With over 2.5 billion active users, WhatsApp has become the most popular messaging app in over 100 countries. Its user-friendly interface and secure end-to-end encryption allow businesses and individuals alike to actively engage with friends, family, and customers from around the globe.
Since WhatsApp is so popular among business owners, they created WhatsApp chatbots to help businesses with customer service and notification delivery. It’s a convenient way to communicate with customers regarding product availability, shipping information, delivery updates, booking and billing, and address other customer issues.
Chatbots have evolved over the years, and they can now easily sustain a conversation with a user in natural language. They can provide meaningful answers to questions about your business as well. Not only are chatbots useful in improving customer engagement, but they also help build brand loyalty by answering pressing questions promptly.
What WhatsApp Chatbots Can Do
WhatsApp chatbots can handle frequently asked questions, allowing businesses to provide support 24/7 and turn over other concerns to human agents when necessary. Small businesses are now relieved from the pressure of going through hundreds of routine questions, and their customer support staff can turn their attention to higher-value tasks. Aside from answering FAQs, chatbots can also collect customer feedback, show products and categories, and more.
Let’s dive into the many benefits of using WhatsApp chatbots.
The Benefits of Using WhatsApp Chatbots
WhatsApp chatbots offer small businesses the opportunity to reach out to their customers. Here are some of the ways chatbots can benefit different stakeholders in a small business.
1. Business Owners
Chatbots offer a way for businesses to send notifications like delivery information, credit card alerts, travel confirmation, etc. and provide seamless customer service that could potentially increase customer retention and engagement.
WhatsApp chatbots are available for businesses of all sizes, from SMEs and larger enterprises. Using one enables you to connect with your customers over several channels. Your customers don’t have to wait in a queue to answer their questions. It also reduces human error compared to more traditional customer service platforms.
2. Marketers and Salespeople
WhatsApp chatbots aren’t just for business owners, but it’s also useful for marketers and salespeople. Chatbots can help send discounts and other promo alerts in a way that catches your audience’s attention and expands your reach. In fact, WhatsApp messages have a 98% open rate, so you’ll have a higher chance to successfully convert your leads.
For sales executives, you can use chatbots to increase sales by helping customers find the products they’re looking for, walk them through the payment process, attract customers with discounts, and up-sell using targeted recommendations for your audience. As mentioned, chatbots help keep customers engaged, shortening the sales cycle.
With WhatsApp chatbots doing the recurring tasks marketers usually do, you can free up time for more impactful work. It’s effective for generating leads and following up on prospects, so you can easily integrate them into your marketing funnel.
WhatsApp chatbots personalize these chats, allowing you to build rapport with your customers. There are different formatting options you can choose from, and you can also use Broadcast Lists (or a saved list of message recipients so you can bulk-send messages without manually selecting each recipient) to launch your marketing campaigns.
3. Clients
Chatbots can also benefit your customers as it provides 24/7 customer support and personalized interactions that contribute to a positive customer experience. With chatbots, your customers don’t have to download a different app since they can use WhatsApp – an app that they’re already familiar with – to do business with you. WhatsApp also ensures that all conversations remain confidential, thanks to its end-to-end encryption, two-factor authentication, identity protection, and business verification.
Your customers can easily communicate with the brand and have answers to their queries in an instant. The immediate replies from chatbots keep the conversation going, so it’ll take less time for potential customers to reach a buying decision.
Aside from providing an immediate answer to queries, chatbots also offer a quicker issue resolution. Your customers want instant action and since chatbots collect customer information, your human agents have all the data they need to resolve issues. If your agents have follow-up questions, they can answer in real-time rather than wait for days to receive an email response.
The Bottom Line
As a business owner, it’s important to meet both potential and existing customers where they already are. WhatsApp Business chatbots can help you establish a positive relationship with your customers. It also allows you to streamline your customer support processes so you can provide immediate service to your customers.
