Rinteractives

WhatsApp for Business Case Studies

Rahul Gadekar

Mentor Stanford SEED & LISA

They say that a brand has etched its name in the good books of marketing when a brand name becomes a verb. The story of Whatsapp is one such example, where it has become a m household name. In a country with over 340 million users, India is Whatsapp’s biggest market. It was in early 2018 when this Facebook-owned company had launched Whatsapp for Business to bring a whole new dimension to the world of communication between businesses and their customers. As per reports by Whatsapp, India has over 15 million Whatsapp for Business users every month. In a world of instant messaging and short replies, Whatsapp for Business allows businesses to provide easy access to information to their customers and a much faster turnaround time. It is interesting to note that while Whatsapp for business was launched keeping the small businesses in mind, Whatsapp API is meant for medium and large enterprises with an ability to develop customizations and special features. So how does Whatsapp for Business work?

Available free on the app store for download, few taps and verification of the phone number and tada! You have your Business account up and running. Its interface is similar to a non-business app. To get started, one needs to fill in all the details about their business such as description, address, email address and website for their customers to have a better understanding. There are a host of features such as catalog creation, broadcast list apart from the group chats and one to one chats, quick replies and the ability to automate responses. Besides, the businesses can leverage the rich media exchange feature which gives them the liberty to build interactive communication.

Why businesses should leverage WhatsApp for Business

Ease

We will be scratching our heads to recall when was the last time we wrote an email to a company for a follow-up on an order, responded to an unknown phone call from a company or scrolled a website to share feedback. This is exactly where Whatsapp for Business becomes a perfect tool to be present where the customers are highly likely to be present. An average user opens Whatsapp 23-25 times a day. This gives a better opportunity for a company to engage its customers in an environment that is most convenient for them. At the same time, since Whatsapp verifies your business number, the customers are also assured that they are having a one-on-one conversation with a legitimate business. Besides, if your target group is relatively younger, it is a much better solution to have a presence on Whatsapp because this is the age group that prefers omnichannel communication and seeks instant gratification. 

Conversations 

Customers are more informed and appreciate real conversations rather than just receiving one-sided brand messages. With Whatsapp, a business gives multiple ways to engage your customers not just through plain simple text but with options to share and receive photos, videos, QR codes, documents, or location and that too with features such as end-to-end encryption and multilingual messaging. A well-crafted greeting message to set the initial tone, an option to set ‘away’ messages so that the customers are aware of the non-operational hours, instant query resolution are some of the ways, a business can keep their customers up to date without being intrusive.

Engagement

With a high reach and a high open-rate (70%), Whatsapp stands as a cost-efficient solution for small businesses. Businesses can segment the customers using a broadcast list feature, reach out to global customers in a cost-efficient way and strengthen relationships by personalizing the communication. Whether it is a new product or service you want to introduce, promote offers or share your business location for an outlet driven promotion, all of these can be taken care of in just one environment without having your customers look at multiple places for different communication. 

Building Trust

As we saw earlier, end-to-end encryption assures customers of private and secured communication and at the same time the two-factor authentication adds another layer of credibility to the business. Adding further specifics to the business account such as website URLs, store address and social media links helps in strengthening your brand identity which acts as a familiar face for the customers instilling trust and confidence in your customers.

Customer Service

As per a survey done by Nielsen, it has been found that 56% of people would rather message customer service than talk on the phone. We can all agree that as a customer, we all need instant replies and quick fixes. Whatsapp plays an important role in this aspect as one of the ways that businesses can leverage is by capturing the query and contact number through different channels and reaching out to them directly by sending document guides or voice notes to navigate through their problem. One of the common trends seen for an e-commerce business is to share order status through Whatsapp, sending reminders for an incomplete website action, sharing receipts or even asking for feedback. The mere convenience drives the action and customers are in constant touch. 

Lets us see how some businesses are leveraging Whatsapp 

Food Ordering 

Here is an example of how KFC leverages whatsapp for business, customers can directly place order an order without going to the website or KFC mobile app 

Hotel Booking

Here is an example of how OYO is leveraging whatsapp for business to allow customers to book rooms. Customers need to send a message mentioning their checkin date, checkout date and the location, the bot then asks for customers budget and then shortlists few hotels and shares with the customer, customer can then book the hotel to complete the chat.

Loan Application

Here is an example of how TATA Capital is leveraging WhatsApp for business for loans category, where the entire form is being filled through WhatsApp for business

Customer Support 

Here is an example of how Balic is leveraging WhatsApp to offer customer support.

Conclusion

WhatsApp for business is gaining momentum and has also become need of the hour to connect with customers, automate conversations, channel for sales and building trust with the customers. Depending up the type of the business you can define the customer journey within WhatsApp, there are no fix rules, you can define your own which will add value to your customer.

When an unknown printegalley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting.

Rahul Gadekar

Stanford Alumnus

Mentor: Stanford Seed & Abu Dhabi SME Hub

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