Customer relationship management has become a part and parcel of every business in today’s world. However, not everyone understands that WhatsApp can not only help with customer communication but also help manage customer engagement efficiently. With more than 2 billion active users, WhatsApp has become integral to business communications. If business owners can integrate the application with their CRM platform, they can enhance customer service and increase revenues. So, we thought it would be helpful to provide an overview of WhatsApp CRM integration through this article.

What is WhatsApp CRM?

WhatsApp CRM is the act of integrating your customer relationship management tool with the WhatsApp Business API account. WhatsApp’s application programming interface can be easily merged with Salesforce, Hubspot, Zoho and most other CRMs that are currently in use. By merging WhatsApp communications with a CRM, your business team can not only take its customer service to the next level but also drive sales & business growth.

Benefits of integrating your CRM with WhatsApp

At the outset, WhatsApp CRM is an excellent addition to any business. However, it is critical to understand how it provides advantages to your business. So, let’s take a look.

Real-time customer engagement

With CRM integration, you’ll be able to view all your WhatsApp communications across devices & channels like websites, chatbots or social media in one location and engage with customers in real time. WhatsApp CRM also allows your team to send personalized responses instantly to gain the trust of customers.

Instant response to queries

By integrating WhatsApp API into your CRM, you can manage your no-code WhatsApp chatbots & automate your in-chat responses to offer instant responses to customer queries at all stages of their journey. The option to add labels & notes to denote a customer’s status and urgency helps your team identify their needs faster, give quick resolutions & follow up accordingly.

Provides personalized interaction with customers

One of the main advantages that you get with a WhatsApp CRM is the increased level of personalization. Since your CRM holds all your customer data, the WhatsApp API integration allows you to create custom greetings, promotional messages & offers for customers as per their needs, interests or location. This helps your team to cater to individual customer needs, reduce churn & help grow your business.

Improves tracking & follow-ups

WhatsApp has become an integral part of business communication. Therefore, it is important to get real-time tracking of communication to help in effective follow-ups. With WhatsApp CRM, you can view the entire customer journey for a particular client and track their communication through a shared dashboard. There are also a variety of reports & analytical features that help you identify issues & follow up efficiently.

Streamlines internal communications

WhatsApp CRM provides a shared inbox feature that helps your team see all the business communications on a single screen. By merging communications across channels, your teams can collaborate with each other and share critical information like meeting notes, calendar events, tasks, customer insights, analytics and more. In addition, your team can filter out the customer’s messages based on demographic, status & intent to gain additional insights.

Gain sales & marketing insights

Integrating WhatsApp API into the CRM helps monitor marketing & sales processes to gain insights that can improve customer experience. By tracking individual customer conversations & monitoring the interactions that take place at each step of the journey, your team can understand the needs of their clients & the best ways to interact with them to improve the customer experience.

Read more on WhatsApp for sales: 13 tips to boost your business

Can you integrate CRM with the WhatsApp Business app?

The short answer is No.

WhatsApp has two versions of the business application: one is the native WhatsApp Business app and the other is the WhatsApp API application interface. The native app, which mimics the regular WhatsApp application, was designed to help small businesses with their basic communication needs. Therefore, it doesn’t allow integration with other software or applications. In addition to integration opportunities, WhatsApp Business API also provides several other benefits like unlimited broadcast messages, shared inbox for collaborative workplaces & no-code chatbots for 24/7 assistance.

Suggested read: All you need to know about WhatsApp Business API

Two ways to integrate your CRM with WhatsApp

The first step in integrating WhatsApp with your CRM is getting a WhatsApp Business API account. This can be done either by yourself or by partnering with a WhatsApp business solution provider.

Through native integration

To convert your WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business account WhatsApp requires businesses to create their own unique WhatsApp API account & get it approved. You can apply for a WhatsApp API using Facebook. The approval will take around one to two times. Your team will need to use the Facebook developer page and build your own application through coding. However, this is a tedious & technical process because your team needs to understand the Facebook developer process & also learn about the WhatsApp compliance process to manage your WhatsApp strategy efficiently.

Pros

No dependence on third-party service providers.
The front-end interface can be customized based on your needs.
Need to only pay for WhatsApp’s conversational pricing.

Cons

Need a knowledgeable team with coding expertise.
Onboarding will mostly take longer.
Need to constantly allocate time for researching new tools & integration opportunities.

