Do you think your marketing efforts are barely giving you your desired results? Well! It’s time to escape the norm and utilise WhatsApp marketing’s amazing potential.
With 2.7 billion active users worldwide, out of which over 535 million are Indian users, WhatsApp is much more than just a messaging app.
However, why should you even think about incorporating WhatsApp into their marketing strategy if it is largely regarded as a personal communication tool?
Here’s where WhatsApp Chatbots come into play. These powerful chatbots, specially designed for businesses, have lured over 1.26 billion business users.
Prepare to discover in this article how a WhatsApp chatbot can change the marketing game for businesses!
Why Use WhatsApp Chatbots for D2C Marketing
Features like broadcast lists, automation, and the WhatsApp Business API make WhatsApp a potent tool for D2C businesses. It enables individualized customer engagement, streamlined communication, and effective marketing campaigns.
There are many ways you can use WhatsApp to take your marketing to another level:
- WhatsApp Business API: WhatsApp Business API is basically a tool which helps you integrate your WhatsApp messaging capabilities with your company’s other systems, like your CRM, e-commerce platform, and helps you streamline your workflow. You can take advantage of the API to automate tasks like sending order confirmations, shipping updates, and personalized messages, which saves your time and company resources.
- Personalized Interaction: You can have one-on-one discussions in WhatsApp, and, thus, can directly answer consumers’ questions. It’s like a personal chat between two people, where you can offer them customized or personalized suggestions and make closer bonds.
- Real-time Support: WhatsApp chatbots are available all day, as compared to the limited hours of human agents. Therefore, you can immediately assist shoppers and promptly resolve their issues with the help of these chatbots, which increases customer satisfaction levels.
- Proactive Communication: WhatsApp can help you send timely updates on product launches, promotions, and order status and keep your buyers informed and involved.
- WhatsApp Broadcast Lists: With WhatsApp broadcast lists you send targeted messages to specific customer segments, promotie new products, offer discounts, or share exclusive content.
- Automated Notifications: You can link WhatsApp with your e-commerce platform to automate notifications for order confirmations, shipping updates, and delivery tracking, and make the customer experience better.
- Retargeting Campaigns: WhatsApp is a great way to reach customers who have previously interacted with your brand or shown interest in some products. You may even personalize the offers based on the products they liked earlier. This way, you can convert more dropped-off shoppers into customers.
Understanding WhatsApp Chatbot
A WhatsApp chatbot is an automated software that uses artificial intelligence or pre-programmed rules to interact with users on WhatsApp. It’s a machine-learning application aiding businesses in human-like conversations, allowing you to provide instant responses, answer customer queries, and accomplish tasks without human intervention.
How Do WhatsApp Chatbots Work?
- Integration with WhatsApp Business API: You need WhatsApp Business API to connect your chatbot to WhatsApp. This is how you’ll be able to send and receive messages, automate responses, and manage interactions at scale through the WhatsApp chatbot.
- User Interaction: When a user sends you a message on WhatsApp, your chatbot processes the input using Natural Language Processing (NLP) or predefined rules and responds to the customer.
- Automated Responses: The chatbot provides instant, relevant responses and assists the customers based on what they asked or raised a query about. For example:
- Answering FAQs (e.g., “What is your opening and closing time?”)
- Helping them with product details or order updates
- Guiding users through processes like booking appointments or making payments
- Task Execution: Chatbots can take several actions like sending invoices or payment links, updating customers on order status, collecting feedback or surveys, and more.
- Quick Handoff to Human Agents: If the chatbot cannot resolve a complex query, it can escalate the conversation to a live agent, giving the customer a smooth and satisfactory shopping experience.
- Data Accumulation and Analysis: WhatsApp chatbots fetch valuable data from customer interactions and help you understand customer preferences, improve services, and even personalize future communications.
Benefits of Adopting WhatsApp Chatbot for Your Business
WhatsApp chatbots have many advantages that bring in efficiency, engagement, and growth for brands:
24/7 Customer Support
A whopping 64% of shoppers feel that the best feature of chatbots is their round-the-clock. WhatsApp chatbots can instantly assist buyers at any time of the day. This way, customers can get help whenever they need it without having to wait for too long.
Banorte, a well-known financial group, for example, started using a WhatsApp chatbot as an instant customer support channel. The channel engages customers who are less digitally savvy and gives them a secure, convenient way to get information related to their pensions. It resulted in speedy, accessible support that increased customer satisfaction scores and lowered call center volumes.
