The use of a WhatsApp chatbot is a trend in customer service inside companies of different sectors and sizes.
In the past years, virtual assistants were already growing as a communication strategy, used on websites and, on Facebook Messenger.
At the same time, WhatsApp was also growing its presence in Brazilians smartphones, not only to the exchange of personal messages, but also between companies, and their clients.
But it was in 2018 that this communication between brands and customers “boosted” due to the creation of WhatsApp Business, and the later launch of its API, which allowed the integration of chatbots to the messenger app.
Thanks to these company-oriented solutions, the use of WhatsApp inside a business is evolving and —associated with a chatbot— the messenger is becoming one of the major tools for communication between brands and their audience.
In this text, we’re going to show you the benefits of implementing a WhatsApp chatbot and how this tool can help you to optimize customer service, and other departments of your company. Take a look!
The growing of WhatsApp inside companies
WhatsApp is in 99% of Brazilians’ smartphones and 93% of its users open the app every day.
It didn’t take long before companies and even WhatsApp itself noticed the potential of this communication channel to customer servicing and creating new business opportunities.
Just for you to get an idea, according to the research Messengers in Brazil, conducted by Mobile Time, 76% of WhatsApp users use the app to talk to brands.
Because of that, Facebook has created WhatsApp Business in 2018. This version of the app for small and medium-sized enterprises has solutions exclusively for companies, such as business profiles, labels, product catalogs, and automatic messages.
In mid-2018, there was the launch of WhatsApp API, enabling many integrations that are capable of optimizing the communication between companies and their customers even more. This developed the app into a tool capable of serving even larger companies, with bigger customer service teams.
The uptake of WhatsApp Business was so impressive that in 2019 — a year after being put on the market — 5 million companies were already using the tool. And according to data from SEBRAE, a service for helping small businesses in Brazil, 72% of Brazilians that own shops or small businesses are already using the corporate version of the app.
There’s no doubt that this evolution of WhatsApp Business within companies comes from the need to offer good quality customer service, to attend more demanding customers.
Client 4.0 wants to have their needs taken care of in an almost instant way and some of their characteristics are: always being connected to digital media, and to consider the quality of their experience in buying as relevant as the product or service purchased.
To fulfill the need for fast and good attention of this new customer, a WhatsApp chatbot is the answer.
Why implement a WhatsApp chatbot?
Chatbots are already a reality within strategies of service, sales, and marketing inside companies.
According to data from a research conducted by Oracle, 80% of marketing leaders claim to have used or to be planning to use chatbots in their customer experience strategies.
When integrated into the company’s WhatsApp, a chatbot can optimize customer service, making it faster and more effective. Next, we’ll see some services that can be offered by this communication channel.
Customer Service Automation
A WhatsApp chatbot enables the automation of part of customer service.
A virtual assistant can answer frequently asked questions, and carry out monotonous and repetitive tasks.
The chatbot can also make an effective analysis of requests, solving some demands without needing human intervention, or transferring them to specific human workers when needed.
Besides that, because of the integration with LiveChat — software for real-time support — it’s possible to have a full-service system, with a chatbot and all your human attendants connected and talking with users at the same time. And all of that using just one WhatsApp number that, by the way, can be your company’s landline number.
This integration with LiveChat also allows the WhatsApp chatbot to be used to optimize the company’s internal communication. It’s possible to create groups, to share files, to talk in real-time, to make video and voice calls with your team.
By using Artificial Intelligence and integrations with CRM, ERP, and other systems that your company already uses, it’s also possible to program a WhatsApp chatbot to carry out specific tasks related to the customer service of your business, for example, to make schedules or reservations.
Lead capture and qualification:
Did you know that a WhatsApp chatbot can also be used to capture and qualify leads?
A virtual assistant can collect information in every interaction that it has with users in messengers.
With these data, it’s possible to qualify them inside the buyer’s journey and then, create marketing campaigns and more assertive sales approaches.
Besides that, the chatbot can also use WhatsApp to spread content and surveys, automatically qualifying and engaging the public, with all the quickness the modern customer demands, converting leads into real business opportunities.
Charging and other financial demands
Many customer requests to a company are related to financial demands.
A WhatsApp chatbot can help in solving these demands by carrying out different financial tasks such as:
- Sending a copy of bills;
- Sending payment reminders and payment notifications;
- Provide financial position;
- Notifying clients with payment confirmations;
- Helping in debt renegotiation.
With all these possibilities of services offered to the user by a WhatsApp chatbot, the communication with your audience by the app comes with a lot of benefits. We’ll see some of them.
Benefits of service automation with a WhatsApp chatbot
The automation of customer service with a WhatsApp chatbot brings many benefits to your company’s communication strategy.
