Learn how to use WhatsApp for business and provide your customers with immediate, personalized customer service.
While you’ve probably already included platforms like Twitter and Facebook in your social media strategy, WhatsApp could be equally as important to your brand.
That’s right: WhatsApp isn’t just for texting your coworkers or video chatting with your family in a different city. It can be used for business, too.
WhatsApp Business was created specifically with small business owners in mind. It can help you connect with your customers and support them with immediate, personalized customer service.
If you’ve never considered adding a WhatsApp Business account into your brand’s social strategy, we’ll explore why that might be a good idea.
Bonus: Download our free WhatsApp for Customer Care guide to get more pointers on how to use WhatsApp Business to get higher conversion rates, better customer experience, lower costs, and higher customer satisfaction.
WhatsApp is a messaging app, like Facebook Messenger or We Chat.
The mobile app uses the phone’s Internet connection to let you communicate with other WhatsApp users, making it an affordable alternative to international calling or texting.
WhatsApp was an independent messenger company when it launched in 2009, but Facebook acquired it in 2014. As of 2021, it is still owned by Facebook.
People use WhatsApp for business or personal use because:
The numbers speak for themselves.
2 billion people worldwide use WhatsApp at least once per month.
This places WhatsApp ahead of other popular messenger apps: Facebook Messenger with 1.3 billion users and WeChat with 1.2 billion users.
Source: Statista
It’s behind only Facebook and YouTube for worldwide popularity.
Source: Hootsuite
In fact, in the USA, the average person uses it 143 times a month.
That’s an increase from 450 million at the end of 2018.
Following the States, the countries with the most WhatsApp downloads in 2020 were Brazil, the United Kingdom, India, then Mexico.
Source: Statista
Source: Statista
That’s why 82% of Americans use the app. Other popular reasons include strengthening a professional network (13%) and getting entertainment (10%).
A record 1.4 billion video and voice calls were made using WhatsApp on December 31, 2020.
While only 4% of American WhatsApp users downloaded the app to follow brands or companies, there is still huge value in using WhatsApp for your business.
WhatsApp Business was built specifically with the small business owner in mind and offers specialized solutions that can help you connect with your customers.
To get started, you need a WhatsApp Business account. If you don’t have one yet, follow these simple step-by-step instructions.
1. Download the WhatsApp Business app for Android or iPhone
Find the app on the App Store or Google Play, or download it via WhatsApp’s site.
2. Agree to the terms and conditions
3. Enter your business’s phone number
4. Fill in your details
After you enter your phone number, you will automatically be directed to this page. Fill in the essential details like your business name, add a profile picture and select a category that best describes your business.
5. Learn more about the WhatsApp business tools
In the next step, you can learn about setting up a product catalog for your ecommerce or automated messaging.
You can also skip the tutorial and go straight to settings.
Before you move on to advanced features like automated messaging, make sure to add more information about your business. You can manage addresses, hours and websites in the Business Profile category in settings.
6. Now, start connecting with your customers
That’s it! Now that you know how to create a WhatsApp account for your business, you can start using the messenger app to communicate with customers.
So, why should you use WhatsApp as a business owner? Here are 4 things the app might help you with.
With a WhatsApp Business account, you can make your social media customer service more efficient and personal.
On top of serving as a channel for direct messaging, WhatsApp Business has several tools that you can use to elevate communication with customers:
On top of all this, it’s simply easy and affordable to communicate with international customers via WhatsApp Business.
You can think of WhatsApp Business’s catalog tool as a mobile storefront. It lets your customers browse your products without leaving the app.
This tool is useful for highlighting new products, seasonal collections or bestsellers.
Here are a few key facts about the catalog:
WhatsApp Business isn’t just for communicating with customers. It’s also a useful way to stay in touch with employees. In fact, messenger apps like WhatsApp are used by 79% of professionals for communication at work.
Source: Digital 2020
The group chat feature lets you message with up to 256 people at one time. It’s possible to send PDFs and other documents over WhatsApp business. Files can be up to 100MB.
Finally, you use WhatsApp to communicate with others in your industry. The app’s video call tool can be used in a professional networking capacity, just like Zoom or Skype.
You can even sync WhatsApp Business with your desktop, so those professional networking calls can be done from your office computer rather than your phone.
Sparkcentral makes customer service conversations a breeze. It’s an automated messaging platform, ideal for managing high volumes of messages.
Sparkcentral offers chatbots and AI solutions that help businesses automate customer service across social platforms — all in one dashboard. It works with WhatsApp, as well as Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Instagram and more.
Scan this QR code to start chatting with a Sparkcentral representative on WhatsApp, and find out more about what it can do, right now:
WhatsAuto is another solution you can use to build better auto-replies. WhatsAuto lets you create a chatbot, schedule auto-replies and easily turn auto-replies on and off.
Source: Google Play
Download this business tool if you don’t want to spend time manually deleting old files off of WhatsApp. Cleanup makes cleaning up WhatsApp Business easy — you can select multiple files at once and quickly delete old images, videos, audio files, notes and profile pictures. The app works offline, too.
This app makes managing your business’s WhatsApp contact list easy. Use it to import WhatsApp contacts into your iPhone, merge duplicate contacts and connect with someone on WhatsApp without adding them as an official contact.
So, there you have it! Now you know why WhatsApp could be a great tool for your business. Don’t forget: messenger apps like WhatsApp Business are great ways to elevate customer service, and improve communication with both your customers and your team.
Save time building an efficient customer support system on social media with Hootsuite. Respond to questions and complaints, create tickets from social conversations, and work with chatbots all from one dashboard. Try it free today.
Manage every customer inquiry on a single platform with Sparkcentral. Never miss a message, improve customer satisfaction, and save time. See it in action.
Chat with us
Many businesses moved online in 2020 and are struggling to provide quality social media customer service. Don't be one of them.
Social selling is a new approach to selling that allows salespeople to laser-target their prospecting and establish rapport through existing connections.
A social media ecommerce strategy can help you build brand awareness, communicate with customers, and generate more sales for your online store.
Social commerce is what happens when savvy marketers take the best of eCommerce and combine it with social media.
See how Sparkcentral makes it easy to keep your customers happy. Manage all your customer care channels—SMS, social media, WhatsApp, Live chat, and apps—from one simple platform.
