In today's business landscape, the rise of customer interactions through messaging platforms like WhatsApp presents both opportunities and challenges for merchants. Many businesses are adopting WhatsApp Business accounts to handle routine inquiries, utilizing features such as auto-reply and quick reply functions to provide timely responses. This responsiveness helps build customer trust and satisfaction. However, limitations exist with the standard WhatsApp Business account, including accessibility on only one mobile device and the inability to customize responses for specific inquiries or automate appointment scheduling. These constraints hinder merchants from achieving full process automation. By upgrading to the WhatsApp Business API, businesses can enhance their ability to manage a higher volume of customer interactions, thereby improving operational efficiency and reducing the overall workload.

What is WhatsApp Business API? It is the official business solution for organisations to use WhatsApp to communicate with their customers through specific service provider platforms, in order to strengthen their connections with customers and drive sales. Whether you're a SME or a chain store, you can use WhatsApp Business API if your business involves multiple sales and marketing platforms, such as physical stores, online stores, and social platforms, and if you need to deal with a high volume of enquiries and contacting customers on a regular basis.

Upgrading to WhatsApp Business API allows merchants to set up their own WhatsApp chatbots. When a customer contacts you via WhatsApp, the WhatsApp chatbot can respond based on the keywords of the customer's query in real-time. It can also show pictures and descriptions of products and services, as well as displaying interactive buttons to guide the customer to learn more about the offerings. In addition, the broadcasting function of WhatsApp Business API can send messages to up to 10,000 users at the same time per day . With the broadcasting function, merchants can blast out personalised messages to a large number of customers, such as the logistics status of the goods to keep the customers in the loop. Merchants can also send advertisements to promote offers, which is very effective for product promotion!

Apart from responding to general inquiries, some WhatsApp Business APIs can use chatbots to handle the reservation process. When a customer requests for an appointment via WhatsApp, the WhatsApp chatbot will reply to the customer to confirm the details and save the appointment information in the database. Before the appointment time arrives, the WhatsApp chatbot will automatically send a reminder to the customer to confirm if the appointment is still valid. The entire booking process is automated, thereby speeding up the booking process and improving customer satisfaction.

Merchants can also set up interactive message templates that provide buttons for customers to click, including action buttons and reply buttons. When you want to get a response from a customer, such as asking them to confirm a reservation, you can create template messages with quick reply buttons for "Confirm Attendance" and "Cancel Reservation".

Most customers like to use WhatsApp to contact merchants for product and service information. When merchants face a large number of WhatsApp queries, WhatsApp chatbots can be used to automate the process. For example, merchants can use chatbots to ask customers for their names, email addresses, or other contact information so that salespeople can contact them and even build a membership database for their customers. In general, WhatsApp chatbots have an integrated platform to process the data collected and records can be saved to the platform. Through the member database, merchants can understand the needs and preferences of customers and recommend related offerings based on their information, increasing sales conversion rate and customer satisfaction. WhatsApp Business API can accommodate an unlimited number of simultaneous logins, so that merchants can easily assign user inquiries to the most appropriate customer service and sales staff. Even if a staff member is on vacation, inquiries can still be assigned to the most suitable staff through the automatic assigning function.

WhatsApp Business API can help increase efficiency, reduce staff's workload, and build a closer relationship with your customers by providing personalised service and support.

There are different suppliers of WhatsApp Business API, such as MatrixForce, SleekFlow, Vimos and dumbchat, etc. You can visit our app store to discover more suppliers.

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