Let’s see the major ones next:
- Full-time support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week;
- Reduction of customer’s response waiting time;
- More effective request analysis;
- Improve in customer’s experience, by offering a faster and more effective service;
- Improve in productivity and human team motivation, because workers don’t feel overwhelmed and can focus on more strategic actions in the company;
- Simultaneous clients being answered with only one telephone number;
- WhatsApp using the company’s landline number;
- Transferring to human agents in one customer service platform;
- Integration with different software that your company already uses;
- Helping in the company’s internal communication;
- Cost and debt reduction.
Are you convinced and ready to implement a WhatsApp chatbot in your company? So let’s learn more about the Push Platform, Ilhasoft’s WhatsApp chatbot solution.
Push Platform: Ilhasoft’s WhatsApp chatbot solution.
If you want to improve the communication with your audience, the Push Platform is the chatbot solution you need.
Developed by experts in communication automation, the Push Platform is used by big organizations all over the world and its major aim is to free the human potential to your company’s strategic activities.
On the platform, you can create a chatbot for your organization from scratch or by using one of our models. With a simple and intuitive interface, you can build smart chatting flows that can focus on more positive results for your company.
The platform also allows you to manage all chat history from both the chatbot and your team to analyze the strategy’s assertiveness. You will also be able to collect data and statistics and to make alterations in the chatting flows every time you need it, in a simple way, without needing to understand programming.
Push Platform is intuitive, multichannel, and ideal for complex projects and projects that need scalability in service. With the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP), it’s possible to build attractive humanized conversations. Learn more about it next.
Get to know the BotHub
There’s nothing worse than dealing with chatbots with no intelligence, which sound robotized and can’t help with our requests, right?
Push Platform is the ideal system to make the smart virtual assistant you need for your project come true. With it, you can integrate the chatbot with stronger Artificial Intelligence systems, such as BotHub.
BotHub is a collaboration Natural Language Processing (NLP) platform, that is, it uses Artificial Intelligence to help machine algorithms to understand natural language, the language we speak.
In the platform, you can create Artificial Intelligence that fulfills your chatbot needs and allow that other people see, impute ideas, and use it on their projects.
If you don’t want to create your own Intelligence, no problem! On BotHub, you’ll get access to thousands of Artificial Intelligences created by people from all over the world, about different subjects and in many languages.
That’s why BotHub is ideal for complex projects. With many possibilities, created by developers from different countries, you’ll certainly find the most suitable intelligence to your project, to create a smart and working chatbot.
It’s worth mentioning that BotHub was elected second best in the category “App and Content Developers” in the Anuário TeleSíntese de Inovação em Comunicações in Brazil, being one of the 19 awarded projects!
The use of strong Artificial Intelligence is important because it makes the automation created for your chatbot to really recognize the users’ intentions, to solve problems, and to answer frequently asked questions.
After all, nobody wants to deal with a robotized chatbot that can’t deal with the users’ demands, right?
How to integrate my chatbot to WhatsApp:
Once your smart chatbot is created, it’s time to integrate it into WhatsApp.
How we mentioned at the beginning of this text, chatbot integration must be done in the API version of the app.
And to access WhatsApp API, you need to have a verified account, issued by an official provider. But what is that?
Also known as Solution Partners or Solution Providers, official providers are companies with a partnership with WhatsApp, that are specialized in issue solutions in global business in communication with customers through the app.
In other words, it applies the authorization for your company to use API, directly to Facebook (US). The official provider also helps your organization with the API’s settings and integrations.
When the provider asks the permission of API use and gets the authorization, the applicant company receives an official account with a WhatsApp label that verifies that the profile belongs to an authentic brand, showing a green badge with a check mark in your profile.
This badge gives a more reliable and trustworthy impression to your brand and it’s required to access WhatsApp API.
If your chatbot was created on the Push Platform, you can also count on our solution on WhatsApp Business API. We’re partners of Dialog 360, a European company officially authorized by WhatsApp to issue official accounts.
With this solution, your company gets a verified account on the app and can have all the WhatsApp API resources available, including a chatbot integration. You won’t need to worry about anything at all, because the entire integration process will be done by Ilhasoft and Dialog 360.
It’s worth mentioning that WhatsApp API enables not only the integration with a chatbot, but also with other systems that can make your virtual assistant more working and optimize other processes, such as CRM, ERP, financial and marketing automation systems, LiveChat, and others.
So… are you ready to transform your company’s communication with a WhatsApp chatbot? Talk to one of our experts and implement this strategy right now.
Take a look and get to know 4 successful cases in customer service with chatbots from Push Platform!
