How do I use WhatsApp Business with multiple users? Seems like a fairly simple question right? Unfortunately, WhatsApp has made the answer complicated. In this article, we’ll explain the WhatsApp Business multiple users' problems, why it exists, and how to resolve it based on the type of company you operate.
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Why Using WhatsApp Business Multiple Users is Hard
WhatsApp Business Multiple Users: One to Two Users
WhatsApp Business Multiple Users: Teams of Users
- Adding Users and Organizing Teams
- Assigning WhatsApp Contacts: Picking
- Assigning WhatsApp Contacts: Auto-Assignment
Why Using WhatsApp Business with Multiple Users is Hard
Seems like something that should be relatively simple right? Unfortunately not. WhatsApp has made two products for business, the WhatsApp Business App and WhatsApp Business API. This is where the difficulty lies.
While WhatsApp Business App is easy to set up, it is not intended to be used with multiple users. WhatsApp Business API has an associated cost and needs to be connected to a CRM like respond.io to start using it.
Regardless of whether you are using WhatsApp Business App or WhatsApp Business API we’re going to show you the best way to use WhatsApp Business for multiple users.
WhatsApp Business Multiple Users: One to Two Users
When a business is small, the owner is usually the one talking to customers. This is something WhatsApp Business App is excellent for. In fact, small businesses from all over the world like Cozinha da Loli, a Brazilian bakery use the app to handle customers.
Now you might be saying, tell me about the WhatsApp Business App multiple users feature. Unfortunately, there isn’t one. WhatsApp Business App is just that, an app. It works on one device with one user and you can’t have it on two phones at the same time.
Adding an Extra User Using WhatsApp Web
Although WhatsApp Business App is intended for a single user it’s still possible for multiple people to use it. One way is to pass your phone around from person to person, but this is cumbersome and will allow your employees to see your other messages.
Another way is to use WhatsApp Web or WhatsApp Desktop App. This is the same as using WhatsApp Web or Desktop App for your personal WhatsApp account, except you open in on your employee's computer.
Although not ideal, with this set up you can have one employee answering messages from their computer while you monitor from the phone. For a growing small business, this is a cheap and practical solution to answering messages on WhatsApp Business.
Adding an Extra User on Another Phone
Although we don’t recommend it, there is a way you can actually use a second phone to add an additional user, if you don’t have a computer handy. You can do so by opening WhatsApp Web in your phone browser.
To do so navigate to web.whatsapp.com on your second phone. Under browser settings, check Desktop Site. Now, Scan the QR code with your second phone. This method is quite difficult to use though, as you will need to zoom in and out to respond to messages.
Genuinely, we recommend using WhatsApp Web on a computer rather than using this method. However, once you need even more users you’ll need to upgrade to using WhatsApp Business API for your company.
WhatsApp Business Multiple Users: Teams of Users
Larger businesses need support for multiple users and devices, WhatsApp has created the WhatsApp Business API product for these companies. The product is offered through partners and has different pricing depending on the WhatsApp Parter you choose.
Unlike WhatsApp Business App, the API doesn’t have an interface. To use it, you’ll need to connect to a WhatsApp CRM like respond.io. Once you have it connected, you’ll be able to add multiple users and devices to WhatsApp.
To summarize, to use WhatsApp Business API with multiple users you’ll need:
Once you’ve got those ready, be sure to connect your WhatsApp API account.
Adding Users & Organizing Teams
Once you’ve connected your WhatsApp API account to respond.io, users can be added and deleted easily. Each user can also choose to answer WhatsApp questions either from the browser or using the Android and iOS app.
Users can be invited by role including Owners, Managers & Agents. Owners have full control to manage any settings, while Managers have access to all the but mission critical functions. Agents only have access to answering messages.
Once you’ve added many users to the platform you may want to Organize your users into teams. Teams will help when it comes to distributing incoming Contacts to the right users.
Contacts Assignment: Manual Assignment
For businesses with small teams answering WhatsApp messages, we recommend the Picking strategy. This strategy is simple, every WhatsApp Contact that needs answering will show up in the Pending list. Agents can either respond or assign to someone else.
By responding to the message, Contacts will be assigned to that agent automatically. Otherwise, the Contact can be assigned to a user easily using the Assignment dropdown as Users are organized by Team.
Once the Agent is done with the Contact, they can Mark them Done. In the future, if the same Contact messages again in the future, they’ll be marked as Pending and the process will start all over again.
Assigning WhatsApp Contacts: Auto-Assignment
Once you have a truly high volume of Contacts coming in, using the Picking strategy is no longer feasible as Contacts will be coming in faster then you can pick them. For large businesses like this Auto-Assignment should be used.
There are two Auto-Assignment modes – Round Robin or Assign To User With Least Contacts. To ensure all inquiries are answered in a timely manner, select Assign to Online Users Only, and users who are offline or busy will not be assigned any contacts.
These are the basics of getting started with WhatsApp Business Multiple Users. If you have any questions about what we’ve written here, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Further Reading
If you enjoyed this article and you'd like to learn more about WhatsApp Business, please check out our articles on:
- The Ultimate Guide to WhatsApp Business API
- How to Choose a WhatsApp Partner: WhatsApp Business API Pricing
