How businesses can use WhatsApp for customer support solutions
With more than 25 million active users monthly in Malaysia, WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps for communicating with one another. WhatsApp for customer care is an ideal choice for brands with an omnichannel strategy since it allows their customer service team to communicate with consumers in a private and secure manner.
A range of things may be done using WhatsApp to improve a customer experience with a company, from answering customer queries to exhibiting items, delivering alerts, and providing updates. The end-to-end encryption capability can benefit your business and help you rethink customer communication.
Benefits of using WhatsApp for customer support
You can improve customer service and take customer interactions with the company to a whole new level of engagement by providing customer service through WhatsApp. Using WhatsApp for customer service may benefit the company in a variety of ways:
Large active users
WhatsApp has the most monthly active users across all age groups and geographies, making it the most popular messaging app. As a result, it may help your company grow its reach and fulfil its full potential.
Team inbox
When you use WhatsApp for business, you have the benefit of a team inbox, which allows you to allocate client messages to numerous customer support agents at the same time, improving the service quality.
Chatbot capabilities
Using a chatbot template for WhatsApp customer service can improve your company's skills and automate answers. Bot integration can help you handle your clients more effectively.
API accessibility
WhatsApp API is easily accessible, which can assist your company with third-party integrations such as Zapier and Shopify. This can assist in bringing all customer data together in one location and using it to improve customer service.
Read more about the Essential Guide on WhatsApp Business API.
Rich media support
Rich media material, such as photographs, videos, emoticons, or documents and contracts, may bring a new layer to client interaction. You may also create a catalog to display your items and services.
Why use WhatsApp for customer support
There are a number of reasons to use WhatsApp for customer service. First and foremost, it is an extremely popular app with a massive user base, making it perfect for brands that want to widen their reach. Additionally, the app offers a number of features that make it perfect for customer service use cases:
Adaptable
While WhatsApp is primarily a mobile app, it can also be used using a web browser, allowing you to conduct client discussions from your office computer.
All computerized
WhatsApp is a useful customer service tool since it allows you to customize greetings and away messages, as well as provide speedy answers.
Makes data available and integrates it
By utilizing WhatsApp, you can obtain snapshots of the number of messages sent and read, giving you a decent idea of how many people you're reaching and how much money you're saving.
Entirely legal
You don't have to worry about disturbing people with cold calls or emails since your users must opt-in to receive communications through WhatsApp API.
Understandable
Rather than giving them "company-line" emails, your audience likes to feel as if they are having a discussion with you.
Provides clients with quality customer service
Customers increasingly prefer texting businesses through a messaging platform than sending emails or filling out forms, and no one likes to be put on hold.
Talk to our experts and learn how to deliver the best experience on WhatsApp.
Example - Celcom customer service WhatsApp
In Malaysia, Celcom is one of the first companies to use WhatsApp for customer service. Celcom customers may now communicate with the company through WhatsApp for customer service. Celcom's WhatsApp customer support channel is +60196861111.
For your information, the function introduced by Celcom is similar to the bot on Telegram because all messages sent will be answered by the bot. Apart from telephone bills or fiber internet bills, customers can also get account information, top up credit or check internet balances.
Additionally, if you are not satisfied with the service network, you can also make a report directly from WhatsApp. Among other functions is to make an appointment and find out any latest promotions by Celcom.
The feature that Celcom provided in Whatsapp is that we can give the phone number to determine the issue that may arise, to find the details about our account, and boost our Prepaid phone number.
Through Celcom WhatsApp, you are also able to see, pay, or download bill statements, check your Internet consumption and verify coverage or submit a report, and be updated about network maintenance, concerns, and remedies on a regular basis advise on how to make the most of VoLTE and the 3G network breakdown. Additionally, you can get the most up-to-date information about the upcoming 5G network.
