Duration: 21:21
📱 Meeting Customers on Their Preferred Channel
Charlene, a business analyst at Odoo, addresses a universal business pain point: forgotten follow-ups that cost companies opportunities. The presentation opens with a relatable scenario—seeing a customer message, intending to respond, but forgetting amid daily chaos. The statistics are sobering: 65% of businesses lose customers due to forgotten follow-ups. This isn't about motivation or organization—it's about being where conversations naturally happen.
WhatsApp emerges as that place, with performance metrics that dwarf traditional channels: 99% open rates, 50% response rates, and 45% click-through rates—dramatically outperforming email. By integrating WhatsApp directly into Odoo's business applications, companies can meet customers on the platform they already use daily, ensuring no conversation falls through the cracks.
Using a photography business scenario, the presentation demonstrates how WhatsApp integration transforms operations from scattered communications across emails, calls, and forms into a centralized, automated system where every lead is remembered, every quote is tracked, and follow-ups happen automatically.
🌐 Capturing Leads Through Website Forms
The customer journey begins on the photography business's Odoo website, featuring a portfolio and a prominent "Ask for a quote" button. Clicking this button directs visitors to a customizable contact form configured to create CRM opportunities automatically.
Form configuration happens through Odoo's website editor. Clicking any form field reveals an action selector determining what happens with submissions. Options include creating opportunities, creating customers, subscribing to newsletters, creating tasks, or sending emails. For the photography business, the form creates opportunities, channeling every inquiry directly into the sales pipeline.
A sample submission demonstrates the flow: a visitor named Manon enters her phone number, email, company, and inquiry ("I want a shooting with my boyfriend. Can I get a quote?"). Upon submission, the system instantly creates a CRM opportunity with all captured information, including the inquiry text in the notes field.
This seamless website-to-CRM connection ensures no lead disappears. Unlike separate form tools requiring export-import workflows or manual data entry, Odoo's integrated approach means every website inquiry immediately becomes actionable in the sales system.
💬 Instant Acknowledgment via WhatsApp Templates
With a new opportunity in the CRM, the immediate priority is acknowledging the inquiry before the customer seeks competitors. This is where WhatsApp templates provide instant, professional responses.
Clicking the WhatsApp button within the opportunity record reveals available message templates. Selecting the "Lead Thank You" template displays pre-written, approved messaging: "We got your message! Let's dive in. Hello [Name], thank you for reaching out about our studio service. We'll come back to you as soon as possible. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter on our website. Have a nice day."
The template includes dynamic variables that automatically insert the customer's name and other relevant details. Sending this message requires a single click—no copying contact information, no switching applications, no risk of typos or delays.
Within seconds, Manon receives the WhatsApp message on her phone. The business has acknowledged her inquiry instantly, professionally, and through her preferred communication channel. This immediate response dramatically improves customer experience and demonstrates responsiveness that builds trust before any substantive interaction occurs.
📋 Sending Quotations via WhatsApp
Moving from acknowledgment to business action, the next step involves creating and sending a quotation. From the opportunity record, clicking "New Quotation" launches the sales order creation flow. The system confirms the customer (creating a new contact record if needed) and prompts for product selection.
Adding the "Couple Shooting Two Hours" product automatically populates pricing based on product configuration. With the quotation complete, instead of the traditional email-based sending, the WhatsApp button on the sales order enables direct mobile delivery.
The WhatsApp quotation template personalizes messaging with the customer's name and company, includes quotation details, and most importantly, provides a direct link to confirm the sale order. This one-click confirmation capability transforms the buying process—customers can review and approve quotes directly from their phones without logging into portals, opening emails, or navigating complex interfaces.
Manon receives the WhatsApp message, reviews the quotation on her mobile device, and clicks the confirmation link. Immediately, the sales order status updates in Odoo to "Signed", and Manon can respond with a simple "Thanks" directly in the WhatsApp conversation. The entire quotation-to-confirmation cycle happens in minutes, entirely through mobile messaging, with all interactions logged in Odoo's centralized system.
🧾 Point of Sale Invoicing Through WhatsApp
The integration extends beyond online sales into Point of Sale (POS) operations. The photography business mentioned in the original WhatsApp message that customers receive 10% off in-store purchases, creating an incentive for physical location visits.
At the POS, the sales process follows standard Odoo patterns: select products (in this case, a lens), apply the 10% discount, identify the customer (Manon), and process payment. The innovation appears at invoice delivery.
Traditionally, POS systems print paper receipts that customers often lose, creating problems for returns, warranties, or expense reporting. Email receipts require collecting email addresses at checkout, slowing transactions. WhatsApp receipt delivery solves both problems—it's paperless, instant, and uses contact information already in the system.
After payment validation, clicking "Send by WhatsApp" delivers the invoice directly to Manon's phone. She now has a permanent, searchable digital record of the transaction, accessible whenever needed, without carrying paper or searching email folders. The business saves on receipt paper while providing superior customer service through convenient digital delivery.
🎉 Event Promotion and Communication
The photography business is opening a new studio and wants to promote a discovery event. The Events application in Odoo includes a Communication tab specifically for event-related messaging, supporting both email and WhatsApp channels.
