The complete guide to understanding and getting started with the WhatsApp CRM.

WhatsApp is increasingly becoming a go-to channel for businesses to streamline their communication with customers. Be it responses on WhatsApp broadcasts promoting their deals and discounts, offering customer support and shopping assistance or simply keeping them engaged post-purchase, the messaging platform is bringing back real-time communication at scale. And with the WhatsApp Business API as well as the solution providers, it’s becoming much easier to manage them as well with powerful features like the WhatsApp CRM. 

In this article, we’re going to share information about what is a WhatsApp CRM and some best practices to stay on top of all the conversations using a Shared Inbox feature from solution providers like QuickReply.ai. 

What is a WhatsApp CRM? 

WhatsApp CRM refers to integrating a customer relationship management software with your WhatsApp Business API account. In most cases, WhatsApp Business API solution providers like QuickReply.ai come with a Shared Inbox feature that doubles up as a CRM for a small business or someone who is just getting started. In other cases, if you run an enterprise business, a good solution provider will also easily integrate with an external CRM such as HubSpot, Salesforce and others to keep your data well organized and enable the team to communicate more effectively and efficiently.  

What are the advantages of a WhatsApp CRM or Shared Inbox? 

With businesses exploring the use of WhatsApp for fueling the entire customer journey - right from the point of awareness, acquisition, conversion, retention and loyalty, statistics have found that there are millions of messages being exchanged between WhatsApp Business accounts and its users. 

A WhatsApp CRM or a Shared Inbox essentially helps the organization by offering the following advantages: 

• Keep all your WhatsApp messages in one place 
• Identify your top sources of customer messages on your WhatsApp Business account 
• View WhatsApp communication and campaign status across all departments in one place - marketing, sales and support 
• Keep your conversations well organized using labels and tags for streamlining functions and data collection 
• Streamline data collection for better customer and subscriber segmentation of WhatsApp lists 
• Work collaboratively with the ability to add multiple team members to the Shared Inbox 
• Ensure timely responses to improve your turnaround time at scale 
• Personalize communication with customers better with more information on their previous interactions, purchases, needs, preferences and other data 
• Ensure proactive follow-ups to keep customers informed, engaged and boost customer retention 
• Automate responses to frequently asked questions, order and shipping status alerts, and similar messages using deep integrations and WhatsApp chatbot flows 
• View performance of WhatsApp Business campaigns, broadcasts, support and more on a unified dashboard 

While the WhatsApp CRM or the Shared Inbox has a number of benefits to offer to online businesses, it’s important to have a strategy in place before getting started and follow a few best practices to make the most of its capabilities. 

WhatsApp CRM best practices for Shared Inbox management 

After enabling thousands of online stores to run their WhatsApp broadcast campaigns and support functions on the messaging platform, here are some best practices we recommend following for the WhatsApp CRM: 

1. Choose the right WhatsApp CRM and Shared Inbox 

When you choose a WhatsApp Business API solution provider, make sure that they offer easy integrations with your CRM or offer building them for you. Alternatively, if they have the Shared Inbox feature like QuickReply.ai, making the most of the messaging app becomes a lot easier as you keep things streamlined to one platform only. 

It is also important to take note of the scalability that the WhatsApp Business API solution provider offers on their Shared Inbox. As your business grows, so will the number of conversations being driven to your WhatsApp Business account. 

2. Create clear tags and labels 

Depending on how you’re making use of WhatsApp, ensure that you create clear labels and tags from day one. For instance, if you have WhatsApp as a live chat widget set up on the website, you should create a label called ‘live support’. And if you’re using click to WhatsApp ads, you may want to set up a label that says ‘ad campaigns’. 

Tags and labels help you identify the source of conversation, letting the right members in the team respond to them, and also take note of where most customers tend to come in from. 

3. Identify FAQs and set up automations 

As you start to make use of WhatsApp for business, we do recommend taking note of what, why, when and how your target audience engages with you on the messaging platform. Identify your frequently asked questions and repetitive workflows to set up automations. 

