WhatsApp business chatbots have picked up tremendously ever since the messaging platform opened its doors for business in January 2018.
You can’t ignore the immense marketing potential of WhatsApp. It boasts an average open rate of a whopping 98%.
And that’s not all.
WhatsApp allows you to share all kinds of rich media content, making it super interactive and engaging. Plus, it’s incredibly user-friendly, so brands can effortlessly connect with their customers in a way that feels natural and seamless.
After surveying over 355 businesses worldwide with IDC, a whopping 61% said WhatsApp is now a crucial channel for customer acquisition. It’s their go-to platform for engaging their customers in conversations.
Customer acquisition through direct messaging and WhatsApp marketing are the hot trends right now, and brands are riding this wave all the way to the shore.
With automation and chatbots, WhatsApp empowers businesses to provide support, generate leads, and nurture prospects along the sales funnel.
What is a WhatsApp chatbot?
The WhatsApp chatbots are like super-smart assistants powered by artificial intelligence, allowing businesses to engage with their customers in a personalized and efficient manner.
This incredible tool ensures seamless engagement with your customers, even beyond regular business hours, all without requiring human intervention. It’s like having a dedicated assistant who never rests, delivering exceptional service and support around the clock.
When you engage with a WhatsApp Chatbot, it may feel like you’re interacting with a real person, but in reality, it’s an automated system responding to your messages. For an eCommerce company, for example, leveraging a WhatsApp Chatbot can be a game-changer.
It can handle product inquiries, provide delivery updates, process refunds, and even distribute marketing materials to supercharge sales.
It can ease up the process to a great extent.
Why do businesses require a WhatsApp chatbot?
Managing customer queries becomes a breeze when you have a small customer base. However, as your business expands and your customer count grows, you’ll need a chatbot that can handle interactions with leads and customers around the clock.
It’s all about scalability and ensuring that you can provide seamless support and engagement regardless of the time or the volume of inquiries. That’s why having a reliable 24/7 chatbot becomes an essential asset as your business continues to flourish.
Overall, here is why setting up a WhatsApp chatbot for business can be beneficial
1. Enhanced customer support
WhatsApp chatbots provide businesses with the ability to offer instant and automated responses to customer queries. This ensures prompt assistance and round-the-clock support, even outside of traditional business hours.
Customers can receive immediate answers to their questions, improving their overall experience and satisfaction.
2. Time and cost efficiency
By utilizing chatbots, businesses can handle multiple customer interactions simultaneously. This reduces the need for human agents to handle every query individually, resulting in significant time and cost savings.
Chatbots can efficiently resolve routine inquiries, allowing human agents to focus on more complex and critical tasks.
3. Increased engagement
WhatsApp chatbots engage customers in a conversational manner, providing interactive and personalized experiences. Through natural language processing and AI capabilities, chatbots can understand customer intent and respond accordingly, making interactions feel more human-like.
This level of engagement keeps customers actively involved and interested in the conversation.
4. Streamlined processes
Chatbots automate various tasks, such as lead generation, appointment scheduling, and order tracking. By handling these routine processes, chatbots streamline operations, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency. Businesses can save time and resources while delivering a seamless customer experience.
5. Data collection and analysis
During customer interactions, chatbots can gather valuable data such as customer preferences, behavior patterns, and frequently asked questions. This data can be analyzed to gain insights into customer needs, preferences, and pain points.
Businesses can leverage this information to optimize marketing strategies, improve products or services, and personalize customer experiences.
Have a look at how Flipkart leveraged our WhatsApp business chatbot to boost engagement.
How to create a WhatsApp Chatbot for Business?
Follow these steps when building a Whatsapp chatbot:
1. Pick the right platform
This boils down to two choices
- Build using code
- Use a powerful, no-code platform (way easier and preferred)
When it comes to building a chatbot, opting for a no-code platform like Netcore is the smarter choice.
Think about it: why go through the hassle of coding a chatbot from scratch when you can visually create your very own WhatsApp chatbot? It’s all about simplicity and efficiency, empowering you to bring your chatbot to life effortlessly.
2. Essential criteria for implementing chatbots on WhatsApp
- Accessing WhatsApp Business API is the first step, and it’s granted by WhatsApp itself through its authorized partners.
- A verified business on Facebook is a prerequisite for obtaining API access to set up your WhatsApp bot.
