WhatsApp Business API
After Facebook bought whatsapp in 2014, WhatsApp has not only become the most popular messaging software in recent years, but has identified its business services. To use WhatsApp for e-commerce or customer service purposes, you can choose one of the following variables:
- WhatsApp Business app
The app is for small business owners, who want to start with a free profile on WhatsApp Business. They can organize contacts, create business broadcasts, or quick responses to messages. However, the app can barely organize large numbers of contacts and channels, so you can easily lose all the necessary information in the flow of multiple messages.
- WhatsApp API Providers
If the volume of conversations and contacts becomes too large, it’s time to use something more serious and paid. To help you achieve your business goals, there are 60 WhatsApp business API providers. Choose the right option for any purpose: customer care, financial services, communications, or e-commerce goals.
- WhatsApp Business API
To establish your business presence on the WhatsApp environment and not spend too much money on third-party companies, you need WhatsApp Business API. WhatsApp Business API integration on your website or program helps you gain almost unlimited access to customer service or other messaging services.
Deal with customers with WhatsApp Business API
Are you interested in widespread international access? You’ll want to access WhatsApp Business API without hesitation. But if you’re aware of whether you want to add another communication channel to the mix, keep in mind that nearly three in five consumers are frustrated by their inability to access the business information they want in the way they connect.
In other words, if you don’t offer your customers a way to communicate using the apps they use every day, you make it too difficult to keep them happy. If your customer is looking for your WhatsApp business and you are not there, you can bet that your competitor will be happy to answer this call.
If you move forward and decide to set up a WhatsApp business profile, make sure your customers – and employees are tasked with serving them – remain at the top of your concerns as you design how messages fit into customer engagement strategies. You don’t want to create a messaging app and you don’t have the tools, processes and agents to make it the best possible experience if your customers choose to contact you there.
How to attract customers with WhatsApp Business API
WhatsApp Business API gives you the opportunity to interact with your customers in a private and secure environment, allowing you to interact with them informally and more friendlyly. In theory, this makes it a dream to market messages, but WhatsApp is cautiously advancing what companies will be allowed to do in their environment. The company’s goal is to create a compelling and powerful customer experience similar to the appeal of how WhatsApp is currently used, which is why collective targeting of ads and promotions is not permitted.
However, marketers can still take advantage of WhatsApp to build relationships and inject their brand throughout the entire communication experience, warning that organizations will remain within acceptable WhatsApp policies. This means that companies can only send messages (e.g., notifications, account verification, and customer service responses) to WhatsApp users who have explicitly chosen to receive them.
Unwelcome requests are prohibited and can harm your chances of allowing you to continue using the app to reach global customers, 24/7.
Once you’ve tested what WhatsApp Business API has to offer, you’ll discover that it’s the perfect solution for connecting and serving B2C customers. Messaging has emerged as a convenient and necessary two-way communication channel for customers. Let’s investigate some usage cases of how WhatsApp messages are used in a business scenario from a user’s “need” perspective.
When the user says I’d like to notify me of the updates, “Notify me.”
Receiving notifications about account activity in an appropriate, timely and personal manner is usually at the top of each customer’s wish list. Interestingly, 9 in 10 consumers are open to using messaging to communicate with their companies.
Moreover, they prefer it, so think about it: if messaging is something you’re used to, and your device is pretty much with you everywhere you go, don’t you want a quick alert that the order is complete or that the package is on its way? It’s much more convenient than getting an email, which is often in a crowded inbox waiting to be seen.
They are more likely to be successfully received than an automated phone call as WhatsApp’s API use of notifications provides organizations with a simple way to keep customers informed and enable them to automate business communications while providing a first-class customer experience. Some media options include:
Status of request: Inform customers of the status of the order or transaction, which can consist of confirmations, price adjustments, scheduling or delays in implementation.
Shipment information: The estimated arrival time (ETA alerts) is sent early in the message cycle and provides an easy way to issue periodic notifications of the situation in which delivery – or delivery person – is likely to reach its destination. Once the shipment is complete, a notification can be sent to alert the recipient or customer.
Travel notifications: From booking travel – including delivery of boarding passes, travel guides and customs information – to providing real-time flight information, keep customers informed of relevant changes in itineraries within WhatsApp API .
Staff contacts: Staff must remain informed of everything from scheduling the transition to sending notifications. WhatsApp API instant messaging improves communication, is observed more quickly than email, and enables real-time employee responses.
When the user says ” Protect my accounts”
WhatsApp’s privacy and security have been entrenched, which is why the app is trusted by users around the world. You can’t become a WhatsApp user without checking WhatsApp itself. Once authenticated, the app provides a secure and private channel for delivering messages with full end-to-end encryption. Only parties involved in WhatsApp chat will see their chat messages – including privacy from the app or any other third party.
Because the app uses phone number-based labeling, the user’s phone number – by default – is a verifiable source of your additional security procedures. Any conversations you have with customers, including written messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, status updates, and calls, are protected from falling into the wrong hands by encrypting WhatsApp from end to end.
