Triage inbound WhatsApp messages into HubSpot and Slack

When someone messages my WhatsApp Business number, I want the message triaged before anyone on my team touches it. Trigger this workflow with a webhook that fires whenever a new inbound WhatsApp message arrives.

First, read the message body and classify it as one of three things: a new sales enquiry, a support question from an existing customer, or spam.

If the message is spam, stop there and drop it entirely. Do not create a contact, do not log a note, do not post anything to Slack, and do not reply to the sender.

For sales enquiries and support questions, use HubSpot Search Contacts to look up the sender by their phone number. If there is no match, create the person with HubSpot Create Contact, setting the phone number and whatever name WhatsApp provides on the inbound message. Then use HubSpot Create Note to log the full message body against that contact, so the conversation history lives in the CRM.

Next, send a notification with Slack Bot Send a Message, routing it to the right channel: sales enquiries go to my sales channel and support questions go to my support channel. Include the classification, the sender's name and phone number, the message itself, and a suggested reply the rep can copy and paste.

Finally, acknowledge the customer on WhatsApp with Send Message so they know we received their message and someone is looking at it.

One important nuance: because the customer messaged us first, the 24 hour customer service window is open, so a free-form text reply is fine here and no pre-approved message template is needed. When sending, format the recipient's number in full international format with no plus sign, no spaces and no dashes.