Setting up a shared WhatsApp inbox alongside Reapit CRM means giving an entire branch team, not just one negotiator, the ability to send and receive WhatsApp messages under a single number, with every conversation logged back to the right applicant, landlord, or property record. Stitch, the WhatsApp business communication platform, built its Reapit integration specifically for this workflow, and this guide walks through the setup process step by step, from account verification through to audit-trail configuration.
Every user logs into the shared WhatsApp inbox with their own profile; there are no individual WhatsApp numbers assigned to negotiators. Branch WhatsApp accounts are linked to landline numbers, and the web app, mobile app, and Chrome extension all present a single shared inbox, meaning messages sync across all clients in real time. This matters at the setup stage because it changes how you think about access: rather than provisioning phone numbers, you're provisioning user accounts and team memberships, with admins able to add or remove users and assign roles.
Before touching integration settings, it's worth deciding who sees what.
Admins can see all conversations, while regular users see only chats assigned to their team or themselves. Permissions control who can view, assign, or delete conversations and contacts, and users can filter their inbox to show only their own chats or their team's chats. Decide this structure before go-live, because it determines how inbound routing (covered in Step 4) will actually behave in practice.
Passwords and user access credentials are distributed to each team member as part of onboarding, and there is no shared login shared across a whole branch. Once credentials are issued, the recommended starting point is to define core departments or teams first, then add users to those teams within the system settings, before building out anything more complex. Paul, who leads Stitch's Reapit onboarding sessions, recommends keeping the initial go-live simple: a default response message covering the basics, with complexity added iteratively as usage patterns become clear.
With users and teams in place, the next task is connecting the platform to Reapit itself.
The integration path runs through Settings, then Automation, then CRM integration, where you select Reapit Cloud and input your customer ID, negotiator ID, and office ID, then choose to sync "every message". Once configured, messages sync to the Reapit activity field, not the Reapit notes field, and if a contact links to an applicant or property file, the update appears on that specific record. Sync latency is near-instantaneous, typically around ten seconds.
Contact deduplication matters because Reapit installations can contain duplicate contact records, so the integration matches messages using the Reapit contact ID rather than relying on phone number alone. Historical message data is stored indefinitely unless an administrator deletes the contact. Bulk imports can update tags on existing contacts, but they do not automatically remove tags from departed tenants unless that's done manually — a detail worth building into whatever contact maintenance routine your office runs.
Reapit exports are frequently messy: multiple columns, inconsistent phone number formats, and inconsistent naming. Stitch's contact loader tool addresses this directly. It takes a raw CSV export, merges first and last names, normalises phone numbers into GB format, lets you add tags or notes, previews the data, excludes invalid numbers, and then produces a standardised CSV ready for import. The recommended workflow is straightforward: export from Reapit, run the file through the contact loader, apply the relevant tag or tags, then import into the WhatsApp platform.
With contacts clean and the CRM connected, the next step is deciding what happens when a message arrives. Incoming WhatsApp messages can be routed based on predefined teams or departments — lettings applicants, mortgages, and maintenance are the examples most commonly used. Automated default responses and menu options can guide customers through their inquiry type, in a similar way to a phone IVR system, with further filtering applied depending on the customer's response to direct the chat to the right team or individual.
Once routing is live, the next piece to get right is how outbound messages are actually sent, and that's governed directly by Meta's rules.
Meta's anti-spam framework centres on the 24-hour conversation window. Once a customer initiates a chat, a 24-hour window opens for normal freeform messaging. Outside that window, two modes exist for starting or restarting a conversation: natural chat, which is free-typed but automatically wrapped in a template format and appears less structured (a "top-and-tail" message), or a formal template message, which is required in many cases when messaging outside the 24-hour window. Templates must be registered and approved by Meta before use, and approval typically takes up to 48 hours, with anything pending beyond that worth reporting.
Templates support several features that go beyond plain text:
Common use cases from live deployments include "phone follow — no answer" and "phone follow — when answered" templates for post-call follow-up, as well as viewing confirmations and appointment reminders. Templates that use images and quick replies increase response rates compared to plain text, and template-level analytics let you track that performance. On cost, template messages sent to re-engage a customer outside the 24-hour window carry a charge of roughly 1.6p per message, so it's worth distinguishing utility templates from marketing templates when planning volume.
Tags — created ad hoc or applied via bulk import — let you categorise contacts by criteria such as property address, "3 bed semi," or landlord status, and they enable targeted bulk broadcasts to specific groups. A worked example: sending a single message to six contacts tagged with a shared property address, useful for something like a maintenance notice. The guidance from Stitch's own onboarding sessions is explicit on this point: don't bulk import an entire historic database without a strategy, since this can cause sender reputation issues; targeted, consented lists are the safer approach.
With templates and broadcast lists under control, most teams also want message access embedded directly into their day-to-day CRM screens.
The Chrome extension adds the shared inbox directly into the browser, letting users message without switching applications. Users must log in to the extension using their own credentials for it to function, and the initial installation requires a browser tab refresh before it activates. It's worth noting that because Reapit itself is not web-based, the extension's phone-number-icon feature is less relevant to the core Reapit desktop application, though it remains useful for web-based tools such as LeadPro-style CRM screens, where it floats over the interface and lets users start or reply to chats, use templates or natural chat, and scrape phone numbers on a page for bulk broadcasting. That scraping feature is designed for lists of tens of recipients, as opposed to the tag-based approach used for lists running into the hundreds.
Every message sent through the integration, whether from the web app, mobile app, or Chrome extension, is intended to sync back into Reapit's activity feed, creating a consistent record of all communication regardless of which client sent it. This is the core of the audit trail: because sync is near-instantaneous and tied to the Reapit contact ID, there's a reliable, timestamped log attached to the correct applicant or property record. Governance considerations around message archiving and consent were raised specifically as part of Stitch's Reapit onboarding discussions, alongside the potential for how UK GDPR and data residency rules apply to WhatsApp business messaging and the potential for bespoke API integrations to automate parts of this process further.
Notifications need configuring separately from the audit trail itself. Users must allow browser notifications to receive real-time "toast" alerts, and notification settings are managed individually per user across email, browser pop-up, and mobile channels to avoid alert overload.
A few operational habits make the difference between a tidy shared inbox and a cluttered one:
Failed messages are usually traceable to one of a small number of causes: sending to a landline number, incorrect phone number formatting, or an account-specific Meta error. If a submitted template is still pending approval beyond Meta's usual 48-hour window, that's worth flagging rather than waiting further. If the Chrome extension isn't showing message icons after installation, refresh the browser tab, since first-time setup requires this before the extension becomes active.
A shared WhatsApp inbox connected to Reapit CRM gives an entire branch team compliant, logged, one-number access to WhatsApp, with messages routed to the right department, synced automatically into Reapit's activity feed against the correct contact, and templates managed in line with Meta's 24-hour messaging rules. Stitch built msgboxx, the WhatsApp team inbox built on the official WhatsApp Cloud API, and the Reapit integration described here reflects how Stitch's own onboarding teams configure it for property businesses in practice. The next step is straightforward: define your teams, plan your contact tags, and get your first templates submitted for Meta approval before go-live.
