The team
This is the admissions team of a design school in India. Most enquiries arrive two ways: through Meta Lead Ads forms that promote the school's programmes, and on WhatsApp, where students and parents ask about portfolios, fees, batches and campus visits. Counsellors and telecallers handle the conversations, an admissions manager oversees the pipeline, and admins look after marketing and settings.
What they needed
- One WhatsApp number the whole team can answer from. Nobody passes a phone around, and nobody sees chats that aren't theirs.
- Approved templates. Once 24 hours have passed since the student's last message, WhatsApp only allows approved templates.
- Meta form leads next to WhatsApp chats, tagged with the campaign and form they came from.
- A record of programme interest that counsellors and the manager can filter by.
- Follow-ups that don't depend on anyone's memory.
They also wanted to connect to Meta directly, without a WhatsApp provider subscription in between.
How we set up their operations on Xale
WhatsApp on the Cloud API. The school connected its number from inside Xale using Meta's official Embedded Signup. Xale registers the number on the WhatsApp Cloud API as part of the connection, so it is ready to send and receive from the CRM.
Templates written in the CRM, approved by Meta. The team writes WhatsApp templates in Xale, such as a portfolio reminder, an open-house invitation and a fees-and-batches message, and submits them to Meta from there. Each template's approval status updates automatically when Meta responds. Templates can carry a media header such as an image.
One shared inbox, scoped by role. Every conversation lands in Xale's shared WhatsApp inbox, which follows the lead-list visibility rules. Counsellors see chats only for leads they are allowed to see, the admissions manager sees the branch, and admins see everything. Filters run on the server with the leads-list options (stage, status, counsellor, source, custom fields), and a shortcut opens conversations with an undelivered message.
Meta Lead Ads synced automatically. Once the school's Facebook Page and ad account were connected, Xale began pulling leads from every lead form every 15 minutes. Each lead keeps its campaign and form. Meta ad spend syncs daily, so reports can show cost per lead for each campaign.
Programme interest as custom fields. Programme interest is a selector custom field on the lead. Where a Meta form asks which programme the student wants, that question is mapped to the custom field, so the answer arrives filled in and can be filtered and reported on.
The pipeline and a deal per application. The workspace starts from Xale's Education template. It has six stages, from enquiry and counselling through eligibility and assessment, course selection, and fee and payment to enrolment, and every status and sub-status can be renamed. When a student applies to more than one programme, each application is its own deal under the same student record, with its own stage and owner.
Roles, assignment and follow-ups. The Education template creates the roles they use (Admin, Manager, Counsellor and Telecaller), and each one is fine-tuned in the role wizard. An automation gives each new lead to the least-loaded counsellor and sets a follow-up. Each role on a lead keeps its own follow-up, so a telecaller's call-back never overwrites a counsellor's portfolio discussion. Follow-ups sort into Overdue, Today and Later by calendar day. When one comes due, the owner gets a web popup, a mobile push notification and an inbox alert.
One limitation to plan around: automations send WhatsApp messages only through Wati, Gallabox or UrbanChat, not the Cloud API. A Cloud API team sends its templates from the inbox or as broadcasts.
How the team works day to day
A counsellor starts with their Today and Overdue follow-ups and replies to each student in the same thread. Past the 24-hour window, they pick an approved template. New Meta form leads arrive already tagged with their campaign and form. When a student re-enquires, the people assigned to that lead get an in-app alert with a link to the lead. Counsellors can also reply from the Xale Android app.
Before an open house, the admissions manager sends a broadcast. They filter leads by programme interest and stage, check the audience preview, and send an approved template to opted-in contacts only. Broadcasts go out immediately, since scheduling isn't supported, and then report sent, delivered, read, replied and failed counts.
For review, the manager opens the Source report to see leads and cost per lead by campaign, and the Team report to see how quickly each counsellor made first contact. Clicking any number opens the exact list of leads behind it.
Why it matters for teams like theirs
An admissions team that runs on WhatsApp and Meta ads needs four things: a direct Cloud API connection, a template approval flow, a shared inbox that respects who owns which student, and lead forms that arrive with their answers filled in. With all four in one workspace, any counsellor can pick up a conversation with its full context, and managers can see which campaigns bring students who go on to enrol.
Read more about WhatsApp CRM for education, the Education template, lead capture and assignment, role-based follow-up management, CRM reports and analytics and roles and access across teams.