The company saw:
- A stunning 55% increase in the number of customers served
- Nearly 35% decrease in operational costs
- A decrease of 18% in the cost of catering to each customer
Lowered Operational Costs
WhatsApp chatbots automate repetitive tasks, which cuts down the need to build large customer service teams and, thus, slashes operational costs. A report by Invesp says that companies can save nearly 30% on customer support costs by deploying chatbots.
Like, the brand Banco Bolivariano started using an automated WhatsApp digital assistant to deliver faster and more efficient customer experiences. Most of it all customer inquiries (98%) are handled only through WhatsApp, and they saw a 46% drop in call center volumes. The WhatsApp chatbot has saved costs and converted more customers, with 56% of additional credit card services bought through WhatsApp.
Better Customer Engagement
Brands like Carrefour, a multinational hypermarket chain, is utilizing WhatsApp chatbots to offer its buyers digital coupon catalogs across France, helping them purchase the products they want at their desired prices.
Chatbots are pros at delivering personalized, interactive experiences that keep your customers more engaged and happier. Salesforce surveyed in 2023 and found that 64% of consumers expect real-time interactions with businesses, and chatbots are meeting this demand brilliantly. Businesses employing chatbots have reported about a 35-40% increase in customer engagement, according to Tidio.
Higher Conversion Rates
Customers need guidance while shopping online, and WhatsApp chatbots have the expertise to do that. These chatbots guide buyers swiftly through the buying journey with the most relevant and personalized product recommendations and instant support.
It encourages customers to take action and make quicker buying decisions, which boosts sales. WhatsApp can increase your conversion rates up to 7x or by 112% by sending customers personalized offers and customized messages.
Benefit Cosmetics, for instance, is using a versatile WhatsApp chatbot that lets its customers self-manage their appointment bookings and allows more creative customer outreach. The use of WhatsApp chatbot has:
- Increased their brow and lip wax bookings by 30%
- Made their agent response time 60% faster than WhatsApp vs email
Optimized Operations
These chat agents can automate routine tasks like order tracking, appointment scheduling, and FAQs. They consequently alleviate the workload of your employees and free them up to concentrate on more complex tasks. Chatbots can respond to customer queries 3x faster than human agents. This saves your human resources and time and also enhances their productivity.
Heightened Customer Satisfaction
When your responses are quick, accurate, and personalized to customers’ tastes, you see happier and more loyal customers. A study by Uberall shows that a staggering 80% of buyers who have interacted with chatbots say their experience was positive.
WhatsApp chatbots can provide immediate and intelligent answers to customers chatting with them. These chatbots can scan browsing or purchase history and understand people’s past shopping preferences to give them product suggestions accordingly.
According to MIT review results, about 80% of surveyed businesses report noticeable improvements in customer satisfaction.
High Scalability Potential
Grand View Research’s 2023 report suggests that the global chatbot market will boom at a 23.3% between 2023 to 2030, touching a USD 27.29 billion revenue by 2030, which would be driven by the need for scalable customer service solutions.
WhatsApp chatbots are capable of juggling thousands of conversations simultaneously, which makes them a perfect fit for businesses of any size, small, medium, large enterprises. As your business expands, WhatsApp chatbots are able to manage conversations at scale.
How WhatsApp Chatbots Fit Different Industries
WhatsApp chatbots are completely changing the way businesses interact with their clientele. These intelligent chatbots can provide the natural, captivating experiences that contemporary consumers seek—speedy fixes without lengthy wait times.
Here are some ways that different industries are using WhatsApp chatbots:
Retail
- Product Catalogues: You can present your items in the chat window, which gives the customers a smooth, visual purchasing experience.
- Customised Product Recommendations: Provide customers with product recommendations tailored to their tastes and likes based on their browsing history or preferences directly within the chat.
- Click-to-WhatsApp Advertisements: These ads show up on Facebook or Instagram with a call-to-action (CTA), and upon clicking that CTA, the buyer is directed to the business’s WhatsApp chat. You can quickly qualify leads with WhatsApp chatbots as you can interact with potential customers in real time through conversational, human-like chats and responses.
E-commerce
WhatsApp chatbots are excellent at speed and personalisation, which are key factors in e-commerce. They provide the efficiency or immediacy that contemporary customers seek.
- Order updates: Everything now takes place in your customers’ WhatsApp thread, saving them from having to check numerous apps or emails. This type of transparency raises customer satisfaction levels by keeping customers informed and lowering post-purchase anxiety.
- Payments: Without ever leaving the messaging app, chatbots can now send invoices, take payments, and notify users of the status of their orders. It makes the transaction process more seamless, nurturing client loyalty.
Healthcare
Effective communication can make the difference between a happy and a dissatisfied patient in the medical field. Clinics and hospitals benefit from WhatsApp chatbots in many ways, especially during high-stress situations.
