WhatsApp Business API: 6 Signs It’s Time to Make the Upgrade
05 Dec 2022
The WhatsApp Business app has become the trusty companion of millions of small businesses worldwide, letting them get up close and ‘personalised’ with their audience.
Its popularity stems from the need for timely servicing of a small customer base, which the app facilitates with its auto-reply features, active chat management, filtering tools, and many more.
However, there will always come a time when the capabilities of the WhatsApp Business app are no longer enough to support these businesses’ growing operations.
This is where the WhatsApp Business API comes in to help service an increasingly expanding customer base.
Unlike the app, the API is an enterprise-grade solution that provides extensive scalability, rich management features, deeper customer insights, the ability to work with official WhatsApp Business Partners, and many integration options.
But when should businesses make the switch to WhatsApp Business API? Here are six tell-tale signs to upgrade sooner than later.
1. Your customers are blocking your messages on WhatsApp
Customers are increasingly becoming wary of interacting with businesses online as recent events, such as the rise in cyberattacks and incidents involving customer data, have made them more afraid of being compromised. Such fears can manifest in the WhatsApp Business app as customers block small companies without a verification badge. By applying for the verification process via the WhatsApp Business API, businesses can show irrefutable proof of their authenticity and avoid getting blocked by their customers.
2. One person is no longer enough to service customers
With the WhatsApp Business app tied to the phone number of the device it is installed on, business owners are limited to just one person manning customer relations.
During the early stages of a business, this arrangement is certainly sufficient, but as the number of customers and customer interactions grow, this limitation makes the app unviable.
Switching to the WhatsApp Business API lets businesses enable more agents to chat with customers and effectively address their growing customer base.
Moreover, the API solution allows for collaboration between agents so they can share critical information that facilitates more personalised and richer customer experiences, thus driving engagement.
3. WhatsApp integration with company systems is indispensable
Customer conversations via WhatsApp provide organisations with an abundance of insights they can leverage.
Still, these can prove difficult to access and do a deep dive on in the WhatsApp Business app.
The WhatsApp Business API avoids this problem by fully integrating with a business’s deployed enterprise frameworks and systems, including CRM platforms, ERP, call centre solutions, and more.
This integration capability lets brands develop more personalised experiences for their customers based on previous interactions, as well as identify customer service complaints more effectively.
The result is a more optimised experience for the brand and its customer.
4. Increasing conversation volumes becomes unmanageable
As the volume of customer interactions grows, companies may struggle to keep up even with sufficient agents or template responses.
This is why businesses already running the WhatsApp Business API are increasingly relying on AI and chatbot technology to answer simple questions and requests, offer greetings, and send notifications and other information.
By working with a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP) that offers AI/chatbot functionality, brands can seamlessly integrate such features into their customer interactions, relieving the strain on critical resources.
It also frees customer service personnel to tend to more important matters such as high-value or multi-faceted inquiries.
5. Leveraging analytics is no longer a luxury but a necessity
Analytics is critical to collecting customer insights, overseeing management, and detecting potential service blind spots. WhatsApp Business API leaves no valuable insight behind by enabling companies to easily access key metrics on signal and conversational performance. Monitoring with the API solution, from the sent and delivered statistics to read and received numbers, facilitates effective monitoring and adjustment where necessary to improve the brand’s conversational strategy.
6. More and more customers are getting left out
Apart from WhatsApp, established businesses also use other messaging platforms and communication mediums for a genuine multi-channel experience.
These include Viber, Facebook Messenger, Apple Business, and so on
Companies may cover all customer touchpoints, including SMS fallback, by partnering with an official WhatsApp Business Partner who supports a wide range of messaging platforms besides WhatsApp—such as Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Web Chat, and Email.
Conclusion
The WhatsApp Business app is undoubtedly effective for what it was designed for, but its capabilities will ultimately prove limiting as businesses continue to grow and expand.
Thus, if your venture is steadily gaining traction, keep an eye out for the signs above to determine if now is the perfect time to switch over to WhatsApp Business API.
With Moobicast, businesses can send bulk messages via WhatsApp and traditional SMS through various options, including sending to contact groups, scheduled and event messages, and message campaigns send messages using various options, such as sending messages to several contacts at once, arranging messages to be delivered at specific times, and establishing a message campaign.
Get started with our WhatsApp API solution and SMS API in Singapore today to boost conversation rates, improve customer loyalty, and build long-term relationships with your target audience.
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