Up until a few years ago, businesses relied on email and phone as the main communication channels to interact with their customers. All that has changed with the skyrocketing popularity of WhatsApp and other messaging apps. 

Nowadays, customers prefer friendly and conversational interaction with their favorite brands. They are super comfortable with WhatsApp and expect businesses to be present and available on their favorite app. They expect brands to respond to their WhatsApp messages, the same way their friends do.

Businesses recognize the benefit of this type of communication with their customers too. Getting more and better sales, generating leads, and driving customer retention depends on building and nurturing meaningful relationships with consumers. 

Compared to email, WhatsApp communication is instant, more convenient, engaging, and personal, and most importantly, WhatsApp messages are received as chat messages and don’t end up in the spam folder.

Furthermore, WhatsApp’s messages have a 98% open rate, which directly impacts sales conversions and conversations. So if a brand wants to get customers’ attention, WhatsApp is the way.

CRM was originally built for phone and email communication, hence, not all CRM platforms support native WhatsApp integrations, and many rely on third-party extensions. If you want to invest in a WhatsApp CRM integration, it’s good to know a few important things.

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What is CRM? #

CRM is the complete management of sales, marketing, customer service, and all points of contact between the company and the customer. 

Customer Relationship Management is a system that enables you to streamline processes, improve profitability, and grow your business. The entire customer lifecycle, marketing, sales, digital commerce, and customer service interactions can be managed with CRM tools.

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CRM for WhatsApp #

Let’s start with the crucial requirement for using WhatsApp as a professional CRM tool. First, you must register your business phone number with WhatsApp Business Platform/API, which allows you to integrate WhatsApp with a customer communication platform such as Rasayel. 

Here’s why this is important:

When you integrate WhatsApp and your CRM with a platform like Rasayel, you’ll be able to sync your WhatsApp activity with your CRM, similar to how it’s done for email. When you receive a WhatsApp message, it arrives in the Rasayel inbox (or your platform of choice), along with the contact’s name and phone number. Rasayel will attempt making an automatic match with your CRM contact list, and if a match is found, your conversation history with that person will be logged within your CRM as timeline events. You can assign those conversations to teammates, create automated CRM workflows that trigger automated WhatsApp messages, and more. 

You can also engage multiple team members in conversations with customers, build complete customer profiles, get access to in-depth insights, automate your workflow, track analytics and ultimately conduct marketing, sales, and support on WhatsApp in one single platform.

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Most popular WhatsApp CRMs  #

There are thousands of CRMs available in 2022. Choosing one can make or break your efforts to rise above the competition and manage customer relationships most efficiently and effectively.

Knowing the top CRMs to integrate with your WhatsApp Business account can help your company achieve marketing and sales goals. Keep reading and learn what are the best WhatsApp CRM platforms today.

HubSpot #

Founded in 2005, Hubspot focused on marketing automation for a decade until it launched its CRM platform in 2014. Today, the platform offers free CRM software with features like:

• Contact deal and task management, 
• Email tracking and engagement notifications, 
• Pipeline management, 
• Prospect tracking, 
• Meeting scheduler, 
• Live chat, 
• Sales quotas, etc.

The free version allows you to create up to 1,000,000 contacts and has no limits on users or customer data. The more advanced CRM functionality is available as part of HubSpot’s premium Sales Hub products that start at $45/month.

The paid Sales Hub offers advanced features such as:

• Reporting dashboard
• Email templates
• Document management and tracking
• Conversation intelligence
• Call tracking
• Sales automation, etc.

Hubspot’s official WhatsApp integration enables you to communicate with your customers, track conversations, and build stronger relationships — all from its platform. This feature is currently in beta and is available only in the Professional and Enterprise editions of Marketing Hub and Service Hub. 

WhatsApp and SMS by Rasayel Integration gives you a simple, fast inbox that helps your team connect with customers through any social messaging channel. You can send and receive messages with your HubSpot contacts over WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Viber, and other channels.

Features that come with the Rasayel integration include:

• Match HubSpot contacts to Rasayel
• Send messages to contacts without leaving HubSpot
• Send automated WhatsApp messages using HubSpot workflows
• Log Rasayel activity in HubSpot

Rasayel also lets you display your WhatsApp chat in a HubSpot pop-up without leaving HubSpot. You can access all features, including receiving and sending messages, sending attachments, etc.