- Additionally, it’s necessary to register a designated phone number as your official WhatsApp Business phone number.
- WhatsApp will initiate a verification call to this number to confirm and activate it for your WhatsApp Business Account. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that the number is capable of receiving calls from the USA.
3. Begin the process by configuring and linking your WhatsApp Business account to Netcore
Link your WhatsApp Business account with Netcore to deploy messages. Choose your WhatsApp chatbot and provider, allowing you to send messages directly from the platform.
4. Configure Whatsapp
Simply enter your WhatsApp Business number in the designated phone number field. This is the phone number that you registered and verified for your WhatsApp Business Account.
5. Test the WhatsApp chatbots
With all your details entered and configured, it’s time to put your WhatsApp AI chatbot to the test. Take this opportunity to interact with your chatbot, simulate various scenarios, and observe how it responds to different queries and user inputs. This testing phase allows you to ensure that your chatbot is functioning as intended and delivering the desired user experience.
Designing your WhatsApp Business Chatbot’s Conversations
When you create a WhatsApp chatbot for your WhatsApp Business account, it becomes the initial interactive representation of your business. That’s why it’s absolutely crucial to prioritize the most critical aspect: conversation design.
Designing effective and engaging conversations is key to ensuring a positive user experience and achieving your business goals.
By carefully planning the flow, tone, and structure of your bot’s conversations, you can create meaningful interactions that align with your brand and effectively meet the needs of your customers.
So, when building your WhatsApp bot, don’t underestimate the importance of conversation design—it sets the foundation for success.
1. Develop diverse chatbot flows
When designing your conversational experience, it’s important to keep in mind that there will be multiple flows aimed at guiding users toward specific end goals, such as completing a purchase or filling out a sign-up details page.
By incorporating multiple chatbot flows, you can optimize your conversational design to drive users towards these desired outcomes efficiently.
This approach allows you to streamline the user journey and maximize the effectiveness of your chatbot in achieving your ultimate goal.
2. Prioritize customer support
When designing your conversation, it’s important to create a polite and assistant-like chatbot persona.
Avoid excessive marketing or bragging about your products. Instead, focus on providing helpful information to your customers when they ask for it. Keep the interactions customer-centric and ensure the chatbot serves as a valuable resource to assist them.
3. Keep your text short and sweet
Think about it: how often do you actually read a long text on WhatsApp? Your users feel the same way. That’s why it’s super important to keep your chatbot’s responses short and snappy. Make them effective and to the point.
But if you need to explain something in detail, you can always attach a document or a media file along with your short message. That way, you can give your users all the information they need without bombarding them with long, overwhelming texts. It’s all about finding that perfect balance.
4. End with a clear call to action
The whole purpose of building a WhatsApp Business Chatbot is to boost your business. And here’s a crucial tip: when wrapping up a conversation, make sure your chatbot nudges the user to take action.
It can be as simple as saying, “Purchase now!” or “Fill in the details.” Encourage them to take that next step, guiding them towards completing a transaction or providing the necessary information.
Remember, every conversation is an opportunity to drive those conversions and achieve your business goals.
How does a WhatsApp Business Chatbot Play into your Overall Omnichannel Campaign?
You won’t believe it, but there are over 2 billion people around the world using WhatsApp! And get this: on average, they open the app a whopping 23 to 25 times every single day.
Your WhatsApp Business Chatbot seamlessly fits into your larger omnichannel support strategy.
The chatbot you create can also be deployed across various other messaging channels like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, and more. It’s like having a versatile assistant that can engage with your customers across multiple platforms.
With a single platform, you can manage all those conversations in one place. It’s like a central hub where your agents can see the entire history of past conversations, no matter which channel they took place on.
The best part is that it creates a seamless experience for your customers. They can switch between channels and still pick up right where they left off. It’s just like having a natural, human conversation that flows effortlessly across different platforms.
So, whether your customers prefer WhatsApp, Messenger, or any other channel, your chatbot is ready to provide top-notch support and make their experience a breeze.
WhatsApp Chatbot for Business: Tips and Best Practices
We can’t really talk about making the best out of the WhatsApp business chatbot without knowing some key aspects to boost engagement.
1. Deliver information adds value
It might seem repetitive since it has already been mentioned that a WhatsApp channel should offer value to the user.
