Customer engagement is changing. Traditional communication platforms are no longer enough to maintain engagement in today’s omnichannel, digitally native, always-on environment. In this ebook, we’ll explore how your business can delight customers and drive revenue with a modern messaging solution.
People around the globe use messaging apps to talk with friends and family. They want the same easy experience when they need to connect with a business. The WhatsApp Business Platform (application programming interface) enables enterprises to engage with customers in a way that’s personal, convenient, and widely popular, without giving up the controls and data analytics they need from business-driven technology.
Two billion monthly users are on WhatsApp. Meet them there for simpler, faster, and more convenient communications across the customer journey.
People dread having to call a customer service number and wait on hold. They don’t like sending an email to a business, not knowing when (or if) it will be read. Your customers want an easy way to connect with you and they expect a quick, personalized response.
Your customers have many channels to potentially connect with your business, but research indicates the demand for messaging far outpaces that of other communication channels. A survey conducted revealed that 68% of users surveyed called WhatsApp the easiest method of contacting a business.
It would appear that business messaging is displacing traditional engagement methods. In fact, 64% of consumers said they were unlikely or very unlikely to download a brand’s app, with 53% preferring to communicate with customer support via text. Emerging customer service preferences are accelerating the popularity of messaging.
Millennials, Gen Z, and younger generations are not only digitally native, they’re also reaching the age where their buying power and influence in the marketplace makes them a prime audience for businesses. Older consumers have also embraced digital communications like never before.
76% of WhatsApp users surveyed want to be able to communicate with businesses through messaging.
Messaging has become so pervasive that governments now use it to maintain communications with their citizens. The Government of India’s citizen engagement platform, MyGov, developed a chatbot on the WhatsApp API to share health information and lockdown-related guidelines. Within 10 days of its launch, the chatbot reached 17 million people and by the end of April 2020 had generated 35 million conversations.
Advances in consumer technology are also influencing how and when people turn to their devices in their daily lives. A survey of British shoppers showed that 34% of smartphone owners shop at least once a week on their phone; that figure jumped to 48% for consumers with 5G devices.
The COVID-19 pandemic had undeniable effects on messaging trends. Messaging was becoming increasingly popular prior to COVID-19. The global impacts of the pandemic greatly accelerated this trend and elevated the importance of messaging for individuals and the brands that serve them. Shuttered storefronts, limited in-person interactions, and guidance to curb nonessential travel increased consumers’ reliance on messaging and contributed to explosive growth. The WhatsApp Business Platform continues to give firms a way to create virtual storefronts where customers can ask questions and discuss products with associates. Teams are able to move conversations along, extending customer relationships and closing sales.
In a world of physical distancing, people’s familiarity with texting and messaging more broadly, and even the rise of the mobile experience, messaging a business has proven to be incredibly helpful for people; it serves as a lifeline for companies to stay connected to customers.
In late 2020, it was revealed that over 100 billion messages were exchanged every day on WhatsApp alone. Everything from local store visits to in-person discussions with an insurance agent migrated to digital channels; it’s likely some of those previously face-to-face interactions will never return to pre-pandemic levels. Customers want the convenience of message-based services and support; forward-looking businesses can meet those new expectations through the WhatsApp Business Platform.
67% of people surveyed report checking their phones within the first 5 minutes of starting their day.
Today’s marketplace is increasingly global. Customers can easily shop for goods and services from providers all over the world. WhatsApp is at the heart of many of those transactions. More than 2 billion people use WhatsApp every month. More than 175 million users globally send a message to a WhatsApp Business account each day, making it the most popular messaging app in the world. The reach of WhatsApp extends into the most powerful markets in the world; it is also a driving factor in many emerging markets.
We’re currently in the midst of a major shift in the way people communicate with one another and with businesses. That shift is also happening behind the scenes, where new technologies are available to broaden your reach and deliver a customer experience that reflects your brand across every touchpoint.
The WhatsApp Business Platform integrates with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, ticketing platforms, and call center solutions to drive key automations and make your messaging more powerful. It’s also an easy add to your existing tech stack, enabling you to begin building connections with customers in minutes, not months.
With the WhatsApp Business Platform, your enterprise gains a valuable opportunity to extend the customer relationship and lift sales while also driving operational efficiency and boosting agent productivity. Each agent or associate can communicate with multiple customers simultaneously, increasing their capacity. In addition, routine inquiries are well-suited to messaging and can be automated to either address them programmatically or more efficiently route them to the appropriate team for help. Enterprises may also choose to add chatbot functionality through a business service provider or in-house development team.