Setting up automations with WhatsApp chatbots can help you manage the WhatsApp CRM more efficiently. For example, if you tend to get a lot of queries around the return and refund policy, instead of having live agents answer them, set up a chatbot with a solution like QuickReply.ai. 

4. Streamline the number of team members on the Shared Inbox 

While solutions like QuickReply.ai enable you to add multiple team members to your WhatsApp Business account, we recommend keeping this number to a limit. Instead of adding everyone to the account, we encourage you to clearly demarcate your use of WhatsApp, assign team members to each and only add those that can respond to customer requests and queries in a value-first manner. 

5. Establish clear guidelines

When you add multiple team members to your WhatsApp CRM and Shared Inbox, you risk creating discrepancy in how the brand communicates with customers across different functions. To ensure you’re delivering a consistent experience to your subscribers and customers, we recommend creating clear guidelines of CRM usage. 

This should include aspects like how to respond to different types of queries and requests, when to do a hand-off to a different department, when to escalate an issue, how and when to share links, when to use automated sequences and when to use IVR deflection to take the conversation on call, the tone of voice maintained in manual messages, WhatsApp templates created and so on. 

6. Simplify conversations as much as possible 

A lot about how efficiently and effectively you manage the WhatsApp CRM and customer conversations, depends on the messages your consumers send and how they interact with you. This is why we recommend simplifying the conversation and streamlining it as much as possible to keep things from going off-track. 

For example, if someone messages you regarding your returns and exchange policy, leverage WhatsApp interactive features like list messages to ask what specifically they want to know. Based on the option they choose, trigger the next message with a reply button message that lets them either request a call or links them to a web page. The less someone needs to type, the faster the communication. 

7. Measure, analyze and optimize 

Don’t treat your WhatsApp CRM strategy as a one-off effort. The idea is to continually improve how you use the messaging platform and its capabilities to create seamless experiences for your target audience and customers, and be able to respond in a timely manner. This requires you to measure the impact of your automations and live agent efforts across all functions on your business goals and objectives, and optimize for better results. 

A good WhatsApp Business API solution provider like QuickReply.ai comes with an in-depth analytics dashboard. This dashboard captures the performance of your WhatsApp CRM automations as well as campaigns, giving you clear actionables on how to improve communication for better engagement and conversions. 

Do you need a WhatsApp CRM? 

As a WhatsApp Business API solution provider enabling online businesses to send WhatsApp broadcasts, promotions, sales and support functions at scale, we do recommend having a WhatsApp CRM or Shared Inbox in place. 

With consumer data becoming the true treasure for businesses, a CRM is what brings it together and ensures no critical insights are lost across scattered tools, campaigns and functions. 

Want to explore the WhatsApp CRM and Shared Inbox? 

Book a demo of QuickReply.ai today. 

Frequently asked questions about WhatsApp CRM and Shared Inbox 

How to use WhatsApp for business CRM? 

You will need access to the WhatsApp Business API and a solution provider like QuickReply.ai to start using the WhatsApp CRM. The solution provider offers a powerful Shared Inbox and WhatsApp automation workflows to streamline communication across marketing, sales and customer support. 

What is the best WhatsApp CRM software? 

There are two ways of choosing a WhatsApp CRM. One is to choose a WhatsApp Business API solution provider and integrate it with CRM softwares like HubSpot, Zoho, Salesforce and others. Alternatively, you can use a WhatsApp Business API solution provider like QuickReply.ai instead that comes with a Shared Inbox with the same capabilities. 

What are the 3 types of CRM?

The three types of CRM include operational, analytical and collaborative; a WhatsApp Business API solution provider like QuickReply.ai rolls all of the three types into one with the Shared Inbox feature. 

Is the WhatsApp Business API free?

The WhatsApp API is free, but the messages are charged per session; which is defined as and includes all the messages exchanged between a business and a contact in a 24-hour time period. But you can optimize your WhatsApp Business costs with a solution provider like QuickReply.ai.