Whatsapp Messenger for Business

 What is WhatsApp Messenger?

WhatsApp Messenger is an extremely popular messaging app that also allows you to make voice calls, video calls, share media, etc using an active internet connection. Whatsapp has crossed all the boundaries of popularities with more than 2 billion active users around the globe. It won’t be wrong to say that almost everyone who owns a smartphone has WhatsApp messenger installed on their phones. Whatsapp messenger also allows you to make international calls across the globe using internet services which means that you need not pay any extra charges for making an international call.

Whatsapp messenger consolidates traditional messaging services, social media, and your smartphone for a completely immersive experience added with an end to end encryption security.

Whatsapp messenger is completely free to use and you need only an internet connection and a smartphone to use the WhatsApp messenger.

Features of Whatsapp messenger:

• Voice Calls and video calls with WhatsApp

Whatsapp does not need any extra effort from you to save the contact again and all. It simply uses the contacts available on your smartphone and allows you to connect with those contacts for voice as well as video calls. It allows you to easily dial up someone from your contact list for chat or calls. 

• Messaging

You can start messaging someone or view the older messages in the chat section of the WhatsApp messenger. You can send and receive messages from your friends and acquaintances. Also, WhatsApp messages are secured with an end to end encryption security feature which means that no third party can view or access your conversations. Apart from sending text messages it also allows you to share documents and send different kinds of media to your contacts.

• Customization feature

Whatsapp messenger also allows you to customize the application according to your ease. You can use different notification tones for different contacts and you can use your own desired wallpapers.

•  Privacy

Whatsapp messenger is a secure messaging platform. It gives you certain privacy features that allow you to hide your profile from the public and make it accessible to your contacts only. You can also set a password for your WhatsApp application so that nobody else can access it on your phone. 

Whatsapp trends for businesses

Whatsapp is already the most popular app in the world. Apart from the normal WhatsApp messaging app, there is also a WhatsApp business app for small to medium scale businesses. Whatsapp also provides an application for an enterprise-sized business called Whatsapp enterprise. Let’s take a look at the trends of the WhatsApp business

• Payments

The payment feature by Whatsapp is still in its early days. But this is going to be something big in the upcoming years that should be taken advantage of by the businesses. It will be a game-changer that should fuel massive growth in Whatsapp as an application for business. This feature will allow users to use the different facebook owned platforms for making and accepting payments without having to resubmit the information again and again.

•  Product catalog

This feature is already used in most of the regions by businesses to showcase their products and offerings on the application itself to the consumers. Therefore it makes it possible for small scale businesses to showcase their products and interact with the customers without having the need to have a dedicated website.

• Multi-agents

Whatsapp messenger business platform is also planning to remove its current drawback that allows an account to be used only on one device One of the drawbacks of the current WhatsApp Business platform is that it allows an account to be used on only one device at a time.  Whatsapp will enable the feature to use an account on multiple devices that would make it easier for the businesses to use WhatsApp.

Why businesses should use Whatsapp?

• Number of users

Whatsapp boasts an exaggerating 1.5 billion users across 180 countries. If you are running a business then you can certainly not ignore these numbers. Whatsapp is the most popular app across the globe and therefore it can help you to reach out to the maximum number if people and therefore increase your brand presence. 

• Number of new users added 

If you are still not satisfied with the number shown above then for your information apart from the 1.5 billion user base, almost a million people register on WhatsApp daily which makes the number of users count an ever-increasing number. 

• Among the most downloaded Android app in the world. 

If we go by the numbers then WhatsApp is the third most downloaded app in the world. There’s an overwhelming probability that your current customers and your future customers have already installed WhatsApp messenger on their phones and therefore using WhatsApp provides you a great opportunity to connect with those people.

• Time spent on WhatsApp daily

An average WhatsApp user spends almost 1950 minutes on the app daily. That’s over 3 hours spent on using WhatsApp connecting with friends, families, co-workers…and brands. This time is more than enough for you to reach your customers through this application and make a good impression.

•  An average user checks WhatsApp 23 times a day. 

An average user peeps into his WhatsApp for almost 23 times a day that gives you an excellent chance to get recognised by the users while they peep into their whatsapp.

• Security

 In today’s era of increased awareness about data security and privacy, customers find whatsapp to be a safe feature to interact with the brand or the business.

• Makes you accessible to the customers

Using WhatsApp for your business makes you available to your customers 24/7.  You can answer their questions and resolve their issues at any period of time which will enhance their experience with your brand. 