Example - CIMB customer support WhatsApp
CIMB Bank now has a WhatsApp account of its own. CIMB's WhatsApp business number for customer service is +60322610888. You may use WhatsApp to check on the status of your application, look up bank interest rates, or locate a CIMB ATM or bank location near you.
You will not be chatting to a customer care person since the CIMB WhatsApp account does not support live chat yet. Instead, the WhatsApp channel functions more like a chatbot, with users selecting from a menu of pre-programmed interactions to obtain the information they want.
The green tick next to the account name indicates that the CIMB Malaysia account on WhatsApp is a confirmed Business account. Furthermore, because WhatsApp communications are secured with end-to-end encryption, users can be confident that no third parties will be able to read their conversations.
Example - Hap Seng Star (Mercedes-Benz Malaysia) customer support WhatsApp
Image by facebook.com
Hap Seng Star turned to WhatsApp, a popular instant messaging app in Malaysia and among Hap Seng Star's consumers, to provide a simple and effective customer communication channel. People could voice and video calls the dealer whenever it was convenient for them and have real-time chats thanks to the app, which allowed for speedy and secure two-way communication.
The luxury vehicle dealer sent out emails, SMS, and social media announcements about the new customer care channel, as well as QR codes that connected to the WhatsApp channel in all printed advertising materials.
Before connecting with a customer care professional, consumers were given the option to opt-in to the WhatsApp service after they had visited the channel. Customers were also reminded to arrange a service appointment and renew their auto insurance via WhatsApp by Hap Seng Star.
Hap Seng Star witnessed a significant rise in the number of consumers utilizing the WhatsApp customer service channel after offering the service in December 2019. By May 2020, the dealer had seen an increase in delivery rates by 30% as compared to other methods and read-message rates increased by 55% as compared to other routes.
Check out how other brands like Kiehl's and Tesco utilised digital technology other than WhatsApp for social CRM.
Create loyalty programs using WhatsApp Business API
Now that you've decided that the WhatsApp Business API is the best messaging service for your customer service solution, you might be asking what an API is. Just so you know WhatsApp Business API, another product from WhatsApp itself is different from WhatsApp Business App.
Learn more about the difference between WhatsApp Business API and WhatsApp Business App.
An API allows programs to communicate with one another, share data, and shield users from the complexities of the backend. It is not a simple operation to apply for the WhatsApp Business API, but with the right supplier, it may be a pleasant experience.
Furthermore, the benefits of reaching out to leads and clients where they are most comfortable and with faster reaction times are well worth the wait. After all, with 65 billion messages sent every day, WhatsApp has the biggest and most active user base of any messaging service. This is where you should send and receive messages and phone calls.
Enjoy an uninterrupted experience with an official WhatsApp Business API account
The other key benefit is that you can have a stable connection with minimal downtime. alfred24, a green delivery solution provider, had been using WhatsApp via a non-official partner of WhatsApp. The connection was sometimes unstable and when the phone that hosted the WhatsApp account crashed, they had to disconnect and reconnect the account using other devices. The whole process could take up to three hours and it might happen more than once a day, causing a delay in responding to messages.
But now, alfred24 enjoys an uninterrupted and seamless experience on SleekFlow, which offers a solution powered by an official partner of WhatsApp. What is better is that they can connect both their existing WhatsApp account and the newly set up WhatsApp Official Business Account to SleekFlow, managing all the conversations in just one place. Owing to its stability, they save a considerable amount of time on solving technical issues, reducing response time by 60%.
I think the best feature of SleekFlow is the automated assignment of conversation and automatic replies. We tried other platforms but there were too many restrictions. With SleekFlow, we can configure the settings on our own such as whom to assign the conversation and when to send out the out-of-office message.
Alvin Lee
General Manager
Read how alfred24 creates a stable and effective communication channel with SleekFlow.
If you want to use WhatsApp to generate leads, give customer care, or boost user interaction using a combination of live agents and chatbots, a WhatsApp integration API is the way to go. Contact us to learn more about WhatsApp Business API.
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