- Round-the-clock messaging: Adaptable communication is necessary in the healthcare industry. Outside of regular business hours, patients frequently want to ask questions. Patients can use asynchronous messaging to voice their concerns at any time, and the chatbot guarantees prompt responses without requiring human intervention.
- Timely Reminders: Both patients and providers may find scheduling difficult. By enabling patients to make or change appointments directly through the WhatsApp API, chatbots streamline the procedure. Additionally, by lowering the number of no-shows, appointment reminders help clinics function efficiently.
Edtech
Education has started to move towards digitalization, and chatbots on WhatsApp are helping schools meet the demand for immediate assistance for both teachers and students.
- Tutoring Students: Chatbots enable interactive learning, whether it’s for a brief explanation prior to an exam or in-depth tutoring. Students can ask questions and get answers nearly immediately, which makes learning more approachable and enhances the results.
- Time-bound Promotions: Chatbots can show limited-time offers that indicate expiration dates for an institution running promotions on impending exams or enrolment packages. By displaying timers or countdowns, they create a sense of urgency, which motivates students to take immediate action.
Finance
WhatsApp chatbots are key in providing prompt, dependable, and secure customer support, where each exchange has a monetary value.
- Multitasking Ability: These chatbots provide a straightforward method of assisting clients who need to open an account, enquire about installment plans, or investigate loan options. They are taken to the appropriate source with a single tap. This clears up any misunderstandings and keeps your clients on track with their financial obligations.
- Customer Support: Chatbots provide individualised, real-time help with anything from checking account balances and loan enquiries to asking for investment advice. Customers stay interested and satisfied when questions are answered quickly without waiting for long periods.
Travel & Hospitality
With personalized or custom on-demand support, WhatsApp chatbots in the travel and tourism industry create experiences that are irreplaceable.
- Creating Carousels: Travel agencies can use carousel templates to highlight various hotels, destinations, or packages. These enable customers to view multiple options at a glance on visually rich, horizontally scrolling cards, fostering an immersive experience that promotes exploration.
- Time-saving Interface: WhatsApp’s custom flows cut down on the back and forth of long chat threads. When it comes to busy ticket booking, appointment scheduling, or feedback gathering, the chatbot mimics app-like functionality, assisting users at every stage while maintaining an easy-to-use interface.
Building Your Own WhatsApp Chatbot
Just as quickly WhatsApp can turn your business more profitable, creating a chatbot with this app is as easy. You need no coding skills and can get started with these steps:
Pick the Right Platform
The most important step is finding a competent bot-building platform. This is where you lay the foundation for your chatbot’s functionality.
You must go for an intuitive platform that can help you create bots in no time and offers NLP for tackling unstructured queries. Your chatbot should outgrow answering only basic questions and understand context and intent.
Configure WhatsApp
Now comes a bit of technical work: You need to set up and integrate the WhatsApp Business API. To get started, you’ll need a WhatsApp Business app and a Facebook Messenger account.
However, if you find configuring the API challenging, you can choose to leave it to a third-party platform/service provider.
Create the Interaction Flow
A remarkable chatbot is user-centric. Begin with a straightforward options-based system that greets customers with a welcome message and presents various options to choose from. You can create visual conversation flowcharts to map out every possible user interaction with your bot.
Execute and Continuously Improvise
The moment your chatbot is ready, start it. Run some A/B tests and then deploy the best version. Regularly examine your chatbot’s functioning and use adaptive machine learning to improve its comprehension of user inputs.
Your chatbot must evolve and become more intelligent and more responsive over time as it communicates with customers.
Wrapping Up
WhatsApp has become the go-to app for most users today, which is the reason businesses want to cash-in this app to connect with users. The fact that it gives brands a more personalized platform to talk to customers makes it even more popular and effective for marketing. Because of this growing demand, WhatsApp launched its business API. This tool is easily linked to your enterprise’s existing systems and amplifies your marketing efforts.
Nowadays, brands use WhatsApp chatbots, which could be AI-powered or pre-programmed software, to interact with customers. These Chatbots are the marketing ninjas of this new digital era, giving businesses exponential growth and sky high profits. WhatsApp messages have a whopping 99% open rate, outdoing the traditional email marketing by 21%. This reflects the bright future of selling and marketing through WhatsApp chatbots. However, it may not be easy to build a chatbot on your own. If you’re looking for top-quality WhatsApp Chatbots, DaveAI is where you should land. Read about how brands like BYD and Maruti Suzuki are benefiting from our AI Chatbots build for WhatsApp.