Through third-party integration like Gallabox

If you’re a small or medium business, you might not have the resources or time to do native WhatsApp API integration, then you need to partner with a WhatsApp Business Solution Partner (BSP) like Gallabox. BSPs are WhatsApp-acknowledged partners who have been assigned to help SMBs with WhatsApp API creation & integration. Since Gallabox knows all about WhatsApp's restrictions, commerce policy & approval process, you can rest assured that the application process is shorter and hassle-free. The professional team can also provide custom integration support based on your existing CRM. This makes your job much easier and helps you focus on other critical business processes.

Pros

Shorter approval & onboarding process.
Professional integration support for all types of CRMs.
24/7 assistance to help with various WhatsApp workplace solutions.
Knowledgeable staff who can inform your team about the latest tools & integration opportunities.

Cons

Applications & tools might not be completely customized to fit a specific need/niche.
Would have to pay extra for interface setup & maintenance. (Gallabox doesn’t charge a set-up fee).
The interface might take some time to get used to.

How to integrate CRM with WhatsApp through Gallabox’s WhatsApp Business API

As one of the leading WhatsApp workplace service provider in India, Gallabox can help you integrate WhatsApp with several CRMs including Zoho, ShipRocket, WooCommerce & Shopify in just a few steps. Let’s take a look at the step-by-step Gallabox WhatsApp integration process for some of the most popular CRMs in the current era.

ShipRocket

Open your ShipRocket account & Click on ‘Settings’ on the left navigation panel.
Under ‘Settings’, click on ‘API’ → ‘Configure’ → ‘Create an API User’.
Fill the email address & password.
Share the information with the Gallabox team to finish the configuration.

Woocommerce

Open WordPress dashboard & click on ‘Settings’ under the WooCommerce dropdown list.
Click on ‘REST API’ under the ‘Advanced’ tab.
Click on ‘Create an API Key’ & enter the required details.
Open ‘Permissions’ and click on ‘Read/Write’ in the dropdown.
Click on ‘Generate API Key’.
Once the API key is generated, you need to update the website URL, consumer key & consumer secret.
After entering the details, you can email the details to developers@gallabox.com to integrate Gallabox WhatsApp API.

Shopify

Open Shopify’s Admin Console & select Apps.
Click on 'Manage private apps' under the Apps section.
After that, click on the 'Create new private app' button & enter the necessary information to create an app.

Once the app is created, click on ‘App details’ & enter the following details.

Private app name - "Gallabox"
Emergency developer email - "developers@gallabox.com"

Upon app creation, you can scroll down to see your API key, Password & Shared Secret. Share these details to developers@gallabox.com.

After the app is created, you also need to give ‘read permission’ access to Gallabox on the following modules
Fulfillment services
Orders
Order editing
Product listings
Products Shipping
Third-party fulfillment orders
ScriptTag (need both read/write permission to add WhatsApp Widget to your shopify website)
After giving the permission, select Latest (2021-10) Webhook API version.

In addition to these CRMs, Gallabox can also help with custom integrations with other CRMs.

Send WhatsApp messages directly from Zoho CRM with Gallabox

WhatsApp can be integrated with Zoho, one of the most popular CRMs, to ensure increased revenue & seamless customer experience. By following these simple steps, you can integrate our Gallabox WhatsApp API with your Zoho CRM and start sending messages directly from Zoho.

Step 1:Open the Zoho homepage & click on the ‘Settings’ gear icon at the top-right corner.
Step 2: Find ‘Marketplaces’ under the CRM tab & select ‘All’ from the list.
Step 3: Search for the Gallabox extension ‘WhatsApp Business Messaging for Zoho CRM’ in the search bar & install it.
Step 4: During the installation, connect your Gallabox ID with the extension by adding the details to the AccountId & API Key fields under Extension Settings.

Note: This is a mandatory step that allows you to view WhatsApp messages in Zoho.

Step 5: Once installed, go back to the Zoho home page & tap on the Leads pane on the top menu.
Step 6: If you select a lead from the list of leads, you will see a ‘Send WhatsApp’ button.

Note: You can select multiple contacts to send bulk messages.

Step 7: Once you click on the button, you will be prompted to log in to Gallabox. Enter the login details.
Step 8: Once you login, you will see a list of templates that you’ve created in Gallabox. Select the relevant template.

You can check out some of the must-have templates on our WhatsApp business message templates blog post.

Step 9: Once selected, you will see a dropdown to select the variables in the template message. Select the relevant variable and click on ‘Send’ to send the message.

For a more detailed explanation of the Zoho WhatsApp integration and automation process, you can read our blog.

From this article, we can clearly see that WhatsApp CRM improves your business processes. We’ve also seen that partnering with a WhatsApp Business Solutions Partner like Gallabox will make your life easier. If you’d like to experience our interface, you can sign up now for a free trial.