You’re probably on this blog because you want a WeChat CRM. Here, we’ll help you understand what a WeChat CRM is and what you need to know before getting a WeChat CRM integration. Sharing insights from our firsthand experience of testing WeChat integration across various popular CRMs, we’ll help you choose the right WeChat integration to conduct marketing, sales and support on WeChat.

What is a WeChat CRM?

A WeChat CRM is the integration between a WeChat Official Account API and a CRM. Most businesses want to integrate WeChat with their CRM because they have customers in China or in countries where the app is popular.

However, integrating WeChat into a CRM is not ideal because CRMs were originally built for email communication. In fact, most CRMs do not have native WeChat integration and have to rely on third-party integrations.

To get the best WeChat CRM integration for your business, you need to be aware of a few things.

Getting a WeChat CRM: What You Should Know

Here, we’ll help you understand how to use WeChat for business and the types of integrations that CRMs support.

WeChat for Business

There are two ways for businesses to use WeChat: Through the WeChat Official Account Platform or WeChat Official Account API. Each is designed for different business needs and sizes.

For instance, the WeChat Official Account Platform has basic messaging features like receiving and replying to messages and setting up auto replies based on a simple rule-based system. These features are sufficient for businesses receiving low volumes of messages.

The WeChat Official Account API, on the other hand, is designed for businesses receiving medium to high volumes of messages that need advanced automation to manage their conversations. It is also the only way for businesses to connect WeChat with external software.

Because the WeChat Official Account API is just an API, it does not have an interface. So, businesses must connect it to an AI-powered customer conversation management software like respond.io or a CRM to send and receive WeChat messages.

Note that what you can do with the API will differ according to the software you’ve connected it to, so it’s important to know the types of WeChat integrations that your CRMs support.

WeChat CRM Integrations

The WeChat integration you choose depends heavily on your business needs and current CRMs. Depending on what your CRMs support, you'll either have the option to get WeChat through a native integration or a third-party integration.

However, because CRMs were not built for messaging, CRMs with native integration like Zendesk, cannot fully support WeChat features like videos, locations and more.

Plus, the native integration limits the WeChat Official Account API to a single CRM. This means that if you have multiple CRMs and want to integrate WeChat to exchange information with all of them, you won’t be able to do so.

Thankfully, most CRMs support third-party integrations to let their customers choose the best way to use WeChat. This enables you to use the respond.io customer conversation management software, designed specifically for messaging.

It lets you connect WeChat with multiple CRMs to exchange information between them and send rich media messages, locations and more to customers on WeChat.

Respond.io provides an omnichannel messaging inbox that allows you to use instant messaging apps along with traditional channels like email and webchat.

It provides businesses with advanced AI tools to manage conversations from these channels, automatically route and assign conversations, keep track of agents' performance and more. We’ll cover more of this later. Now, let's look at how to integrate any CRM with respond.io to use WeChat.

Integrating WeChat with a CRM on respond.io

First, you need to sign up for a WeChat Official Account and connect it to respond.io. Then, create a new Workflow and add the HTTP Request Step to connect any CRM with WeChat on respond.io.

This will allow you to exchange information with your existing CRM while messaging customers on respond.io.

Businesses can qualify sales leads, retrieve updated contact profiles or create deals and tickets in external CRMs from the platform. They don't have to go back and forth between their CRM and the respond.io inbox to reply to WeChat messages.

Now, let's look at how you can use respond.io to market, sell and support over WeChat.

How to Use respond.io for WeChat Marketing, Sales and Support

Now that you have all the information you need, here’s how you can use respond.io for WeChat marketing, sales and support.

WeChat Integration for Marketing

To reduce spam and protect users’ privacy, WeChat does not allow businesses to import contacts. Customers must message a business first to become a contact. With respond.io, businesses can encourage inbound conversation with QR Codes and WeChat Widgets.

They can also set up WeChat Ads that direct leads to their Official Account on the WeChat Official Account Platform. After landing on your Official Account, they are just one step away from following and messaging you.

Once a lead contacts you, you can use Workflows to collect basic information to identify whether the lead is new or existing.

Suppose they are an existing contact and have previously messaged you on another channel. You can merge their contact information to get a complete view of their interactions with your business. You can also exchange and retrieve their contact information on your CRM.

If a lead is new, you will automatically capture their details and add them as contacts when your Workflow is configured correctly.

WeChat Integration for Sales

By integrating a sales CRM with WeChat on respond.io, businesses can exchange data between both platforms while carrying out sales-related tasks. They can qualify leads and create deals with a click of a button while chatting with customers.

With respond.io, businesses can automate their sales cycle to ensure that agents can focus on high-priority leads.

For instance, businesses can have an AI Agent to serve as the initial responder to handle routine lead inquiries or send automated qualifying questions when a lead contacts them. Based on the sales funnel leads fall into, businesses can route them to the right team and assign them to the right agent.

The highly customizable nature of respond.io’s Workflows gives managers the freedom to implement their routing logic, like routing leads by priority access, deal size, region or more. Plus, they can ensure equal lead distribution among the sales team and assign existing customers to their dedicated salesperson automatically.

As Agents will have to communicate with customers from different backgrounds, they can use AI Prompts to refine messages for clarity, translate them to overcome language barriers and more so their messages are communicated effectively. These features can also be used for WeChat customer support.

WeChat Integration for Customer Support

Businesses can improve their customer support efficiency by automating customer support. They can automate FAQs and send multiple-choice questions with pre-determined answers to help customers communicate what they want clearly.

Similar to the AI Agent’s capabilities mentioned in the sales use case above, businesses can use AI to handle routine inquiries and escalate complex or sensitive issues to human agents.

Businesses can use automation to route leads to the right team and assign them to the right agent according to their needs. As a result, agents are saved from performing repetitive tasks and can focus their resources on critical issues.

To ease agents' workload further, tools like AI Assist provide agents with quick access to relevant information from knowledge bases or existing resources. This allows them to respond quickly and accurately to customer inquiries with just a click of a button, enhancing response times and contributing to a more satisfying customer experience.

Suppose an agent cannot resolve an issue. They can request a manager's help through internal comments or escalate the case to external CRM platforms in one click while conversing with customers.

To measure the success and quality of a company’s customer support, businesses can send a CSAT survey or track individual or team performance via the advanced Reports and Analytics Module.

The best part is, you can carry out all your tasks anywhere with the respond.io mobile app which is available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Ready to use WeChat on respond.io? Sign up for our free trial and enhance your business communications today!

Further Reading

We hope this article was useful. Here’s some additional reading that might interest you.

• The Ultimate Guide to WeChat Business
• How to Use WeChat Integration with Website
• Escalation Management: A Guide to Customer Escalation