How to Send FluentCRM Contact Notifications to WhatsApp
Every contact in your FluentCRM is someone who raised their hand — a form fill, a checkout, a "send me details" click. But if your team finds out about a new lead only when somebody opens the CRM, you're replying hours later, usually by email, which gets buried. WhatsApp messages get opened at roughly a 98% rate versus about 20% for email, and a reply typically comes back in under 90 seconds. TechPad – WhatsApp for FluentCRM, a free WordPress plugin from The Tech Pad, sends a WhatsApp message the moment a contact is created or added to a tag — on the official WhatsApp Business API, from your own verified number. The plugin is free, the first 30 days on The Tech Pad are free, and there's no monthly plugin fee: you only pay Meta's per-message rate (about ₹0.10–0.30 per utility message in India), and free-form replies inside the 24-hour customer-service window cost nothing.
Why send FluentCRM contacts to WhatsApp
A lead is hottest the moment it lands. An agency running ads for a client, an online academy that scores leads in FluentCRM, a store that tags abandoned-checkout contacts — they all have the same gap: the CRM records the event, but nobody acts until it's stale. A WhatsApp alert closes that gap in one message.
The plugin watches two FluentCRM events:
- A contact is created — new name in the CRM, alert sent.
- A contact is added to a tag — a segment change like "Hot lead" or "VIP", alert sent.
Both are deduplicated, so a re-import, a retried webhook or a double-save can't send the same contact twice. And because The Tech Pad sends through the official WhatsApp Business API, replies come back into your shared team inbox — one place for every lead conversation.
What you need before you start
- WordPress 6.0+ with PHP 7.4+
- FluentCRM active on the site (verified against FluentCRM 3.1.13)
- A The Tech Pad account (first 30 days free) with at least one approved notification template
- Your API key and phone number ID from The Tech Pad (Developers → API)
- Contacts' consent to receive messages, where WhatsApp policy requires it
You do not need a Meta developer account or a separate Business API setup. The Tech Pad provisions the WABA on your own verified number; you paste one API key into WordPress and the plugin handles the rest. The same key and phone number ID work across all 25 Tech Pad WordPress plugins — FluentCRM, LearnPress, SureCart, GiveWP and the rest — all landing in one shared team inbox with one template library and one delivery log.
How to send FluentCRM contact notifications to WhatsApp
1. Download the plugin. Grab the TechPad – WhatsApp for FluentCRM zip from the plugin's setup guide page at https://thetechpad.com/plugins/fluentcrm/.
2. Install and activate it in WordPress. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the zip, and activate.
3. Copy your credentials from The Tech Pad. In your dashboard, open Developers → API and copy your API key and phone number ID.
4. Paste them into the plugin settings. In WordPress, open Settings → Tech Pad WhatsApp and enter the API key and phone number ID.
5. Pick an approved template and language. Choose the notification template you'll send on contact events and its language. Templates are approved in minutes to a few hours, and notifications like this go in the UTILITY category.
6. Map the contact fields to the template placeholders. Match contact name, contact email, contact phone, status, contact type (lead/customer), source, country, city and tags to the {{1}}, {{2}}… placeholders in your template. Body parameters are plain strings, so keep them in order.
7. Enable the tags you want notified. Turn on the per-tag toggles for the segments that matter — "Hot lead", "VIP", "Needs a call" — or switch on the "Any contact (new or tagged)" row so every contact and tag change is covered automatically.
8. Set the recipient WhatsApp number. Messages go to your team's WhatsApp number by default. Set a different recipient per tag if different teams own different segments.
9. Send a test. Use the plugin's test button to send yourself a sample contact alert.
10. Verify the delivery log. The delivery log records every send with its status. If credentials are missing, an enabled rule logs a skipped row explaining why — handy for testing the wiring before your credentials exist. You should see a delivered message with a real WhatsApp message ID.
Message templates that work
| Trigger | Example message |
|---|---|
| New contact created | "New contact: Ananya Rao ([email protected]). Source: Course page. Follow up while the lead is hot." |
| Contact added to "Hot lead" tag | "Ananya Rao just moved to Hot lead. Contact: [email protected]. Reply within the hour." |
| Follow-up inside the 24-hour window | Free-form reply: "Hi Ananya, saw you signed up for the free course — want the study plan I mentioned?" |
Copy-paste templates — placeholders are positional, so {{1}} is the first field you map and {{2}} the second:
New contact: {{1}} — {{2}}. Source: {{3}}. Follow up while the lead is hot.
{{1}} just moved to "{{2}}". Contact: {{3}}. Reply within the hour.
Best practices
- Start with the any-contact row, then narrow. Turn on "Any contact (new or tagged)" first and test with a real signup. Once you trust it, add per-tag alerts for the segments that actually need instant attention and switch the catch-all off.
- Use tags as routing, not just filtering. Give each team its own tag and its own recipient number — sales hears about "Hot lead", support about "Refund request", and nobody gets woken up for the wrong reason.
- Keep templates short. Utility templates are for facts, not persuasion: name, email, source, tag. Save the marketing for free-form replies inside the 24-hour window, where they cost nothing.
- Beware bulk imports. A CSV import notifies per contact — that's the point of a contact alert, but the plugin rate-limits sends per rule (15 per 10 minutes) and logs every attempt. Importing a thousand old leads? Turn the rules off first, import, then switch them back on.
- Respect consent. Meta requires opt-in before you message a number. Only message contacts who agreed to hear from you on WhatsApp — the plugin sends only to the numbers in your CRM data.
Frequently asked questions
Do bulk imports send one message per contact?
Yes — FluentCRM fires the contact-created event for every imported contact, and each enabled rule attempts a send. The plugin's rate limiter (15 messages per 10 minutes per rule) and delivery log keep it bounded and auditable. If you import a large list, switch the rules off first, import, then enable them again.
Does a contact get one message per tag?
A contact added to three enabled tags gets three messages — one per tag event, each from that tag's rule. If a contact is added to tags and no specific tag row is enabled, the "Any contact" row fires once for the whole event, so you never get a flood from a multi-tag change.
Can different teams get different alerts?
Yes. Each tag row has its own recipient override, so "Hot lead" can notify sales and "Refund request" can notify support — all through one plugin and one Tech Pad inbox.
Do I need an approved template for every message?
Only for messages sent outside the 24-hour customer-service window — and those go in the UTILITY category. Approval usually takes minutes to a few hours. Inside the window you can reply free-form at no cost, with no template needed.
Is the plugin really free?
Yes. The plugin has no licence fee, the first 30 days on The Tech Pad are free, and there is no monthly plugin fee. You only pay Meta's per-message rate — around ₹0.10–0.30 per utility message in India — and free-form replies in the 24-hour window cost nothing.
Start free — the plugin has no monthly fee, and your first 30 days on The Tech Pad are free. Sign up at https://thetechpad.com/wa/, grab the plugin at https://thetechpad.com/plugins/fluentcrm/, and your next lead lands on WhatsApp within seconds of entering the CRM.