Additional features include recording messages as a timeline event and receiving in-app notifications when new messages are received.

WhatHub uses the WhatsApp Web interface. It allows you to send 1:1 messages to any HubSpot contact and record all your agents’ conversations with your contacts into their timelines. This will enable you to configure advanced automation, like triggering workflows, when a specific keyword is mentioned in a WhatsApp message.

Pipedrive #

The company claims that it represents the first CRM platform made by salespeople for salespeople. Pipedrive was created in 2010, focusing on activity-based selling, an approach that’s all about scheduling, completing, and tracking activities.

Visual pipelines are another example of their insightful approach, which lets you see exactly where each deal stands and has loads of innovative and easy-to-use features.

Pipedrive’s platform offer sales CRM tools with features like:

• Sales pipeline deals with integrated tools like a mobile app, recurring revenue, lead generation chatbot, contact management, etc.
• Automation
• Insights and reporting
• Email and communication tracking, etc.

Pipedrive doesn’t offer an unlimited free package. However, the five different level packages that start from $9.90 per month come with a free 14-day trial, and no credit card is required to test it out.

If you subscribe to Pipedrive, you can enrich your plan with add-ons like:

• LeadBooster - Chatbot, Live Chat, Prospector, Web Forms, Scheduler.
• Web Visitors - Identify which organizations are browsing your website.
• Campaigns - Create and send customizable email campaigns with pro templates.
• Smart Docs - Autofill documents with Pipedrive data, integrate with Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, or MS Docs, track open documents in real-time, request eSignatures, and set up shared templates.

Managing deals in Pipedrive’s sales funnel is straightforward, thanks to the visual and intuitive interface. Unlike many other lead management CRMs, with Pipedrive, you can create and customize as many funnels as you need to represent your unique sales process.

Pipedrive uses color indicators that help you notice which sales opportunities require your attention and which actions have not been carried out on time. 

With Twilio SMS & WhatsApp integration, you can connect with your customers via WhatsApp and SMS. You can connect to your whole database, a subgroup, or even just individual contacts. With the Twilio extension, you can simplify the process of sending bulk messages using the Pipedrive filters to add contacts within the filter. All messages you send and receive will be recorded in Pipedrive.

Pinnacle SMS & WhatsApp for Pipedrive is a free extension that allows you to send and bulk messages to contacts and deals, create and edit templates, and view conversation history from within Pipedrive. With interactive features like Panels and Pop-up windows, you can instantly see and interact with Pinnacle SMS & WhatsApp for Pipedrive and tackle complex tasks without leaving the platform. There are no reviews for this extension at the moment, and we haven’t tested it ourselves. We therefore cannot guarantee the effectiveness of the tool.

Helpwise has a WhatsApp integration for Pipedrive that provides you with direct access to your CRM without switching tools. With Helpwise integration for WhatsApp you can:

• See your Pipedrive information directly in your shared Helpwise inbox
• Create or update contacts in Pipedrive directly from Helpwise
• Create or update deals associated with contacts in Pipedrive directly from Helpwise
• Create or update activities related to contacts in Pipedrive directly from Helpwise

Salesforce #

By far the biggest CRM today, Salesforce was founded in 1999 to serve small businesses helping them bring CRM databases to the cloud. Over the years, however, its focus has primarily shifted to larger companies, adapting their software for the largest enterprises in the world.

Salesforce’s huge platform consists of a set of building blocks that enable you to build your CRM system, with the possibility to customize technically everything.

Salesforce is so big it actually requires a consulting company to map your business needs and workflow, build a custom system at Salesforce, connect with other software, and train your staff.

This doesn’t mean they disregard entirely small businesses and startups, as they target them with a plan called “Essentials,” which is technically a limited version of the full platform.

Salesforce Essentials costs $25 per month, while the Unlimited edition is $300 per user per month. They offer two more plans - Professional and Enterprise editions, which cost $75 and $150 per user per month.

The Salesforce arsenal of some of the most advanced features includes:

• Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity Management 
• Email Integration with Gmail or Outlook 
• Workflow and Approval Automation 
• Pipeline and Forecast Management 
• Sales Engagement and Insights 
• Sales Insights 
• Premier Success Plan 

This is only a handful of selected tools. If you want to explore all available features of Salesforce, they have a well-structured landing page displaying all plans, possibilities, and prices.

