Everything You Need to Know About WhatsApp CRM

CRM (customer relationship management) is about improving relationships to grow business. It is a technology that allows you to manage, build, and nurture relationships with prospects and leads.

But what about communication? What if all businesses could address their customers’ queries, communicate with them, and even close sales on their preferred communication platform within a CRM?

If you are looking for a way to integrate WhatsApp into your CRM to automate lead-generation tasks and take your support system to the next level, this guide is for you.

In this guide, we are about to introduce WhatsApp CRM, the process of WhatsApp integration, key factors to consider, and bonus tips at the end of the reading.

What is WhatsApp CRM?

Integration of WhatsApp Business API into the CRM toolbox stands for WhatsApp CRM. In simple terms, this technology connects businesses and customers on the platform customers use to chat with their friends and loved ones.

Integrating WhatsApp as a communication channel makes it easy, faster, and more efficient for businesses to provide support, manage inquiries, and interact with customers.

In today’s time, many giant companies prefer WhatsApp for communication more than emails or calls, as customers spend an average of 30 minutes a day on this platform. Therefore, embracing WhatsApp CRM lets your business connect directly with customers, ensuring personalized support, faster responses, and higher retention.

What are the benefits of WhatsApp CRM?

There are many advantages to using WhatsApp as a CRM tool to grow your business. Here are the possible reasons for what we said.

Instant Communication: WhatsApp is the go-to communication channel for emails, as it has a 98% message open rate. It means businesses can get immediate responses from customers and save time.

Personalization: WhatsApp is the only channel people use to chat, call, and talk with their loved ones. Sending messages to users on this platform can make them feel familiar, personal, and authentic

Cost-Efficiency: WhatsApp CRM allows you to send unlimited messages to countless contacts locally or internationally without extra costs and also gives you the power of automation

Multimedia Support: In traditional SMS marketing, you can’t include images or videos in the message, which leads to a poor user experience and a lower link-click rate. Whether you want to attach an image or video with a message or send a personalized voice note thanking a customer, WhatsApp gives you full control of the CRM tool.

Global Reach: Where other services take higher charges to communicate with international audiences, WhatsApp breaks geographical boundaries and helps you reach users across the globe.

Team inbox: Integrating CRM with WhatsApp can enhance team collaboration and offer a team inbox where your entire team can work together to manage and solve customer inquiries. Also, you can segment a specific customer base and assign their handling to a different team member, maintaining work efficiency.

Launch messaging campaigns at scale: WhatsApp CRM uses the WhatsApp Business API, which helps you launch seamless message campaigns at scale.

Track team performance: CRM also provides analytics and reporting features, so managers and owners can track the performance and activities of support agents. By implementing this approach, you can see an exceptional customer experience, foster stronger customer loyalty, and ultimately enhance the brand's reputation.

Types of WhatsApp CRM integration

There are many types of WhatsApp CRM integration, depending on your business requirements and goals. Here, we’ve described all possible integration types.

1. Native Integration

Many CRM service providers support native WhatsApp integration that ensures a seamless user experience at cheaper rates, but there is a limitation.

For instance, many CRM service providers are unable to preview videos or listen to voice notes from the inbox itself. And sometimes they slow down the working process of agents.

2. Third-Party Integration

The name speaks for itself. In this type of integration, you’ll need a third-party solution provider to connect WhatsApp with your CRM toolkit. They are faster and have many advanced features or customization options.

For instance, a third-party tool like Zapier is the perfect option to connect two pieces of software effectively but tends to cost more.

3. Official WhatsApp Business API

Do you know that you can also design or develop your own custom CRM and integrate it with WhatsApp? You just need the API to connect it with BSP (Business Solution Provider) or your app.

Factors to consider before integrating CRM into WhatsApp

There are many factors and criteria you need to consider before integrating.

• Access to the WhatsApp API

  Ensure your CRM solution includes access to the WhatsApp API for quick integration. Using a verified business solution provider (BSP) for transparency and a secure process is better.

• Privacy concerns

  The major thing you must look at is its privacy and terms. Make sure they are following data privacy laws and not misusing the data.

• Integration and compatibility

  It’s great to check if your CRM platform supports integration with WhatsApp and other communication channels.

• Personalized support

  Support and help centers are essential factors to look at, ensuring that every problem is being solved.

• Advanced features like automation

  This time is for artificial intelligence; double-check if your WhatsApp CRM solution providers offer AI capabilities and automation to speed up your workflow.

  We've covered a detailed guide on the best WhatsApp automation tools that you would like to read.

• Security and Compliance

  Your company's and customers' data will be in the CRM; therefore, it’s recommended to check that your data is secured and protected.

Look at some examples

Here are some examples of how different industries can unlock the power of WhatsApp CRM.

Retailers: eCommerce vendors and retailer businesses can nurture audiences by running messaging campaigns. Also send order confirmations, latest updates, and shipping information and respond to customer queries on WhatsApp. They can directly integrate WhatsApp to the website so users can enjoy live chat support.

Education: Institutions and colleges can manage students’s data, send assignments and course details, and communicate with them through WhatsApp.

Travel: Travel agencies can share tourism details, quotations, and updates using WhatsApp CRM.

