This post will guide you on why WhatsApp should be part of your customer service toolkit, how you can use it effectively, and finally, you will see some examples of successful brands using WhatsApp to keep in touch with their customers.
Table of Contents
Why Should You Use WhatsApp For greece mobile phone number list Customer Service?
How to Deliver Great Customer Support via WhatsApp
5 Real-world Examples of Businesses Using WhatsApp For Customer Service
DelightChat: Shared Inbox to Manage WhatsApp Support
Why Should You Use WhatsApp For Customer Service?
Let's jump right in!
Flexibility to choose from multiple message formats
WhatsApp allows you to send text, images, videos, or PDFs. That covers all major formats of communication.
Want to send your restaurant's menu or a catalog of your designs? Use PDF.
Want to give an update about delivery? Go for a text message.
Have an upcoming event? Announce the launch with a short video.
Need to explain a complex process? Send screenshots and images.
Add a human touch to your conversations by adding emojis
For an even richer & interactive experience for your customers, use live video, voice note, or call functionality. It will help resolve the customers' queries more understandably.
Make your business run efficiently with chatbot capabilities
WhatsApp chatbot is a set of automated replies that mimic a human conversation, and the dialogue feels like you are chatting with a human.
For example, if you run an ecommerce store & have a WhatsApp chatbot created, it can show products to your users according to the category they choose or help them track their package. It helps in customer retention and engagement.
A WhatsApp chatbot will help make your business more efficient because:
It will assist your users during non-working hours.
You won't have to keep hiring agents as your business grows.
It can handle multiple chats while freeing up your time for more strategic tasks.
Customers feel that WhatsApp is a secure and credible channel
Customers want a quick and easy way to communicate with businesses but not by putting private information on unsecured channels.
WhatsApp has discussed its end-to-end encryption feature in great lengths, promoting it as a channel that can be trusted to share information. This builds confidence in customers that no one is snooping on their conversation with you.
WhatsApp also validates the authenticity of your business account. Customers are shown a message that they are interacting with the official business account of your brand.
WhatsApp offers a smooth, quick, and easy way to communicate
Going to your website, finding a form to submit a query, and then waiting for what feels like a dark, long winter to get a reply is a frustrating experience for any customer.
Now, imagine if they could just grab their phone, search your business on WhatsApp in less than ten seconds and send you their query. WhatsApp doesn't take ages to load, the UI is familiar to everyone, and it's intuitive for people of all age groups.
That's smooth as butter.
So using WhatsApp to solve your customers' queries will get your customer loyalty, create word of mouth and enhance brand image.
Here are some examples of successful brands talking about how WhatsApp has helped their business (source).
How to Deliver Great Customer Support via WhatsApp
We've discussed the why. Time to dive in to the how!
First, let your customers know you are on WhatsApp
If no one knows you are WhatsApp, then all your strategies and tools will be useless so let your audience know you have added WhatsApp as a communication channel.
Start by adding your WhatsApp number to the
Home page of your website by using a WhatsApp chat icon
'Contact Us’ page on the website
Email signatures of your customer support team or account managers (in B2B)
Newsletter or promotional emails
Bio of social media accounts
You can run email or social media campaigns informing your audience that you now cater to their queries on WhatsApp. Position it as a competitive advantage or provide incentives to start interacting with you on WhatsApp.
Pro tip: Make your WhatsApp number clickable by using a vCard. That way, when someone clicks on it, they will automatically be redirected to WhatsApp, and your contact details will automatically be downloaded in their contact list.
Here's an example of a WhatsApp chat widget on a live website:
When you type your message & click the send icon, it leads to your WhatsApp chat and starts a conversation with the brand.
Use WhatsApp Business API and a Shared Inbox
If you:
Are answering 50+ queries per day on WhatsApp
Have more than one team member handling customer service
Want to handle queries from different social media platforms in a single platform
Then, you need to use a WhatsApp Shared Inbox. It is a collaborative inbox that lets multiple people receive, respond and track messages in one place. Here are some advantages of using a Shared Inbox for WhatsApp:
Individual tickets can be assigned to a team member, so you always know who is responsible for a customer query.
The risk of data misuse is avoided by only allowing the right team members to access the messages.
Owners don't have to share their WhatsApp numbers and OTPs with customer support agents.
Teams work efficiently as you can add notes on chats for internal teams.
You can resolve queries quickly with automation, tags, and fast reply templates.
DelightChat is one such provider of a WhatsApp shared inbox. But that’s not all, it also allows you to manage your customer support queries from various channels like social media and email, all in one place. Here's what you can do with DelightChat:
Manage WhatsApp API number for customer support
Also manage messages from, Facebook, Instagram, Live Chat, and Email
Create multiple shared inboxes if you run multiple ecommerce stores
Track which team member is working on which conversations
Ensure seamless ticket transition from one agent to the other by using private notes on chats
Speed up responses to common queries with fast-reply templates
A WhatsApp shared inbox can be activated with the help of the WhatsApp Business API that you can get from DelightChat.
Signup for a demo and the team can help you set it up within a few minutes.
Build post-purchase engagement messages
Getting a new customer is not the end of the customer journey. You have to nurture them even after purchase. So that they are not just customers but become raving fans because of your service & you get an opportunity to increase the customer lifetime value by offering upsells.
Let's summarize the different types of messages you can send
Order confirmation: Send a message that the order has been received and it's being packed. Include a warm thank-you for giving your business a chance to serve them.
Order tracking: Send a link to track the order once it is ready to be shipped.
Delivery notifications: When the order is delivered, inform over WhatsApp that the order is delivered. This is helpful when the order is collected by someone else other than the actual customer or neighbors.
Feedback: Send a link to a form for recording their experience with your store or ask them 2-3 questions directly on WhatsApp and later collate the answers from different customers. People are much more likely to respond on WhatsApp than email since it's easy and quick.
Upsell: Once someone has bought from you, there's a higher chance they will buy again to see what else you can offer them. Use WhatsApp messages to showcase products related to their recent purchase or recommend upgrading to a higher version of the product.
Referral requests: Referrals are a great way to find new customers through the existing customer base. You can also include an incentive to refer friends and family.
Since most of these messages would be standard for all customers, it makes sense to create these once and use them again & again. To manage the editing, and sending of these messages, DelightChat offers the 'Automation Messages' feature.
