script and speaks to the buyer.
• Two tools let it act: one sends a WhatsApp confirmation message, one ends the call politely.
• An outbound campaign uses that agent. Every COD order you add as a lead gets a call at once.
• The Leads and Calls tabs show who confirmed, who didn’t answer, and what everyone said.

One limit to plan around: a lead carries a phone number, name, and email, not the order itself. The agent confirms “the order you placed with us” rather than reading out items and the amount, so call while the order is fresh.

With the dashboard in Voice mode, open Agents, click New Agent, and set the call direction to Outbound. Then fill in two boxes:

• Welcome message, with “Agent speaks first”: the line the buyer hears when they pick up. Name your store in the first sentence so nobody hangs up on an unknown caller.
• General prompt: the script. Here’s the one in the screenshot, ready to adapt:

You are Riya, calling customers of [Store], an online store, to confirm their cash on delivery (COD) orders.

1. Greet them, say you're calling from [Store] about the cash on delivery order they placed on our website, and ask if they have a minute.
2. Ask them to confirm they placed the order and still want it delivered.
3. If yes: say delivery takes [2 to 4 days] and to keep the cash ready. Use send_order_confirmation, then thank them and use end_call.
4. If they want to change the address or delivery time: ask for the new details, repeat them back, and say the team will update the order.
5. If they did not place the order or want to cancel: say you'll cancel it, apologise, and use end_call.

Rules: one or two short sentences per reply. Never ask for card or bank details. If they ask something you don't know, say the team will reply on WhatsApp.

Set the language your buyers speak. Voice agents speak dozens of languages, including Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil. Then click Publish.

Open Tools and click Create Tool twice:

• A Send Text tool named send_order_confirmation. Its message goes to the person on the call, as a normal WhatsApp message, so the buyer has the confirmation in writing. Write the text yourself, or leave it blank and the agent writes it.
• An End Call tool, so the agent hangs up after its goodbye instead of waiting for the buyer to.

Then go back to the agent and attach both under Tools. The tool names in the script must match.

Calls go out from your own WhatsApp number. Open Phone Numbers, click New Number, and scan the QR code from WhatsApp’s Linked devices screen on your phone. Then choose that number in the agent’s Phone number setting. The chatbot guide shows this step with screenshots.

Use the number your buyers already know, the one on your website or order emails. Buyers are more likely to pick up when they recognise the number calling them.

Open Outbound, click New campaign, name it, and pick the COD agent. When you’re ready, use Edit to set its status to Running. Then open Leads › Add Lead, enter the buyer’s number in international format with their name, and save. Adding a lead places the call straight away. Add your own number first to hear the call yourself.

Add orders automatically

Typing in every order works for a handful a day. For more, let your store add them. Create a key under API Keys, then have your automation tool (Shopify Flow, Zapier, Make, or n8n) send one request for each new COD order:

POST /v1/outbound-campaigns/{campaign_id}/leads
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json

{ "phone_number": "+91XXXXXXXXXX", "first_name": "Ananya", "last_name": "Iyer" }

Filter the trigger to cash on delivery orders only, so prepaid buyers don’t get a call. The response tells you whether the call went out, and if not, why.

Open a call from the campaign’s Calls tab, or from Calls in the sidebar, to read the full transcript. Then act on it in your store:

• Confirmed: ship it. The buyer already has the WhatsApp confirmation.
• Cancelled or “I didn’t order this”: cancel before it ships.
• New address or delivery time: it’s in the transcript; update the order.
• Call unsuccessful: Wapzen doesn’t redial on its own yet. Message the buyer on WhatsApp, or remove the lead and add it again later for a second call. Hold the parcel until you hear back.

The download button in the Leads tab exports every lead and status as a CSV, if you’d rather reconcile in a spreadsheet.

• Call within minutes of the order. The buyer still has their phone in hand and remembers what they bought.
• Hold night orders until morning. Calls go out as soon as a lead is added, so queue orders placed late at night in your automation.
• Keep it under a minute. Confirm, mention payment, send the message, say goodbye. Long scripts get hang-ups.
• Never ask for payment details. Say so in the script. Buyers are rightly wary of calls asking for card numbers.
• Only call people who just ordered. They expect to hear from you. Calling people who didn’t ask breaks WhatsApp’s terms and gets numbers restricted.

Buyers can only be reached if their number is on WhatsApp. Those who aren’t show up as Call unsuccessful, so keep a fallback for them, such as an SMS or a call from your team.