Introducing WhatsApp integration in Bigin

Greetings!

In today's business landscape, messaging apps play a significant role in customer operations. Customers can engage with businesses, seek support, ask questions, receive personalized recommendations, read reviews, and even make purchases—all within messaging apps. Many micro/small businesses conduct their entire operations through platforms like WhatsApp or Facebook, including marketing, sales, and support.

As Bigin continues to evolve as a customer operations solution, it's crucial to adopt seamless integrations with messaging apps. To address this, Bigin has a module called Messages which enables businesses to integrate their messaging channels into Bigin, facilitating easier and more effective customer interactions.

Prerequisites

To integrate WhatsApp with Bigin, you need the following:

A Facebook Business Manager account
A verified business
A WhatsApp Business account
A registered phone number to access the WhatsApp Business API

Note: Zoho cannot verify Facebook and WhatsApp accounts, so you must do it manually.

Integrating WhatsApp into Bigin

Go to Setup > Channels > Messages and click Connect Now to initiate the integration.

Provide the necessary details for Facebook authentication.
Once you save these details, you'll be redirected to the WhatsApp Business page and a new module will be added to your Bigin account—namely, Messages.

Permissions

Bigin provides two types of user permissions:

View and reply to messages: Users can both view messages and reply to them.
View: Users can only view received messages

Messaging window features

After integrating with WhatsApp, you'll have access to the Messages module. All the messages the business receives can be viewed here. There are two types of chat views available: All chats and My chats. Apart from that, you can perform certain actions, such as the following:

Assign owners
Create records
Check related views in Contacts, Companies, and Pipelines modules
Apply filters
Track message status
Check new message counter
Perform quick actions
Create pipelines and add notes
Send quick replies

Credits

The costs of WhatsApp messages vary by region. Customers will be charged for outgoing messages using Zoho IM credits. One credit is equivalent to $2 USD, and with 40 credits ($80 USD), you can send 10,000 outgoing messages. Please check this link for pricing details.

You can also opt of auto-recharge, whereby credits are automatically recharged when the current number of credits reaches a certain minimum threshold.

That's all for this enhancement! To learn more about Bigin's WhatsApp Integration, access the help link.

Release plan

In the future, we will encompass WhatsApp templates, messages initiated by businesses, and the automation of WhatsApp messaging using workflows.

Zoho Desk Resources

Desk Community Learning Series
Digest
Functions
Meetups
Kbase
Resources
Glossary
Desk Marketplace
MVP Corner
Word of the Day

Sticky Posts
Introducing Bigin 360: Our new pricing edition with increased feature limits and pre-installed toppings
Dear Biginners Club, Today, we're pleased to launch a brand-new pricing edition called Bigin 360, our highest pricing edition that will sit on top of Express and Premier editions. It's been over four years since our launch, and we're receiving some great
Announcing #BiginnersClub meetups in US, Middle East, India & UK (Free Event)
Exciting news, Bigin enthusiasts! #BiginnersClub meetups are back, and we're hitting some major cities this time, starting from October. Here's what you can expect: Meet our experts face-to-face Deep dive into Bigin and its advanced features Personalised
[New] Create invoices and contracts in minutes with Zoho Writer's Merge Templates for Bigin!
Do you often find yourself manually entering customer information in your business documents like invoices and contracts? This can be a time-consuming process that can take up valuable time from your business operations. With Zoho Writer's Merge Templates
Introducing Forms: Streamline data collection with Bigin's new form builder.
Hello everyone, Bigin's web forms just got a makeover! We are excited to introduce Forms: an online form builder designed to meet all your data collection need. This revamp was inspired by your feedback, resulting in an upgraded and versatile version
Announcing #BiginnersClub meetups in India, Middle East & Africa, and UK
Yes, you heard it right! #BiginnersClub meetups are back. Whether you're a long-time customer looking to learn more about Bigin, or a new customer trying to explore Bigin, our in-person meetup is definitely the right place to get a deeper understanding