Within this tab, administrators can configure automated event communications including registration confirmations and reminders. For example, the system can send event tickets via WhatsApp one hour after registration and reminder messages one day before the event starts. These automated communications ensure attendees receive necessary information through their preferred channel without manual follow-up effort.
Beyond event logistics, WhatsApp enables targeted event promotion to specific audience segments. The photography business has lost leads in the CRM—people who initially inquired about studio services but never converted. These contacts carry the tag "studio," enabling precise targeting.
Using Odoo's AI assistant, a query like "show me all the lost opportunities with the tag studio" instantly filters the CRM to this segment. Selecting all these opportunities and clicking "Send WhatsApp message" enables bulk messaging to the entire group simultaneously.
The promotion template announces: "Good news! Our new photo studio is ready for you. Grab 50% off all lenses when you visit and register here." Including the registration link allows recipients to immediately sign up for the event. This reactivation campaign reaches dormant leads with highly relevant, timely offers through a channel that ensures visibility.
🤖 Marketing Automation Workflows
While one-click WhatsApp sending improves efficiency, true transformation comes through automated workflows that eliminate manual intervention entirely. Odoo's Marketing Automation application enables creating sophisticated campaigns that trigger WhatsApp messages based on customer behavior and business events.
For the welcome message workflow, the target is all CRM leads in the "New" stage. The activity type is "WhatsApp message" using the "Lead Thank You" template with a trigger time of zero hours, meaning immediate sending. Once configured, every new lead automatically receives the welcome message without any user action—no clicking buttons, no remembering to follow up, just automatic professional acknowledgment of every inquiry.
The sale order confirmation workflow targets confirmed sales (not quotations) by filtering the Sales Order model for status "Sale Order". The activity sends the sale order details via WhatsApp with zero-hour triggering. Every time a customer confirms a purchase, they automatically receive confirmation on WhatsApp.
More sophisticated workflows enable upselling and cross-selling. The "Get a New Lens Bag" campaign targets customers who purchased lenses. The workflow filters sales orders for status "Sale Order" where order lines include products in the "Lens" category. When conditions match, the system automatically sends a WhatsApp message promoting lens bags as complementary products.
This last example demonstrates Odoo's integrated data model advantage. Marketing automation can analyze not just customer demographics or simple purchase flags, but dive into order line details, examining specific products purchased and triggering relevant follow-up campaigns. The system can wait specified periods (like six months) before triggering messages, creating sophisticated time-based nurture sequences.
⚙️ WhatsApp Template Configuration
The effectiveness of WhatsApp integration depends on template configuration, which happens through the WhatsApp application in Odoo. Templates follow specific structures required by Meta (WhatsApp's parent company) and must be pre-approved before use.
Odoo provides default templates for common scenarios, already approved and ready to use. These templates support core functions like welcome messages, quotation sending, and order confirmations. However, businesses wanting custom messaging must configure their own WhatsApp Business Account and create custom templates.
By default, Odoo installations use a demo account that only accesses pre-configured templates. Connecting a personal WhatsApp Business Account enables template creation and modification, though all templates require Meta approval before activation—a compliance requirement imposed by WhatsApp.
Template structure incorporates dynamic variables indicated by numbers in the template text. For example, "Hello {1}" becomes "Hello Manon" when sent. The configuration tab maps these numbered variables to Odoo fields, enabling dynamic personalization.
For the "Lead Thank You" template, variable {1} maps to the "Contact Name" field from the CRM opportunity. The target model (Lead/Opportunity) determines which fields are available for mapping. For sale order templates, the target model changes to "Sale Order," exposing fields like partner name, company ID, currency, and total amount.
The quotation template demonstrates complex variable usage: "Hello {1}, please find your quotation for {2} with a total of {3} {4}." The configuration maps {1} to customer name, {2} to company name, {3} to currency, and {4} to total amount. When sent, these become: "Hello Manon, please find your quotation for Manon Photography with a total of € 400."
This flexible variable system enables creating highly personalized message templates while maintaining Meta-required template structures. Once configured and approved, templates deploy across manual sending, automated workflows, and bulk operations.
📊 Tracking and Analytics
Message tracking in Odoo's WhatsApp integration provides visibility into communication effectiveness, though with different capabilities than email tracking. While message opening rates aren't directly tracked (a WhatsApp platform limitation), Odoo captures interaction indicators.
When customers click links within WhatsApp messages—such as quotation confirmation links—Odoo registers these actions. For example, when Manon confirmed her sale order via WhatsApp, the system automatically updated the order status and logged the interaction in the chatter (activity feed), creating an audit trail of customer engagement.
Marketing Automation provides more sophisticated tracking by enabling conditional workflows based on message interaction. Campaigns can include child activities that trigger if a customer opens a message or clicks a link, versus alternative paths if they don't engage. This allows creating multi-channel sequences: if someone doesn't respond to WhatsApp, automatically send an email follow-up or create a task for manual outreach.