•  WhatsApp helps you understand your customers better

The conversation between customers and your brand is a rich source of data that you can use toi target that customer. These conversations provide you an insight of how you can reach out to that customer that would best satisfy their needs and requirements. 

How businesses can use WhatsApp?

With the ever-growing popularity of WhatsApp it's important that businesses should also start using it. Here are some of the ways in which businesses can use WhatsApp: 

•  Using WhatsApp For Internal Team Communication

If you are the business owner then you must be aware that employees are always reluctant to use any new application, but it is important to have internal communication within the employees and therefore this is where WhatsApp can come to your rescue. No one would be reluctant to use WhatsApp for the internal team communication since they are already well versed in the application. 

•   Using WhatsApp For Customer Communication

Follow-ups made on Whatsapp have a 40% higher chance of response as compared to the traditional calls. No one likes a sales call or a call from a company but people are likely to respond on WhatsApp.  These days businesses are even using WhatsApp to announce new offers and coupon codes. They are looking for new ways to reach out to customers with the help of WhatsApp.  It is less likely that the customers will listen to your offer closely over a phone call but when you do the same on WhatsApp the chances are high that you might get a positive response from the customer.

• Sending out updates

Whatsapp business also allows you to send out timely updates related to your products or your business.It’s always a better option to make your existing customers aware about your new offerings. It allows you to create a broadcast list to send out messages to a large number of people on a single click thereby savimg your time and eefort of texting each and every customer individually. Currently the number of contacts aloowed in a single broadcast list is 256.

• Using WhatsApp For Customer Support

Thanks to its wider reach to users whatsapp is an excellent tool for customer support . People prefer to raise an issue over whatsapp rather than calling you for customer support. Moreover if your business provides the facility of communicating over whatsapp then it automatically creates an image of quick and responsive customer service of your brand  into your customers mind and therefore increases their chances of  associating with your brand. 

•   Using WhatsApp For Marketing & Promotion

With such a high and ever-increasing user base WhatsApp can be a powerful marketing tool. 

Businesses can use Whatsapp to send pictures and videos related to their products or services on Whatsapp to their customers. Whatsapp messenger gives you an excellent opportunity to reach out to your existing customers and provide them with new offers and products. You can promote your products on whatsapp and you can also provide the feature of placing an order directly from the Whatsapp.

 How to set up WhatsApp for business?

Since quite some time small businesses have been using whatsapp for providing customer service and to conduct their business. While that can also work but it’s a better option to switch to the whatsapp business as it improves your credibility in the eyes of your customers.

We will look at the following required steps you need to start using whatsapp business.

1. Download the whatsapp business app from the App store.
2. Sign up using your contact number. You should use the business number here itself as it will  make the further steps easier to execute.
3. Now you need to create a profile for your business. Go to settings -> Business Settings -> Profile. Enter accurate details as per your business.

Now once you are done creating your business profile now you need to set up the application for business use. Whatsapp messenger for business comes with some smart messaging tools that save your time and make things easier for you. You can enable quick replies for customers as well as set up automated messages. Here’s the following steps that you need to follow to set up the whatsapp messenger for business use.

1. To set up these messaging tools, go to Settings > Business Settings and check the messaging options available there.

2. You will see three options out there: Away message, Greeting message, and Quick replies. You can select one of them according to your need and requirement

3. You also have the option to set up an automated away message when you’re unable to reply to your customers. You can also schedule the away messages on a daily basis. For quick replies you can create your own template message and pick a shortcut.

                    How to integrate Whatsapp messenger on a WordPress website?

• Step1: Go to your WordPress dashboard

• Step2: Go to plugins and select the “Add new” option.

• Step3: In the search option on the right side search for “join.chat”, you                                    can use other plugins also, but this one is free and easy to set up.

• Step4: Now Click on the install option.

• Step5: Again go to plugins and look for join.chat and click on the activate                                 option.

• Step6: Now go to settings options on your Dashboard again, you can now see                          the join.chat option.

• Step7: Click on the join.chat option and fill in your required details

• Step8: You can select the position of the icon on the screen.

• Step9: In the call to Action option you can pin down the message that you                                 want to display on your website.

• Step10: You can also customize the theme color according to your choice                                   and if you want to use the dark mode you can select the dark mode                                 option.

• Step11: Once you have completed all the entries click on save changes.