By
WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app, and the third most-used social media platform in the world. It has two billion users which shows how much people like and trust it for messaging purposes.
The incredible numbers apart, WhatsApp is immediate and personal which makes it a great tool for communication, both for individuals as well as for businesses. In fact, a growing number of brands now use it to engage with customers in a private and secure manner.
Plus, WhatsApp integration for customer engagement can also bring a new way for companies to effortlessly interact, converse and convert customers and transform them into brand loyalists.
Many top companies also use WhatsApp to enhance customer experience with their brand as this platform enables almost everything, be it, displaying products, handling customer queries, sending notifications, giving updates, etc.
In addition, the end-to-end encryption feature of WhatsApp makes it ideal for companies to communicate with customers, strengthen their support and take engagement to a new level altogether.
In this blog, we will discuss WhatsApp integration customer engagement and also explore how this platform could redefine the way businesses connect with their customers.
Why WhatsApp for Customer Engagement?
WhatsApp is easily the most trusted messaging platform for boosting customer engagement and delivering amazing support. The secure nature of messaging, tons of business-centric features, and the ability to do real-time communication with multiple users make it perfect for engaging customers on any scale.
Reasons are many to use WhatsApp integration for customer engagement. Some of them include –
- The highest number of monthly active users – WhatsApp is way ahead of other popular messaging apps in terms of having the highest number of monthly active users worldwide. Plus, it’s a channel that is relevant across geographies and age groups.
- Wide range of business-centric features – From sharing & exchanging rich media content such as images, videos, emojis, or documents to creating a catalog for product display, WhatsApp has virtually all features that a business needs for serving its customers well.
- Easy Integrations – Thanks to WhatsApp business API, third-party integration such as with CRM and Salesforce has become incredibly easy. So, a business can now easily keep all the customer data in one place and enhance the value of support with WhatsApp.
- Free and secure – There is no subscription payment for creating a WhatsApp account which makes it kind of free. Plus. it’s highly secure on the back of encrypting messages and also the policy of not sharing information with third parties.
Benefits of WhatsApp Integration for Customer Engagement
A growing number of businesses now look to integrate WhatsApp to serve customers better, drive engagement, and boost conversations. This is due to two major reasons – first, the ever-rising user base of the platform, and second, its top-class features for customer service communication. Plus, WhatsApp is a messaging app that is favored by people of all age groups.
There are many benefits of WhatsApp integration for customer engagement. Some of them include –
- Businesses can be available for more customers – The kind of global reach and user-base WhatsApp has makes it ideal for businesses to be available for more customers and get accessed by more prospects from all parts of the globe.
- Real-time communication on any scale is possible – WhatsApp helps brands to engage in a quick, efficient and reliable form of communication with customers in real-time. Plus, companies can now engage with individuals or groups of people and find more opportunities for engagement.
- Improved customer service is easy to achieve– The use of WhatsApp enables businesses to offer quick replies, be available 24×7, showcase products, and solve issues almost instantly. All this easily paves the way for improved customer service.
- Higher conversions and more sales are guaranteed – Brands that use WhatsApp as part of an engagement strategy are able to reach more potential customers and make more of them familiar with products & services, which, therefore boosts the chances of conversions and sales.
Ways to Use WhatsApp Integration for Customer Engagement
WhatsApp is now integral to a brand’s effort to engage more customers in a hassle-free manner and boost their reach. Your business too can use the world’s most popular app in a variety of different ways and boost customer engagement.
Some of the ways to use WhatsApp integration for customer engagement include –
1. One-on-One Customer Communication
As a business, you should know that 83% of customers now expect immediate engagement when they reach out to a company.
Conversations are often the foundation of engagement. And the more a business converses with its customers, the more likely it’s to achieve a better engagement. During such conversations, customers often expect quick responses to their queries and problems.
The use of WhatsApp can help you not only engage in one-on-one communication with your customers but also handle their queries in real time and almost instantly. Plus, this channel is also useful for engaging products or service-related queries.
In fact, customers now also use WhatsApp to inquire about a product, seek information on bookings, clear product or order-related doubts, and so on.
Tips to use WhatsApp for customer communication
- Put or display your WhatsApp number on the website, across social channels, and in email, signatures to help customers reach you easily.
- Add the WhatsApp number in the “contact us section” or add a chat button so that everyone finds it easy to locate it and start the communication.
2. Customer Feedback
Not all customers like to give away feedback. Most of them don’t like the traditional way of filling up forms as it feels time-consuming and boring to them. Some even believe that companies don’t pay heed to the feed, so they altogether avoid being part of it.
However, 83% of people have completed one survey in the past year which suggests how it still has value.
Thanks to the emergence of a channel like WhatsApp, getting customer feedback has become quite interactive and exciting, both for customers as well as for businesses. The conversational flow of the channel makes it a top tool for collecting customer feedback, which is always great for engagement.
In fact, a lot of top brands now use WhatsApp for feedback as this helps them understand the mood of the audience. Plus, there will always be chances of growth in review conversion percentage.
Benefits of using WhatsApp for customer feedback collection
- WhatsApp enables two-way communication which helps brands get customer feedback in real-time.