From a business intelligence perspective, WhatsApp-driven conversions are fully visible in standard Odoo reporting. Sales orders created through WhatsApp links maintain source attribution, allowing analysis of channel effectiveness. Event registrations from WhatsApp promotions track back to campaigns, demonstrating marketing ROI.
The dynamic targeting in Marketing Automation also provides analytical value. Campaign dashboards show record counts matching filter criteria, updated in real-time. If a sale order campaign shows six matching records today and seven tomorrow, the additional record automatically enters the workflow. This eliminates batch-and-blast approaches in favor of continuous, triggered engagement based on up-to-date business data.
💰 Costs and Technical Requirements
WhatsApp integration has been available in Odoo since version 18, with continued enhancements in version 19. The feature doesn't incur additional Odoo licensing costs—it's included in standard subscriptions.
However, Meta charges apply based on message volume. Businesses need WhatsApp Business Accounts, which include free message quotas for standard accounts (approximately 250 messages per day). Beyond free tiers, Meta charges per message based on country and message type (service messages versus marketing messages). Exact pricing is available through Meta's WhatsApp Business API documentation.
Multiple WhatsApp numbers can be configured in a single Odoo database, but each requires a separate WhatsApp Business Account. This enables scenarios like department-specific numbers or regional operations with localized contact points.
Obviously, WhatsApp only works for customers who have WhatsApp accounts. For customers without WhatsApp, traditional communication channels (email, SMS, phone) remain necessary. Odoo's multi-channel approach allows defining fallback communication methods, ensuring no customer segment is ignored due to channel limitations.
🔮 Current Limitations and Future Development
The Q&A session reveals current limitations and areas for future development. Group messaging functionality—such as creating group chats with event attendees—isn't currently supported, though it's a frequently requested feature being evaluated by product teams.
Message scheduling works through Marketing Automation workflows, which can trigger messages at specific times or intervals after triggering events. However, individual manual messages sent through CRM or Sales don't have built-in scheduling interfaces—those must be sent immediately or automated through workflows.
The version 19.1 roadmap doesn't include major WhatsApp-specific changes, as efforts focus on other application areas. However, user feedback continuously informs development priorities, and high-demand features often accelerate in roadmap planning.
Documentation and configuration guides are available through Odoo's online resources, including video tutorials for setting up WhatsApp Business Accounts and creating templates. For businesses new to WhatsApp Business API, these resources provide step-by-step guidance through the Meta approval process and technical integration requirements.
🧠 Viewpoint: Odoo Perspective
⚠️ Disclaimer: AI-generated creative perspective inspired by Odoo's vision.
The shift to conversational commerce isn't a trend—it's customers telling us how they want to interact with businesses. People live in messaging apps. They check WhatsApp dozens of times daily but might open email once. Ignoring this reality means accepting that your carefully crafted communications go unread while competitors meet customers where they actually are. What makes WhatsApp integration powerful within Odoo isn't just the messaging capability—thousands of tools send WhatsApp messages. It's the complete context. When a customer replies to a quotation via WhatsApp, that conversation appears alongside their purchase history, previous support tickets, and upcoming deliveries. Sales, marketing, and service teams see the same unified thread, eliminating the "let me check another system" delays that frustrate customers. This is why we build integrated systems rather than collections of point solutions. Real businesses don't operate in channels—they operate across channels simultaneously, and software should reflect that reality rather than creating artificial barriers between customer touchpoints.
🏢 Viewpoint: Competitors (Salesforce / HubSpot / Twilio)
⚠️ Disclaimer: AI-generated fictional commentary. Not an official corporate statement.
WhatsApp integration represents an important channel expansion for customer engagement platforms, and Odoo's implementation demonstrates solid understanding of use cases. However, enterprise messaging strategies typically require capabilities beyond what's shown here. Large organizations need comprehensive messaging infrastructure covering not just WhatsApp but also SMS, Apple Business Chat, Google Business Messages, and emerging channels, with unified APIs abstracting channel-specific details. Odoo's approach appears tightly coupled to WhatsApp specifically, which creates challenges when businesses want messaging strategies that gracefully degrade across channels or route conversations based on customer preferences and channel availability. Template management at scale is another consideration—enterprises managing hundreds of templates across multiple brands and languages need sophisticated approval workflows, version control, and A/B testing capabilities that basic template configuration may not satisfy. Conversation analytics and sentiment analysis provide critical insights for customer experience optimization, requiring NLP capabilities and integration with broader analytics platforms. Compliance and archiving requirements in regulated industries demand message retention policies, audit trails, and legal hold capabilities beyond standard CRM logging. For businesses whose customer engagement strategies center on messaging as a primary channel rather than an ancillary touchpoint, specialized communications platforms offer infrastructure depth, carrier relationships, and deliverability optimization that integrated ERP messaging may not match. That said, for SMBs wanting functional WhatsApp capabilities tightly integrated with business processes, Odoo's approach eliminates significant integration complexity at a fraction of specialized platform costs.
Disclaimer: This article contains AI-generated summaries and fictionalized commentaries for illustrative purposes. Viewpoints labeled as "Odoo Perspective" or "Competitors" are simulated and do not represent any real statements or positions. All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.