How to implement WhatsApp into the CRM system

If you just decided to integrate WhatsApp into your CRM system, here are some key steps that must be followed.

Choose the CRM platform according to your needs

As we said earlier, choosing the right CRM platform that aligns with all your expectations and business needs is vital for you. We already have all the criteria to determine the best CRM to build and manage customer relationships.

Get access to WhatsApp Business API and set it up

The next step is to set up the WhatsApp Business API in your CRM, but before that, you’ll need to get access to the API. But it’s not easy!

If you approach the manual process, you have to go through registering your business, fulfilling all the requirements, and following all the rules.

Many WhatsApp Business API providers out there help you get API access and also let you integrate WhatsApp into your CRM system.

Choosing the best WhatsApp BSP can save you time and speed up your task easily.

Set up your messaging workflow

Now we’ve come to the main thing: setting up your messaging workflow within your WhatsApp CRM.

You can set up an automated messaging campaign, like a greeting and away message campaign, and chatbots to handle common queries effectively.

If your business is on Shopify, the Chatix app offers options to set up automated messaging campaigns that you can use to recover abandoned carts, send greetings, and send interactive and broadcast messages.

Manage team inbox

Within the CRM system, you’ll get a team inbox where your entire support team can manage customer support, assign conversations to any member, and increase response time.

And the interesting thing is that multiple agents can take over customer conversations through one single WhatsApp number. Oversee all conversations and increase productivity.

In the Chatix app, you'll find a collaborative workspace for seamless communication.

Segments your customers

When you have thousands of contacts, it can be difficult for you to handle the largest customer base. There is a solution: you can segment your contacts into relevant groups based on factors like their interests, location, or purchase history and labels like “new customers” or “repeated customers.”.

This method will help you understand your audience and send personalized messages to the right group of customers.

Monitor and analyze performance.

The last step is monitoring and analyzing the performance of your WhatsApp integration with CRM.

You'll need to track the customer satisfaction rate, average response time, message open rate, click ratio, user retention rate, and more.

Level up your WhatsApp marketing game with Chatix

As you already know, CRM is a customer relationship management tool, and WhatsApp is a communication channel. So when you mix them up, you can change the entire support and communication game.

However, to unlock all the potential of these platform integrations, you’ll need a reliable and robust platform, and this is where Chatix App comes into play. It is designed to streamline the communication system to enhance the customer experience and make the support process easier and faster.

It is important to consider that Chatix is only built for Shopify businesses, which means if you're running an eCommerce store on Shopify, this app can be a game changer for you.

Chatix App comes with CRM and WhatsApp integration, so you neither have to look for any CRM service providers nor work hard to get access to the WhatsApp Business API. Also, it provides a wide range of features, including automated responses and the ability to the ability to set up customer contacts, allowing you to respond to common inquiries instantly.

1500+ Shopify store owners are using this app to automate and speed up the customer support process.

Conclusion

When you integrate the WhatsApp Business API into your customer relationship management software, it can unlock the door to managing customers, streamlining communication, and increasing sales.

Not just in the eCommerce field, but this integration has proven to be the best strategy for all industries, including healthcare, education, real estate, information technology (IT), and more.

Now that you have a detailed guide to WhatsApp CRM, go ahead and try to implement it into your marketing strategy.

Install Chatix, a WhatsApp chat and marketing app, in your Shopify store now!

Frequently asked questions

1. What does WhatsApp CRM stand for?

Integration of the WhatsApp Cloud API with the CRM approach known as WhatsApp CRM. This integration helps businesses interact and communicate with current and potential customers effectively.

2. Do I need the WhatsApp Business API to use WhatsApp CRM?

Yes, WhatsApp Business has certain limitations, like you can’t send broadcast messages to more than 256 contacts, you don’t have a custom segment option, etc. But the WhatsApp Business API breaks all those limitations, so you can work efficiently.

3. Can small businesses benefit from WhatsApp CRM?

Why not? Businesses of all sizes and industries can benefit from WhatsApp CRM. It ensures smooth customer communication and strong customer relationships.

4. Can I use WhatsApp CRM for marketing purposes?

Absolutely! Many WhatsApp CRM solutions let you perform marketing tasks like sending broadcast messages, automated messages, abandoned cart recovery, etc.

5. Do I need a WhatsApp Business account for CRM?

WhatsApp Business is an upgraded version specifically designed for businesses, and it’s recommended. It has extra features tailored for business use, such as setting up a business profile, automated messages, and more.

6. Why is WhatsApp better for communication than others?

WhatsApp is a widely used messaging platform, and it has a message open rate of around 98%, which is higher than emails and calls. Using this ultimate platform as part of communication can lower response rates and increase sales.

7. What is the best CRM with WhatsApp integration?

It depends on the requirements and goals of your business. If you want to just integrate WhatsApp or all platforms into CRM, there are many solutions out there that you can find on the internet.

8. Are there privacy or security issues in WhatsApp CRM?

When you integrate WhatsApp into your CRM system, you don’t need to worry about privacy and security issues. This is because end-to-end encryption ensures that the messages remain secure and private, even within the CRM system.