From a commercial perspective, this means you can rely on the user verification process included in WhatsApp to make sure the user is the same as he says. Similarly, verification helps your customers know that you are an officially certified business within the WhatsApp ecosystem.
But there is more to it. You can rely on the highly secure WhatsApp environment as a digital channel to help keep user accounts protected even outside WhatsApp. For example, here’s how WhatsApp security works for you:
- User Verification: When a new user comes forward to serve you or subscribes to your mobile app, you’ll need to make sure it’s real, not a robot.
This is usually done by sending a digital code to a new user via SMS (which has recently been considered less than 100% secure.) instead, why not send verification codes via WhatsApp – itself already very secure – and require the user to re-enter that code in your app for verified access. WhatsApp is an excellent channel to provide new users with a safe place to prove that they are legitimate account holders, and that they are as they claim.
- Binary Authentication (2FA): In addition to checking the account, there may be occasions when, as a business, it is wise to verify what actions the user may take even after they have been confirmed upon subscription.
This may be something like authenticating a purchase or other financial transaction that is done directly on your app. Or you may periodically ask customers to update personal information on their accounts.
As a second authentication factor, send a one-time code to that user via WhatsApp as an alternative to SMS. Make it necessary for the user to re-enter this code before the transaction is complete or the account changes.
Once again, built-in encryption for delivering WhatsApp messages along with whatsapp binary authentication security makes a reliable channel for users looking to prove their identity and are already making a deliberate transaction.
When the user says talk to me
Because WhatsApp provides reliable two-way messages, it’s the perfect customer service tool, giving companies an instant way to answer questions and solve problems in a favorite channel around the world.
Since we are all used to using chat in our own lives, WhatsApp customer service seems “easy.” After all, when you text a friend or family member, you expect that person to respond in real time.
Expectations are largely the same in the business conversations that the customer starts. But in business, it’s a little more complex and requires a strong customer engagement response strategy, a strategy that anticipates customer interactions before going. So as not to disappoint the customer who takes you, keep in mind all these methods to design the right plan for your business:
- Two-way conversations: When compared to other channels (e-mail, for example), exchanged messages make it easier for agents to answer questions, clarify problems, solve problems quickly, and ensure the loyalty of your customers.
Just make sure your team works accordingly. If resources are limited, let customers know when it’s best to access a direct agent, or what to expect in terms of waiting time. Also make sure you have the tools to step up to a real person, if necessary.
- Notification support: You can choose to send automated notifications to your customers, but they may want to respond in real time. Expect this preference by allowing them to respond to any message sent. Based on their responses, you can best determine whether automatic response is enough, or whether direct conversation is the best. Both methods are a great way to start a positive customer experience.
Quick responses: Turn FAQs into brief ready-made responses to deal with the most routine questions. Make sure you direct these messages accordingly, consider all possible answers to the expected questions, and provide them in simple language that suits the messaging broker.
Automated responses: Opening a customer response solution to a global audience using WhatsApp means that customers may communicate from every time zone throughout the day – even when they are closed. Keep in mind the automation and allocation of messages when your employees handle other calls and are not available to respond, or during leisure time when the department is unattended.
- Artificial Intelligence Built-in Chat Bot: Keep in mind the use of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE and data analytics to enable a “virtual agent” to respond based on the context of the customer’s message. WhatsApp API Chat Bot services allow your company to respond to customer messages immediately and increase the number of customers you can communicate with once. It’s a scalable way to address a customer support problem that wasn’t previously scalable.
Think outside the box and make WhatsApp Business API special for your business
While we highlight the most common accepted use, customer participation is an environment in which necessity or invention is necessary. Chat apps, by their very nature, are the result of innovation that interacts with the challenges of older communication channels.
For business users, innovation begins with the wording of the message itself. The high user participation rate in messaging apps means that your messages are likely to be read, so make them worth reading, as you build customer engagement strategies, keep in mind that customer communications can go beyond just a simple text message. WhatsApp Business API lets you:
- Engage in real conversations: Unlike SMS, short codes are not needed. Messages can be as long as they are necessary to communicate your point of view, but remember that the recipient is likely to be delivered to his phone, and may be used for brevity, so react efficiently.
- Express yourself: WhatsApp supports richer format. Don’t be ashamed to use dark text, colors, or slanted font. Or a dark, colorful and slanted text, together.
- Be creative: Enjoy some fun and take advantage of emojis, foreign language characters, photos, audio and video. You can also share product offers, and participate in two-way customer surveys.
- Expectation Management: Let customers know exactly what to expect from your WhatsApp support channel. Provide clear instructions on when your WhatsApp team is available. Make sure you offer alternative support options – whether it’s via SMS, phone or email – if you don’t run WhatsApp 24 hours a day.
- Enable conversation trading: Keep in mind how you can use WhatsApp to support sales efforts by answering questions about products and services through rich contextual messages that may ultimately facilitate a new transaction or make the current customer happy.
