How to integrate a Messenger bot with any CRMs, Google Sheets, or Slack

You can use different customer systems to manage the leads you get from your Facebook ads and Messenger bot

In our previous guides, we’ve described how to set up a Facebook Messenger bot and connect it to Facebook Ads campaign and how to create a Comment-to-Messenger bot to generate leads. Now let’s talk about how to manage the potential customers you reach out through these campaigns.

To manage leads which you get from Facebook lead generation campaigns (by messenger as destination ads or comment to Messenger feature), WhatsHelp offers multiple solutions. If your company is already using some CRM or manage leads with Google Sheets or email, WhatsHelp can automatically send those customers’ details directly in that system. For most of these integrations, we suggest using Zapier.

A quick introduction of Zapier

Zapier is a tool which connects commonly used apps to automate tasks and save time. In Zapier, the integrations are set up via ‘Zaps’ which perform the automation task for you. These automation are achieved by adding a Trigger with Actions available on your favorite apps. We will learn more about it in this guide.

1. How to get leads into Email

1.1. Build-in Email email notifications

WhatsHelp provides an in-built option to export leads data can be exported in an email. In case a new user subscribes the bot, the user information is sent to the registered email address. You can add the email address while setting up or editing a bot.

When lead communicates with the bot, the user attributes are mailed to the given email address. This is the same data stored in the user profile section of WhatsHelp dashboard.

1.2. Customized email notification via Zapier

You can also create a custom email notification using Zapier.

Before we learn different kinds of integrations, let’s learn some basic information about using Zapier. Then, you may re-use the steps for every integration.

A process which connects the apps is called a “Zap”. Each Zap run is known as a “Task”. Each time a user communicates with our bot, Zapier runs the Zap and sends the data to the required destination.

A successful Zap creation is the most important step to integrate any app for exporting lead data.

As mentioned above, Zap is a combination of Trigger and Action. A Trigger is any event that sets your Zap in motion. An action is something your Zap does after a trigger occurs. You may learn more about it here.

Step 1: Create a Trigger

Steps to create a trigger using a webhook are common for any type of Action or integration with WhatsHelp.

• Log in Zapier.
• Click on ‘Make a Zap!’ button.

• Select Webhook as a trigger app.

• Select Catch Webhook and skip a step “Pick off a Child Key”. Zapier will give you a unique URL for the Webhook. This webhook will be responsible for fetching data from WhatHelp to the destination app via Zapier.

• Go to WhatsHelp dashboard and add this unique webhook URL in the bot configuration. If you are using an already created bot, edit the bot settings, save and close. If you are creating a new bot, add the webhook and finish the creation process.

• Test the Webhook by having a conversation with the bot on Facebook. If the webhook is able to get the data successfully, it means the trigger can be used for the Action.

Note: These steps for creating a trigger always remain the same for all kinds of WhatsHelp integrations with other apps via Zapier.

Step 2: Choose an Action app

In this step, we select the destination app where you want to get the leads data. In the given case, we are trying to get information in a customized email notification.

• Select Email as the action app.

• Set up the format of the expected email by adding details in all required fields.

• Map the variables we sent from WhatsHelp in the mail content and set up the mail body as per the requirement.

• Test it. After customizing the mail, it is recommended testing it once. If test is successful, you are good to go.

• Check the email account of the address you mentioned in TO field in Zapier. You should receive a test email with configured customized format. The data collected by the created webhook trigger is sent to the given email address after the customization.

Name the Zap for future reference and switch it on.

2. How to get leads in Google Sheets

Here we will create a Zap that connects WhatsHelp to Google sheets. Each time a user talks to our bot, Zapier will run the Zap and send the data to a Spreadsheet in Google Sheets.

The Trigger creation steps are the same as explained above. Test the webhook and then you may continue to create ‘Google Sheets’ action.

• Before you start the action, create a google spreadsheet. Name the columns as per the requirement. In this example, a user needs a list of leads’ name, email address, and Facebook profile URL. Later with Zapier action, we will map the user attributes stored in WhatsHelp to respective columns in the Spreadsheet.

• The action app of our Zap will be “Google Sheets”.

• Select ‘Create a spreadsheet Row’. In this case, data will populate in the already created spreadsheet.

• Connect the google account where you have created the spreadsheet.
• Select the name of created spreadsheet and worksheet.
• Now in Google Sheets Action, you can map the user attributes in WhatsHelp to respective columns in the Google Sheet.

• When mapping is done, we recommend testing the zap before making it active to avoid any rework.

The already tested webhook passes the lead data to Zapier for triggering the action. After this process, the Google Sheet should have one new row with the same lead details from WhatsHelp.

3. How to Send Customer’s data in Slack

Whenever WhatsHelp communicates with a new Facebook lead, you can easily keep up with the latest people that showed interest in your new efforts by sending a notification on the Slackbot.

Zapier automation and its integration with WhatsHelp will help you to get notified as soon as new lead data is generated.

Here are the quick simple steps to configure the set up:

• Set up a trigger and test the webhook by following the steps we mentioned above.
• Select Slack as the action app.

• You may choose the action depending on how you want to get the notification: as a reminder or direct message or a notification in a slack channel. Connect the Zap to your slack account. You can create a new one here itself if don’t have any.

• Now you can set up the template of the notification as required.

• After you are done customizing the notification, test the action.

You will get the notification in the integrated slackbot with the tested lead details.

We hope this quick guide helped you to manage leads with different CRMs. If you did, we would appreciate you sharing it. In case you come across any issue while setting up the bot or managing leads, please write us at hello@whatshelp.com