How to set up a WhatsApp shared team inbox: roles, assignment and daily workflow

What a shared team inbox changes

When you set up a WhatsApp shared team inbox, one business number is answered by several people from their own laptops or phones, each with their own login, while the customer sees only your business name. It replaces the shared phone on the reception desk: chats have an owner, history stays with the business when someone leaves, and a manager can see what is waiting. The shared team inbox definition explains the idea; this guide is the set-up.

You need the number on the WhatsApp Business API first (see how to set up the WhatsApp Business API). In Broadchat the inbox is CRM → Live Chat.

Step 1: decide who does what

Write a short table before you invite anyone. For a furniture brand, Rangoli Home in Jaipur, with five people on WhatsApp:

Two questions decide the set-up: should agents see colleagues' chats (usually no, to keep focus and privacy), and who sorts new chats (ideally a bot, with the support lead as backup).

Step 2: invite each team member

1. Open Workspace → Manage Team and click Invite Member.
2. Enter Name, Email and a Password, choose a Role, and optionally a Department.
3. Share the email and password through a secure channel. The colleague signs in on the same panel address you use and can change the password in Workspace → Account Settings.

The number of team logins depends on your plan. When someone leaves, open the ⋮ menu on their row and choose Remove; their chats stay in the inbox. The add team members help article has the same steps in brief.

Step 3: choose roles and chat visibility

Built-in roles cover most teams:

The Agent restriction comes from one permission, Only own & unassigned chats. If an agent opens a chat assigned to someone else, they see "This chat is assigned to another team member". Unassigned chats are visible to all agents, so anyone can pick up a new enquiry; once it is assigned, it disappears from the others' view.

For anything in between, open Workspace → Roles & Permissions, click New role and tick permissions by area (Live Chat, CRM, Bot Builder, Automation Builder and more). The Session Configuration tab adds security for that role: session timeout, maximum concurrent sessions, allowed IP addresses, and allowed login days and hours. A common custom role is "Senior agent": the Agent permissions plus the right to assign chats, without access to campaigns or billing.

Step 4: create departments for routing

Departments let you send a chat to a team instead of a named person. They are an add-on on some plans; if Department is missing from your menu, ask your provider, or route to named agents instead.

1. Open Department → Departments and create Sales, Support and Logistics.
2. Open Department → Roles, which lists agents with their open chats, and move each agent into a department. You can also set the department when inviting someone.

Department membership is used by chatbot routing (step 5) and shown in Department → Analytics. It does not, by itself, limit which chats an agent can see; that is the role's job.

Step 5: route new chats automatically

Automatic assignment happens when a chatbot reaches an Assign to Agent step. Build a small welcome bot in Chatbots → Chatbots:

1. Trigger: Match Keyword, Incoming Message is hi OR Contains help, plus the prefilled text of your website button.
2. Ask Question of type Interactive with three buttons: New order or price / Delivery or return / Something else.
3. Each button ends in Assign to Agent with Send to Department: Sales, Logistics, Support. Broadchat gives the chat to the active member of that department with the fewest open chats, which spreads the load without a round-robin rule.
4. Put a Working Hours step before the assignment, so after-hours messages get an honest reply and still land in the right queue for the morning.
5. End each branch with Stay in Session, so other bots stay quiet while the agent handles the chat.

The full build, with screens and validation, is in the no-code chatbot guide. Workflows can also assign chats: the CRM app's Assign Chat Agent action assigns by the agent's email, which helps when your CRM decides the owner.

Manual assignment is still there for exceptions. Managers open the chat's ⋮ menu, choose Transfer Chat, pick a member and click Transfer. When an agent goes on leave, Bulk Chat Transfer in the inbox's top ⋮ menu moves all of one agent's chats to another.

Step 6: prepare for the closed 24-hour window

Free-form replies work only within 24 hours of the customer's last message. The chat header shows Active Session or No Session, and when the window has expired a banner explains that only template messages can be sent; text, media and canned replies are blocked by the server, not just hidden.

To re-open the conversation, the agent clicks the template icon in the composer, searches and picks an approved template for that number, and it is sent immediately. The inbox picker sends the template as approved, so keep two or three short utility templates without variables for this purpose, for example: We have an update on your recent enquiry with Rangoli Home. Reply to this message to continue the chat. Templates with names and order numbers are better sent from a campaign or workflow. See the 24-hour customer service window for the rules and the message templates guide for wording.

Step 7: agree house rules and review weekly

Software does not decide who answers the chat nobody owns. Write five rules and pin them in your team group:

1. Unassigned chats: the support lead clears them every hour; any agent may take one when free.
2. Done vs Closed: use Mark as Done when the request is handled and Mark as Closed when the conversation is finished for good. Check the list for new replies on done chats.
3. Bots: if a customer is stuck in a bot, use Pause Automation from the chat menu; remember to Resume Automation later if needed.
4. Canned replies for repeated answers, edited before sending when details differ (see quick replies and canned responses).
5. Tags after every sales chat (for example quote-sent), so campaigns can follow up later.

Each week, open Department → Analytics: Chat Assigned, Chat Accepted, Chat Resolved, Chat Pending and Average Resolution Time, filterable by agent. A rising Pending count for one person usually means they need fewer chats or more canned replies, not a lecture. Desktop notifications are switched on per browser from the inbox's ⋮ menu; agents on the move can use the mobile app if your provider offers it.

Agencies that set up inboxes for clients can deliver all of this under their own brand with the white-label platform; for the bigger picture start with what the WhatsApp Business API is.