Integrating WhatsApp Business API with a Custom Laravel CRM

Many Indian businesses receive most enquiries on WhatsApp. Connecting the WhatsApp Business Platform to your CRM means no lead is lost in a salesperson's phone.

How the pieces fit

1. Meta sends each incoming message to a webhook URL in your Laravel app.
2. The webhook verifies the signature, stores the raw event and returns quickly.
3. A queued job creates or updates the lead and assigns it to a salesperson.
4. Replies are sent through the Cloud API using approved message templates.

Keep the webhook fast

Meta retries webhooks that respond slowly. Do the minimum in the request — verify, store, dispatch a job — and do the real work on the queue.

Route::post('/webhooks/whatsapp', function (Request $request) {
    abort_unless(WhatsApp::validSignature($request), 403);
    ProcessWhatsAppEvent::dispatch($request->all());
    return response()->noContent();
});

Templates and the 24-hour window

You can reply freely within 24 hours of the customer's last message. Outside that window you must use a pre-approved template — plan templates for follow-ups, quotes and payment reminders early.

What the sales team sees

Each lead shows the full conversation, the source, the assigned person and the next action. Managers see response times and conversions in one dashboard.