However, as an automated process, some users may succumb to the temptation of utilizing WhatsApp for all kinds of communication, regardless of its relevance or value to the user.
You want to avoid falling into that trap and instead focus on delivering valuable and relevant information to your users.
Sending them a link every time you publish a new blog article? It might not be the best approach.
But how about providing personalized recommendations and exclusive offers and keeping them in the loop with important product updates? Now, that’s more like it!
Those are the kinds of messages that will truly resonate with your users and keep them engaged.
Remember, users don’t want to be bombarded with constant notifications from the business channels they’ve subscribed to. It’s all about quality over quantity here. If you want to keep people engaged with your channel, less is definitely more.
So, instead of overwhelming them with a flood of notifications, focus on delivering meaningful and valuable content that will truly resonate with your users.
2. Create a unique and tailored experience
Personalization plays a crucial role in building an engaging WhatsApp chatbot. By leveraging customer data, businesses can tailor messages according to individual preferences.
For instance, they can send personalized product recommendations based on previous purchases or offer discounts based on service usage.
This level of customization creates a more personalized and meaningful experience for customers, making them feel understood and valued.
Ultimately, this approach enhances user engagement and fosters long-term customer satisfaction.
Here’s a neat trick to personalize your chatbot interactions: use variables to capture real-time data and incorporate it into the conversation. It’s like having a memory bank that helps you make the chat feel more personal and natural.
For example, you can save the user’s name and then refer to them by their name throughout the conversation. It adds that friendly touch and shows that you’re paying attention.
And hey, if you need to double-check their contact information later on, you can easily retrieve it from those variables. Make the conversation smoother and more customized for the user.
By using these variables, you can create a more personalized and engaging chatbot experience that feels tailor-made for each user. It’s the small details that make a big difference.
3. Provide choices and interactive features
When it comes to engagement, chatbots are capable of much more than just exchanging messages or gathering basic user information. They bring a whole lot to the table.
One cool feature you can use to boost engagement is buttons. They give users multiple response options to choose from, adding a fun and interactive element to the conversation.
Instead of overwhelming them with a long message, you can break it down into smaller pieces and let users participate in between. It’s like having a dynamic back-and-forth that keeps them engaged and actively involved.
4. Prioritize privacy and secure user information
To receive communications via WhatsApp, users must actively opt-in.
Businesses cannot simply purchase databases and begin messaging people without consent. It’s all about respecting the user’s choice and ensuring a permission-based approach.
WhatsApp offers a relatively private space for users, where they can feel assured that they won’t be bombarded with irrelevant messages like what often happens in email inboxes.
However, respecting user privacy goes beyond that and requires additional measures.
We shouldn’t overlook the fact that WhatsApp is a personal messaging platform. It’s important to strike a balance and avoid constantly bombarding users with updates, as this may lead them to unsubscribe from your channel.
5. Include an opt-out mechanism
With that in mind, it’s essential to provide users with the choice to opt out of the chatbot experience if they desire. Respecting their autonomy and allowing them to discontinue the interaction easily demonstrates a user-centric approach.
You might find it counterintuitive: if users unsubscribe, how can they possibly stay engaged, right?
Well, here’s a silver lining: at least they won’t have negative feedback to share about it. If a user finds the WhatsApp chatbot experience intrusive or annoying, it’s best to give them an easy way to opt out without any hassle.
Conclusion
By leveraging customer acquisition through WhatsApp, you can maximize the power of digital marketing, utilize your resources efficiently, make the most of your digital ad spend, and enhance your conversations with customers.
Implementing these helpful tips allows you to harness WhatsApp’s potential to drive marketing outcomes for your organization. It enables a comprehensive messaging approach that attracts, nurtures, and re-engages your valuable customers.
It’s important to note that the WhatsApp Marketing Strategies mentioned above require the WhatsApp Business API. To get started, you can seek assistance from a WhatsApp Business partner (BSP) like Netcore Cloud.
With Netcore’s expertise and cutting-edge solutions, we empower businesses to reach their target audience effectively. Our advanced analytics and AI-powered automation enable brands to optimize their marketing efforts, identify potential customers, and deliver impactful messages that resonate with their audience.
Connect with us to elevate your customer acquisition game and unlock exciting growth opportunities for your brand.