Once you subscribe to Salesforce, you can extend your capabilities with the add-ons they offer:

• CPQ & Billing for building recurring customer relationships.
• Sales Cloud Einstein for increasing sales productivity and effectiveness with turnkey intelligence and automation.
• Pardot for faster growth with marketing automation.

Recently, Salesforce started a strategic partnership with WhatsApp that will allow Salesforce customers to connect with their customers. The new integration will enable brands to easily customize their experience to connect with their customers to answer questions, provide support, and promote and sell products. This will inevitably increase engagement, loyalty, convenience, interaction, and satisfaction for both the brand and the customer.

As a part of the pilot for the Salesforce Customer 360 integration with WhatsApp, L’Oréal group brands will use the platform to reconnect with consumers who had previously left items in a shopping cart and send them coupons and offers right on the chat thread.

Charket WhatsApp claims to be one of the most secure solutions to connect WhatsApp business accounts to Salesforce Customer 360. Charket WhatsApp leverages Meta’s new cloud-based APIs to make sure all data from your WhatsApp customers is only processed and stored within your own Salesforce org. 

With Tuvis (formerly Whatslly), agents can review contacts’ data, instantly create new leads and record chats with people as activities or cases in Salesforce, directly from the WhatsApp web app. The Tuvis Chrome Extension enables Sales, Customer Service, and Support teams to communicate directly with customers on WhatsApp.

Zoho #

This is the oldest company in this comparison. Founded in 1996, Zoho Corporation is an Indian software development company. After developing a series of different applications, Zoho CRM was launched in 2005, and today it positions itself as the cheaper alternative to Salesforce.

Similar to Salesforce, Zoho assists you with system integration partners and trainers, providing the necessary consultancy to help you make the most of the software. 

Zoho CRM offers four different plans, with the cheapest starting from $14 per user per month, while the ultimate plan with the most advanced features will cost you about $52 monthly.

All plans include CRM features and tools with increasing levels of functionality depending on the price:

• Sales force automation
• Automation and process management
• Product customization
• Reports and analytics
• Marketing automation
• Security

Whatsapp for Zoho CRM is a solution that integrates all the mobile phone numbers of the sales team using WhatsApp directly into Zoho CRM, improving the traceability of conversations, sales follow-ups, and customer service. Key features include: 

• Add leads and contacts to Zoho CRM from WhatsApp Web
• Save your conversations from WhatsApp Web and view them in Zoho CRM
• Switch between the different Zoho CRM layouts, offering the possibility of creating leads with different custom fields from WhatsApp.
• Search and find contacts and leads stored in Zoho CRM and start a conversation with them easily, without the hassle of saving them to WhatsApp beforehand.

Whatsapp Hub for Zoho CRM allows you to record the history of all messages sent and received by your team in contact with your customers on WhatsApp. Beyond recording all messages sent and received, even on the mobile version in Zoho CRM, this integration allows you to register new leads upon receiving the first message from a new customer and send automated messages.

WhatsApp Business Extension for Zoho CRM is a WhatsApp API integration for Zoho CRM by WATI that allows you to send WhatsApp messages from Zoho CRM. It comes with features such as:

• Send WhatsApp messages from the Leads and Contacts modules using the “Send WhatsApp” feature.
• Chat with your customers on WhatsApp directly from within Zoho CRM
• Add custom variable values to personalize messages easily.
• Configure your Zoho CRM workflows to send automated WhatsApp messages when their criteria are met.

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Conclusion #

Trying to find and choose the right WhatsApp CRM for your business can be a difficult task. Luckily, some of the most popular platforms offer trial versions you can try and base your decision on experience. 

Before making your final decision, though, ask yourself, do you need to acquire the most advantaged package, or do you need a WhatsApp CRM with the right tools and features for your needs?

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If you’d like to learn more about how you can make the best out of WhatsApp for your business, please feel free to reach out to us on our WhatsApp number, at +13024070488.

We also offer a free session with one of our WhatsApp experts where we go through your use case, answer any questions you have about WhatsApp, and help you build a strategy to make the best out of the platform. Book a call with us here. We’d love to speak you:
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