Are you looking for a CRM that supports WhatsApp integration? Or, do you want to integrate WhatsApp with your current CRM? This blog post will answer all your questions. We’ll start by understanding what a WhatsApp CRM is and what you need to know about a CRM WhatsApp integration. Then, we’ll show you why you need a business messaging inbox like respond.io to conduct marketing, sales and support on WhatsApp.

What is WhatsApp CRM?
WhatsApp CRM is the integration between a WhatsApp API account and a CRM. Businesses usually want a WhatsApp CRM to receive and reply to WhatsApp messages within their CRM.
However, because CRMs were built with email as the main communication channel in mind, not all of them support native WhatsApp integrations and the majority of them rely on third-party integrations and extensions.
Regardless, how you integrate a CRM with WhatsApp depends entirely on your business needs and your current CRM. Before investing in a WhatsApp CRM integration, there are a few things you need to know.
Getting a WhatsApp CRM Integration: What You Need to Know
To integrate WhatsApp with your CRM, you need to understand the types of WhatsApp Business Accounts and integrations supported by CRMs.
WhatsApp Businesses Accounts
Businesses can choose one of two WhatsApp business products: The WhatsApp Business App or the APIs, which consist of the WhatsApp Business API and WhatsApp Cloud API.
The WhatsApp Business App is designed for small businesses, while the APIs were created for SMEs and enterprises that want to use WhatsApp Business with multiple users.

If you want to integrate WhatsApp with a CRM, you’ll need an API account. However, since APIs do not have a user interface, they must be connected to a CRM like Hubspot or a business messaging inbox like respond.io to send and receive messages.
Note that what you can do with the API integration depends heavily on the software you've connected it to. That said, let's look at the WhatsApp integrations that CRMs support.
CRM WhatsApp: Integrating WhatsApp with Your CRM
Although some CRMs support native WhatsApp integration, they cannot support certain WhatsApp messaging features because they were originally built for email instead of messaging.
For instance, Zendesk's native WhatsApp integration has limitations like the inability to preview videos and listen to voice notes from the messaging inbox itself. Agents have to download them to know the content.
This slows agents down because they have to go back and forth between Zendesk and their downloads folder while tending to multiple customers at the same time. They might also open the wrong file, forcing them to re-download the content or search for it in their downloads.

Not just that, the native integration provided by CRMs limits the WhatsApp API integration to a single CRM. If a business has more than one CRM and wants to exchange WhatsApp information with all its CRMs, it won’t be able to do so.
Thankfully, most CRMs, even those with native WhatsApp integration, offer third-party integrations to let their customers select the best software that supports WhatsApp integration with their CRM.
This allows you to use WhatsApp with a business messaging inbox like respond.io which is designed specifically for messaging. It lets you connect WhatsApp with multiple CRMs to exchange information between them and use WhatsApp to its full potential.

Respond.io is an omnichannel messaging inbox that aggregates messages from messaging apps like WhatsApp along with traditional messaging channels like email and webchat.
It supports WhatsApp features like sending broadcasts, push notifications, setting up interactive messages and more. Plus it integrates seamlessly with almost any type of CRM. Let’s look at how integrating a CRM with respond.io works.
How to Integrate Your CRM with respond.io to Use WhatsApp
First, connect your WhatsApp API account to respond.io. Then, use Workflows to form a connection between your CRM and respond.io to qualify sales leads, retrieve updated contact profiles or create deals and tickets on external CRMs.
This way, you can exchange information with your existing CRM automatically while messaging customers on respond.io, without having to go back and forth between your CRM and the respond.io inbox to send and answer WhatsApp messages.
Businesses can qualify sales leads, retrieve updated contact profiles or create deals and tickets in external CRMs from the platform.
Want to know what else you can do by integrating WhatsApp with respond.io? Read on to find out!
Benefits of Using respond.io for Marketing, Sales and Support
Various use cases and Workflows are possible when you use respond.io with WhatsApp Business CRM integration. In this section, we’ll show you how to use respond.io for WhatsApp marketing, WhatsApp sales and WhatsApp customer service.
WhatsApp CRM for Marketing: Funnel Inbound Leads and Send Promotional Messages
To encourage inbound conversations, businesses can use a click-to-chat link, QR code, chat widget and WhatsApp web chat. They can paste the QR code on fliers and business cards or at their physical store and embed the chat link in a range of digital mediums.
Once a lead starts a conversation, collect basic information to determine whether the lead is new or an existing Contact that has previously messaged you on another channel.
If they are an existing Contact, merge their Contact details and conversation history into a unified profile for a comprehensive view of a Contact. 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 a Contact. Then, segment them into different audiences. This will help when sending targeted promotional broadcast messages via the respond.io Broadcast Module.

Respond.io’s broadcast feature allows you to schedule and send broadcasts to your contacts once they’ve opted in, import contact lists and use interactive message templates for your broadcasts.
You can also use respond.io Workflows to set up a WhatsApp drip campaign to send a sequence of customized promotional messages to your leads. This way, you can encourage Contacts to purchase your products or to repeat service use.
If you’re looking to send WhatsApp notifications in response to specified trigger events like when Contacts create a new account or complete a purchase, you’ll be able to do it via Messages API through a Zapier integration.
WhatsApp CRM for Sales: Shorten Sales Cycle
Integrating your sales CRM with respond.io allows you to exchange data between both platforms to qualify leads and create deals with a click of a button. Agents can carry out sales-related tasks while talking to customers without switching between platforms.
Businesses can also automate sales tasks like qualifying leads, routing them to the right sales team based on the funnel they fall into and auto-assign them to a sales agent accordingly.

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. Now, let's look at how you can use respond.io for WhatsApp customer support.
WhatsApp CRM for Support: Improve Customer Support Quality
Respond.io enables businesses to improve their customer support efficiency through automation. They can set up automated FAQs and send multiple-choice questions with pre-determined answers to help customers communicate what they want clearly.
Based on what they’re looking for, the automation will route and assign them to the right team and agent. This way, agents are saved from performing repetitive tasks and can focus their time on critical issues.

If an agent cannot solve an issue, they can request their manager’s help by providing background information through internal comments. Agents can also escalate the case to external CRM platforms in one click while chatting with customers.
After a conversation ends, businesses can send a customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey to measure the success and quality of their customer support. They can also track individual or team performance via the advanced Reports and Analytics Module.
Best of all, you can carry out all your tasks anywhere with the respond.io mobile app. You’ve made it to the end! Are you ready to integrate your CRM with WhatsApp on respond.io? Sign up for our free trial and elevate your customer relationships across messaging channels!

Further Reading
Need a more in-depth article to kickstart your marketing, sales and support journey with respond.io? Here are some blogs that might help you.
- WhatsApp Marketing: A Guide to a Successful Campaign
- How To Use WhatsApp for Sales
- WhatsApp Customer Service: Using WhatsApp for Support