WhatsApp Team: Get Started with WhatsApp Team Inbox [Nov 2023]

Looking for a collaborative messaging solution that will allow your team to respond to messages on WhatsApp? In this article, we’ll share what a WhatsApp team inbox is, the benefits of having one and how to use a team inbox on respond.io.

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What is a WhatsApp Team Inbox?

As WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging channel in the world, WhatsApp Business App has become a useful tool for businesses to communicate with customers in real time.

However, as your business grows, so does your team. While using WhatsApp Business App is sufficient for small businesses with few team members, it comes with several limitations, including:

Can’t be connected to more than 5 devices
No collaborative features
Inability to track individual or team workload
Inability to track which team member sent or replied to a message
No way to ensure all inquiries have been answered

This is an image that show the limitations of whatsapp business apps. It cannot be connected to more than 5 devices, no collaborative features, cannot track individual or team workload, cannot track which team member sent or replied to a message and there's no way to ensure you've answered all inquiries. — WhatsApp teams: Limitations of WhatsApp Business App

If you’re running a large business, you’ll need more sophisticated features to solve the issues stated above. This is where the WhatsApp team inbox comes in.

A WhatsApp team inbox is a collaborative messaging inbox that organizes all of your WhatsApp conversations in one place for your team to handle. Let’s find out how your business can benefit from using a team inbox next.

Benefits of Using a Shared Inbox

You can create a WhatsApp team inbox through a messaging platform like respond.io. It allows all team members to respond to customers through a shared dashboard and grants managers visibility into all customer conversations.

A shared inbox also provides a single point of contact with each customer for a record of all interactions. Since all messages are consolidated in a single inbox, this reduces the risk of overlooking inquiries, thus giving customers a better experience.

To handle the high volume of conversations, businesses can set up chat automation to route messages to the right team and assign them to the right agent. It’s also easier for team members to collaborate in a shared inbox. Agents can leave internal comments for follow-ups, tag their colleagues or escalate complex cases.

This is an image that shows the benefits of using a shared inbox. it provides a single point of contact for customers, you can implement chat automation, collaborate among team members, access data and reports and integrate with other channels. — WhatsApp Teams: Why should you start using WhatsApp team inbox

Another benefit is accessing detailed individual agent and team performance data, such as response and resolution times. This information can help identify bottlenecks or weak points in conversation handling to improve customer service.

Omnichannel platforms like respond.io connect multiple messaging channels like WhatsApp, Facebook, Google Business Messages and Instagram to one inbox. Consolidating a contact’s information and chat history across channels into a single profile gives agents a full overview of the customer.

Now that you’ve learned why you should get a WhatsApp team inbox, let’s find out how to set it up.

How to Set Up WhatsApp Team Inbox

As a WhatsApp team inbox is meant to facilitate teamwork, you need a WhatsApp API account for its multiuser functionality. As the API has no front-end interface to send and receive messages, it has to be connected to a customer conversation management software like respond.io.

The most efficient way to set up a WhatsApp team inbox is to create a WhatsApp API account directly via respond.io as it's an official WhatsApp Business Solutions Provider.

Then, you can add team members to your shared inbox and use features like advanced automation and flexible integrations to make teamwork easier than ever. Let’s look into how respond.io empowers teams to do more with WhatsApp.

How to Use a WhatsApp Shared Inbox for Business on respond.io

Here, we’ll show you how to use WhatsApp team inbox on respond.io for different use cases, especially for sales and customer support.

WhatsApp Team Inbox for Sales

First, we’ll look at how your sales team can utilize the team inbox. You can easily drive sales conversations and increase the volume of leads by placing WhatsApp click-to-chat links in prominent locations where customers can easily see them.

A WhatsApp team inbox allows businesses to handle high volumes of conversations efficiently, improving the chances of making a sale. Quickly connecting with your customers prevents them from feeling ignored and checking out your competitors.

This is an image that shows how businesses can use a team inbox for sales. First, they can drive sales with click to chat links. aside from that they can also route and assign conversation and create custom inboxes. finally, they can also integrate with sales crm without leaving the platform. — WhatsApp for Teams: How to use WhatsApp team for sales

One easy way to keep customers engaged is through automated replies. By setting up a WhatsApp auto reply, you can greet customers when they send you the first message or inform them that you’re unavailable with an away message.

With respond.io’s customizable Workflows automation, you can apply chat routing logic to route conversations to the right team based on language, customer lifecycle stage, product or service inquiries, or any other criteria that are relevant to your business.

This is an image that shows how to use chat-routing logic for sales. With respond.io’s customizable Workflows, you can apply chat-routing logic to route conversations based on language, customer lifecycle stage, product or service inquiries, or any other criteria that are relevant to your business. — WhatsApp Teams: Use WhatsApp Business team to shorten the sales cycle

Then, use your preferred auto-assignment logic to assign customers to the sales agent best equipped for the task or to the agent with the least open conversations for faster service.

Salespeople can use a custom inbox to prioritize VIP customers. It allows managers to filter and view high-value conversations, ensuring the best possible customer experience. This helps build strong relationships and increase customer loyalty.

By connecting your sales CRM with respond.io, you can easily transfer data between the two platforms to create deals quickly. This enables agents to perform sales-related tasks while chatting with customers without having to switch between platforms.

As shown above, you can shorten your sales cycle when you use WhatsApp for sales. In the next section, we’ll show you how to improve customer service with a WhatsApp team inbox.

WhatsApp Team Inbox for Customer Service

Now, let’s take a look at how businesses can use a shared inbox to improve customer service over WhatsApp.

The right chat automation in a WhatsApp team inbox helps businesses improve customer service by using automated responses to handle FAQs, freeing up agents to focus on complex issues.

This is an image that shows how to use a shared inbox for customer service. You can route and assign conversations, handle faqs with chat automation, collaborate with team members, integrate with crm and provide detailed reports. — WhatsApp Business API team inbox for customer service

Inquiries that cannot be automatically handled can be routed to the right team using a chat menu. Then, they can be assigned round robin for equal workload distribution or to agents with the least open conversation for efficient customer service.

You can also integrate your existing CRM to respond.io to allow support agents to create tickets while chatting with customers without leaving the conversation.

This is a screenshot to show you how to use the Comments feature. The Comments feature in respond.io allows agents to collaborate and resolve inquiries more efficiently. Alternatively, you can implement an escalation workflow to automatically escalate complex or high-priority inquiries to the right team or agent. — WhatsApp for Team: Use Comments to collaborate with team members

The Comments feature in respond.io allows agents to collaborate and resolve inquiries more efficiently. Alternatively, you can implement an escalation Workflow to automatically escalate complex or high-priority inquiries to the right team or agent.

This is a screenshot that shows you how the Reports page looks like. Want a detailed report on how your agents are performing? Get the performance data from our Reports Module. Now you know exactly how many contacts an agent is handling and how efficient they are at responding to customers and resolving inquiries. — WhatsApp Teams: Access data and reports from the Reports Module

Want a detailed report on how your agents are performing? Get the performance data from our Reports Module. Now you know exactly how many contacts an agent is handling and how efficient they are at responding to customers and resolving inquiries.

We hope this article provides everything you need to know about a WhatsApp team inbox and how to use one with your team. Interested in getting a WhatsApp inbox for your business? Sign up for respond.io, a badged Meta Business Partner, and connect your WhatsApp Business API account to get started.