How to stop losing customer messages on WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram
Customers don't call any more. They write on WhatsApp, Viber or Telegram — usually to an employee's personal phone. A message from Friday evening gets read on Monday, an unanswered one goes unnoticed, and when the employee leaves the company, the conversations with their customers leave too.
Where messages get lost
- On personal phones. The manager can't see what was said, a colleague can't take over the customer, and the history doesn't belong to the company.
- Between colleagues. Three people share the same account, each one reads the message and each one thinks someone else will reply.
- Outside business hours. A customer who writes in the evening expects a reply within minutes, not at lunchtime the next day.
- After the chat. The customer asked for a price on Viber, but they appear nowhere in the company's records: not a lead, no owner, and nobody follows up.
The ground rule: company accounts, not people's
The first step is not software but a decision. Customers write to a company number or account, not to John's phone. Put only the company's contacts on your website, business cards and Google Maps.
Then pick the channels your customers actually use. Depending on the country, these are usually WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram or Viber. You don't need all of them: start with one or two.
Every channel in one list
In Intrawebix CRM you connect them in Settings → Channels → Messaging channels. All messages then arrive on the Conversations page, whatever the channel:
- Telegram — the simplest: create a bot with @BotFather and paste its token into the CRM. Five minutes.
- Viber — a bot created at partners.viber.com, also with its token pasted into the CRM.
- WhatsApp — through Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform, not the phone app. Setup needs a Meta Business account and takes longer, but it is the only way for several colleagues to reply from the same number.
- Messenger — connect your Facebook page in one click.
- Website chat — a chat window on your company website, plus a separate link for Google Maps or a QR code.
Who replies
For each channel you choose an Owner: new conversations go to them, along with the notification. If several people handle messages, Lead assignment hands out new conversations between them in turn.
In Conversations, everyone sees their own list:
- Mine — their conversations.
- Unassigned — conversations nobody has taken. By the end of the day this list should be empty.
- Close — when the conversation is over. A new message from the customer reopens it on its own.
If a colleague goes on holiday, change the conversation's owner and whoever takes over sees everything said so far.
Every new customer becomes a lead
With Automatically create a lead for every new customer turned on, the first message from someone unknown creates a lead linked to the conversation. The customer gets an owner, shows up in reports and isn't just a chat thread.
Customers who are already in the CRM are recognised by phone or email on channels where the platform verifies them, such as WhatsApp. On the customer's record, the Conversations tab shows everything they wrote, on any channel.
Evenings and weekends
A Chatbot (in Settings → Channels → Chatbot) replies when nobody is around:
- it sends a greeting, and an away message outside business hours;
- it asks for a phone number, which is saved on the lead automatically;
- it answers simple questions by keyword ("price", "opening hours", "delivery");
- with AI turned on, it answers from the company information you write yourself (hours, addresses, delivery, prices) and hands the conversation to a person when it doesn't know.
The bot goes quiet in any conversation where a colleague has replied.
Watch out for
- WhatsApp's 24-hour rule. Once 24 hours have passed since the customer's last message, WhatsApp only allows message templates approved by Meta. Prepare a few templates ("Following up with your quote", "Your order is ready") from the channel's menu.
- Speed beats wording. A "Hello, I'll get back to you in 10 minutes" sent right away keeps a customer better than a perfect reply three hours later.
- Don't reply from a personal phone. Whatever a colleague sends from their own number never reaches the CRM, and the company can't see what the customer was promised.
Messaging channels are included in every plan, including the free one, and the chatbot from the Start plan (see pricing); try them all in the free 30-day trial.