- The conversational flow of the channel is the reason why it’s easy for customer review generation.
3. Task Automation with AI Chatbot
More than 9 out of ten organizations believe that business process automation is key for digital transformation.
You can add a chatbot with WhatsApp and amplify its potential manifold. In fact, a lot of businesses now put their customer support on autopilot mode this way. Once you integrate a chatbot, you make sure no human skillset is needed for simple, repetitive requests from customers.
More so, a chatbot can help automate a variety of tasks across support, marketing, and sales, resulting in better engagement with customers. This way, your customer service can work 24×7 and ensure quick responses to customers from anywhere across the globe.
From tracking and order status inquiries to FAQ training, a WhatsApp chatbot can help in many ways and boost the rate of customer engagement. Plus, it will spare your support team the hassles of handling everyday requests when they can focus on other important tasks.
4. Proactive Messaging
Customers often expect answers to their queries in a quick time. In some cases, they also expect brands to be proactive in response, reach out to them with key messages and add value to their experience.
This is where the value of proactive messaging helps. This way, you can send messages that offer help even before customers need or seek it. Such messaging happens mostly in opt-in service updates where brands need to send regular updates to customers.
Using WhatsApp, your business can always enhance engagement by sending timely order & shopping notifications, tracking numbers, appointment reminders, flight status alerts, etc.
Tips to use WhatsApp for proactive messaging
- You can send product tracking and order status notifications to buyers immediately after the purchase and re-send these messages in a scheduled manner for better support to customers.
- It’s a good practice to follow up with new customers after a purchase to check if they need help or have any issues.
5. Product & Service Display
A lot of customers now view product displays on WhatsApp. Maybe, that’s why more companies now use this messaging app as a marketing mix for enhanced customer engagement.
In fact, the display of products or services is also a great way to boost engagement with potential customers. And WhatsApp makes this happen – you can create a catalog to showcase any product and get the attention of buyers.
Together with the product display, brands can also leverage the power of AI chatbots to automate queries and ensure prompt responses. This is how your products or services are more likely to be sold to the audience.
How to display products/services on WhatsApp?
- Add any catalog to your WhatsApp business profile and take the first step towards engaging customers.
- Make sure the product or service is relevant to the context so that customers can browse them and ask specific queries.
- It’s also possible to share the entire product catalog link or links to specific products and doing this can help with product recommendations for interested customers.
6. Quick and Seamless Bookings
A growing number of businesses now include WhatsApp as part of their customer communication channel. They do so to ensure a better brand experience for their customers. Plus, the channel is also good for making available all the booking details in one place.
For example, if the customer has a booking with a hotel or flight, rather than making them check emails or call the support team, you can give all the booking details right at their disposal. Doing this can definitely enhance the customer experience with the brand.
Many brands now use WhatsApp business API to make booking simple and effortless for customers. From hotels to airlines to other players in the hospitality industry, the trend of providing all the booking details in a place is something that is now a mainstay and it has tons of benefits as well.
How to use WhatsApp for bookings?
- Make sure you include the WhatsApp business number in the list of options that customers can avail of for receiving their booking details.
- Deliver all the information about booking via the WhatsApp platform to take away all the hassles that buyers often face after booking with a brand.
7. Engagement at Scale
WhatsApp is a wonderful platform when it comes to enabling customer communication at scale. Many companies now use it to engage in mass communication. Plus, you can also either images or videos to boost customer interaction and redefine the meaning of engagement in the true sense.
The ‘Group Targeting’ option in WhatsApp can let you target like-minded customers and tap into their interests with your brand. More so, you can launch innovative campaigns and gain amazing value from a marketing point of view.
Integrate WhatsApp with REVE’s Omnichannel Platform and Boost Customer Engagement
WhatsApp is an amazing messaging app with the potential to transform your business in many ways. It has all the features your business needs to engage, interact and convert customers into brand loyalists.
We, at REVE Chat, are aware of the vast potential that WhatsApp brings and we also realize how integrating it with quality support tools can help you engage with customers more meaningfully.
You can give your business the advantage of our AI-powered chatbot and engage customers like never before. You can add the chatbot with WhatsApp and streamline all your customer interactions from across channels under a single platform.
The AI chatbot is advanced and rich in features so it can help you in many ways, be it by increasing the response time, minimizing the wait time, or delivering contextual answers to customers at each stage of the journey.
Plus, you can use WhatsApp and chatbot together with live chat software, co-browsing tool, and video chat software to make give customers great engagement and experiences.
Leverage the Power of WhatsApp Integration with REVE
WhatsApp should be an essential tool in your endeavor to enhance the value of customer engagement. And if you’re still not using the world’s most used messaging app, you’re then probably missing out on redefining the meaning of engagement.
With REVE’s omnichannel platform, you can get the most out of WhatsApp and make sure your customer experiences with your brand are always great.
You can start a free trial of some of the amazing engagement tools to see how they can elevate your customer engagement with WhatsApp.
So, take the right step now and benefit your business from the power of WhatsApp integration for customer engagement.
