How Businesses can improve Customer Experience on WhatsApp in 5 Simple Steps

WhatsApp is a global phenomenon. It’s the most widely used instant messaging app on the planet. As of Feb 2020,​ ​WhatsApp has roughly 2 billion monthly active users​, a figure that beats both Facebook Messenger and WeChat. Latin America is one of the strongest markets for WhatsApp, with about 60% of the population using the app.

Businesses of every size use WhatsApp as a crucial element of their customer service, sales, and marketing strategies. It gives them quick access to their customers on a platform they’re already comfortable with. Their customers get an easy, free channel to ask questions, request service, and respond to marketing messages.

Here are five easy ways to give your WhatsApp usage a powerful shot of adrenaline.

Exploit All the Features Included With Your WhatsApp for Business Account

WhatsApp Business is a potent application when used properly. All too often, though, businesses don’t take advantage of all the functionality it offers. To fully exploit the software, make sure you set up and use these native features.

Business Profile

Use your business profile to distinguish yourself from your competition. Make sure that all of your contact information is entered and is up-to-date, including your website. Most importantly, write an engaging, dynamic business description that makes it clear what you do and why people should work with you.

Quick Replies

Save answers to frequently asked questions, and other common messages as quick replies. These can be sent with just a few clicks, saving you and your staff considerable time.

Away Messages

Make sure your customers hear from you, even when there’s no one available to speak with them. Set up automated messages that let customers and prospects know when you’ll get back to them. Alternatively, you can set up an automated greeting that will welcome new chats with an instant “hello”.

Labels

Labels help organize your chats into categories. You might create a label for new prospects, one for existing customers, and labels for various customer concerns and/or types. The flexibility of the system lets you match categories to your needs.

Create Click-to-Chat Links to Make it Easy For People to Contact You

WhatsApp allows people to start chats with any phone number that’s already in their device’s address book. That’s fine for friends and family, but it makes it difficult for them to connect with businesses that they haven’t interacted with before.

Click-to-chat links​ ​give your customers a quick and easy way to establish a new chat conversation​. The link embeds your contact number, granting access even if the number isn’t in their address book. Posting these links everywhere helps current and potential customers find you, including your website, social media, digital ads, and more.

Creating click-to-chat links is easy. Simply enter your phone number into an online tool like​ ​this one​, or​ ​this one​ and a link is automatically generated.

You can also enter a short text message that you’d like presented to your prospects and customers when they initiate the chat. Starting the conversation on the right foot immediately.

Add a WhatsApp Call-to-Action in Facebook Ads

If you’re advertising on Facebook, using this feature allows your customers to click on your ad and immediately begin interacting with you on WhatsApp.

If you already know how to create Facebook ads, you already know nearly everything you need to begin taking advantage of this unique CTA. Simply link your WhatsApp Business app with Facebook, choose one of the objectives that allows WhatsApp CTAs, and then select “WhatsApp Business” as your message destination. For a more detailed description of the process,​ ​take a look at this helpful guide​.

Create Reminders From Inside WhatsApp

Your customer service representatives and sales people might be overwhelmed by customer requests inside of WhatsApp conversations. Now, instead of having to toggle out to a secondary application to create reminders and tasks to follow up on these requests, they can create reminders directly inside WhatsApp.

This is thanks to a partnership with the popular to-do list, Any.do. All you need is an Any.do premium account and you can install an Any.do bot inside of WhatsApp​ ​that can be instructed to create reminders and tasks​.

As an example, you could send the bot a message that says, “Follow up on Jim Smith’s question.” The bot will respond asking you if you’d like to be reminded, and if so, when. Respond with a time like “tomorrow afternoon” or “Wednesday at 4 pm”, and Any.do will automatically create the task and the reminder.

Know Your Customers When They Contact You — Add Your Google Contacts to Your Phone

Gmail is one of the most ubiquitous, easiest-to-use email services available. As a result, most people accumulate a large pool of Google contacts even if they’re iPhone users. Android users have access to their Google contacts inside of their phones by default. Others need to either manually set up Google syncing or​ ​export their Google contacts to import into their phone​.

The benefits are dramatic. Having all of your contacts in one place means that you’ll be able to identify any of your customers when they contact you through WhatsApp. It’s always better to greet someone by name when you can. Personalization is king in marketing and customer service, and this simple hack allows you to personalize more of your WhatsApp chats.