Rather than applying a fixed frontend interface, the WhatsApp Business Platform connects to your existing software as a complement to your internal workflows and systems. The API is designed specifically to suit the needs of medium and large businesses; it can be configured to allow access to key users — office-based sales staff, in-store associates, field personnel, and call center agents — via the devices that make the most sense for their role.
The right messaging platform doesn’t just address customers’ expectations for convenience. It also delivers valuable benefits to support your operational objectives. The WhatsApp Business Platform provides enterprises with a higher return on investment (ROI) by enhancing the entire customer journey — extending brand awareness into a popular engagement channel, enabling easier and more natural customer communications, meeting consumers’ growing expectations around timely account and order notifications, and delivering valuable support and other re-engagement opportunities post-purchase. This more modern approach to messaging has the potential to create more up-sell opportunities and drive increased customer satisfaction and retention while also increasing operational efficiency for your organization.
Messaging is not only a customer service communication tool; with the right capabilities, it can be a powerful sales channel. In a global survey, 40% of conversational commerce shoppers said their first foray into online shopping happened through chat.
Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) is just one capability that can further enrich your WhatsApp communications. From adding personalized recommendations complete with product references to offering in-chat appointment booking for your VIP shoppers, the WhatsApp Business Platform makes every conversation more natural for customers and enables your business to provide a compelling brand experience.
The WhatsApp Business Platform has the features and flexibility you need to make the most of your technology ROI. Analyzing the performance of your customer engagement efforts and optimizing your strategy are critical for success. In a global survey by Harvard Business Review, 82% of organizations say better metrics and analytics data are the most important capabilities of advanced messaging apps. The WhatsApp Business Platform provides enterprise-grade analytics and reporting tools to help you identify trends and leverage new opportunities.
WhatsApp continues to evolve to meet the needs of enterprises and their customers. Business messaging on WhatsApp will be enhanced with new capabilities to support shops and commerce features within chat, including digital storefronts, catalogs, shopping carts, payments, and checkouts.
People today are more mindful about sharing their personal information with businesses. A poorly implemented messaging strategy that misuses customer data could result in reputational damage — or worse. Enterprises must also consider the evolving privacy regulations within their markets when communicating with customers.
More than one-quarter of businesses admitted to sending texts in 2020 to customers who hadn’t opted in. And consumers are fighting back — 47% of smartphone users employ ad blockers and 35% use browser extensions to protect their privacy.
The WhatsApp Business Platform helps your organization build and maintain customers’ trust in today’s privacy-conscious world through opt-in tools and vigorous application of messaging best practices. The transparency built into the WhatsApp Business Platform gives customers peace of mind that you’re honoring their communication preferences.
Product providers and service businesses around the world use the WhatsApp Business Platform to create a brand experience that persists across every touchpoint and through the entire customer account lifecycle. The WhatsApp Business Platform enables your organization to drive customer satisfaction with support, information, guidance, and recommendations at each step in the engagement journey.
Enterprises gain additional benefits using the WhatsApp Business Platform to connect with customers after each transaction. Take advantage of ongoing engagement opportunities with support messages and post-purchase notifications and alerts.
Sale Stock: An Indonesian e-commerce fashion brand, uses the WhatsApp Business Platform to send immediate order confirmations, order updates, and shipping information. They also leverage it as a customer service channel to answer customer queries and have more personal conversations with those who need more help. WhatsApp has become the company’s number one source of sales traffic.
WorldRemit: A UK fintech, integrates with WhatsApp Business Platform to provide instant updates on transactions. Millions of WorldRemit customers use WhatsApp daily to chat with loved ones and discuss sending and receiving money. By giving customers instant updates on their transactions via WhatsApp, money transfers are made even simpler.
The growth of messaging continues to accelerate, and consumers increasingly prefer it over other channels. Respondents in a global survey ranked messaging apps higher than their organization’s mobile app when it came to improving customer engagement, creating a direct marketing channel, and distinguishing themselves from the competition.
The WhatsApp Business Platform is a full solution that enables you to seamlessly connect with customers and drive better experiences at every step in their journey. It’s time to get in on the evolution of business-to-consumer messaging with the WhatsApp Business Platform.
With so many benefits to help you better engage with customers and deliver the experience they expect from companies today, adding the WhatsApp Business Platform to your suite of technology tools is as simple as contacting a business solutions provider. The WhatsApp Business Platform is available only through selected business solutions providers. These providers have extensive experience implementing and optimizing the WhatsApp Business Platform and have the expertise to assist your business in integrating complementary tools to maximize your messaging strategy.
