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frappe / helpdesk

Modern, Streamlined, Free and Open Source Customer Service Software
https://frappe.io/helpdesk
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
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Feature Request: WhatsApp Business API Integration #909

Open flexy2ky opened 1 year ago

flexy2ky commented 1 year ago

WhatsApp Business has become one of the most used B2C communication channels in the last year and Meta recognized this by opening up the WhatsApp Business API for anyone to integrate. It would therefore be nice to have WhatsApp included in Frappe Desk as a channel for communication with customers. I believe this will be beneficial to all.

Please consider this.

Thank you.

federicocalvo commented 1 year ago

@flexy2ky I think it is not the place, since it should solve in an integral way and then each application should make use of some particularity or of the total integration.

As just now that is working based on the Meta api, and not twillio. Seeing how that is coming, is that something should be considered just now.

https://github.com/frappe/waba_integration

flexy2ky commented 1 year ago

@federicocalvo I think you misunderstood the reasoning behind my post. Agreed that there are different forms of WB API implementation such as Twilio integration and the independent custom app you shared above, they exist outside the FrappeDesk and as such may not function properly as a communication channel as part of this app which is customer-communication-first.

More so is the assumption that FrappeDesk is (designed to be) near-independent of ERPNext and focused on support, it is only natural to add all possible channels of communication available to customers. More so, the existing implementations focus on Business-Initiated messages and do not have the function to receive Customer-Initiated messages. This is the primary reason for my request; that is, enabling two-way real-time communication between customers and agents via the WhatsApp channel.

federicocalvo commented 1 year ago

@flexy2kyI understand your post, I don't understand so much the vision (it's my problem) if these apps really want to be totally independent.

For example, you would have two teams working practically on the same functionality, only that one implements it in one way and the other in another.

What you do bring up for me is how is the logic of the detachment of the apps. It's great that it can be used as a helpdesk, but if they don't begin to relate minimally with ERPNext doctypes, you lose one of the biggest added values of moving to ERP, or even have other people adding functionality to the old support module, so as not to lose that integration that is what differentiates you from not paying the two million solutions that are on the internet about helpdesks.

flexy2ky commented 1 year ago

@federicocalvo Correct me if I'm wrong my understanding is that FrappeDesk is designed with one primary goal in mind, enhancing B2C communication. If other implementations of WB API do not enhance this objective strictly from the viewpoint of FrappeDesk then it stands to reason that effort should be made to make this happen. I have used several customer support applications and one thing they share in common is bringing all communication channels to one platform for centralized operations management and monitoring.

Again as I stated earlier, most if not all implementations that exist for WhatsApp Business on Frappe as of today focused on marketing and information dissemination (what Meta categorizes as Business-Initiated Communication). Where a customer responds to or initiates a communication via the same WhatsApp channel, there is no way to catch that message on virtually all the implementations so far seen and trialed on Frappe. So my point here is for the development/enhancement of this channel of communication to enable two-way conversation regardless of who initiates it. Twilio, Infobip, and even recently 3CX (whose primary product is telephone communication) all have this implemented because they understand that customers all over the world now see WhatsApp as a communication channel for businesses. Leaving this out of FrappeDesk or relying on the implementation that exists outside of it takes away the perceived goal of FrappeDesk which is to provide a customer service center-kind of platform for managing customer communications.

This is just my two cents and it is up to the Frappe team to decide whether their focus is to build a ticketing solution or a robust customer communication platform.