We live in times in which communication with customers is the fundamental basis of a good business relationship. Therefore, having WhatsApp in your business is a good idea. With the arrival of the pandemic, consumer-business iterations only strengthened a trend that was already unstoppable: that of online consumption.
New times, new habits
The trend had been in place since before March 2020, but since then online sales and communications have grown exponentially. In fact, Spain, which has just over 22 million online shoppers, has seen 45% of them start to buy products on the Internet that they previously only bought in physical media. What’s more, 23% now only buy online. Any business, no matter how small, is now able to serve its products to a worldwide audience. And that creates a problem that requires a great deal of attention: customer communication.
First-person communications
The treatment with the customer marks a good part of the customer’s experience with the company they deal with. It doesn’t matter if a problem occurs during the research process, or while the purchase is being made, or perhaps after the purchase has been completed. What is really important is the way in which it is resolved. The way in which the company manages to mitigate the customer’s discomfort. And to achieve this objective, a good communication channel is necessary. That’s why having WhatsApp in your business is a good idea. Because when faced with equal opportunities, consumers prefer a tool they are used to working with.
Many options, few as satisfying as having WhatsApp in your business
There are many ways to communicate with your customers: email, phone, postal mail (yes, it’s still used…), but they all languish in the face of the WhatsApp user experience. The email is delayed and leaves the uncertainty of knowing if it has arrived correctly. Telephone communication is frustrating because it has suffered from the same problems for years. Namely: telephone switchboards collapsed, the need to stay on the phone with the music playing in the background while we wait, switching from one department to another by pressing the numbers… It is better not to talk about postal mail. That’s why having WhatsApp in your business allows you to establish communication with your customers in a closer, more comfortable and habitual way for them.
It is important to have WhatsApp in your business. Photo: Jéshoots.
The advantages of WhatsApp
If you haven’t thought about it so far, the advantages of a commercial communication with WhatsApp far outweigh those of the other options. For a start, you give your customers a tool to communicate with you that they are extremely accustomed to. In addition, thanks to the characteristics of the tool itself, the user knows if his message has arrived and has been read. There is no need to be on the phone waiting for a response. When it arrives, a notification will alert the consumer. Finally, it allows you to respond when it is most convenient. It is not for nothing that messages via WhatsApp are the main means of communication between people around the world.
Manage WhatsApp in your business
But in addition to all the advantages we already know about, there is a vital problem. How to manage WhatsApp in your business? We can agree that the tool works and is useful, but it is not the same to talk to a dozen friends than to bear the load of messages that can cause hundreds of customers to need to communicate with you. To do this we must use a tool that filters, selects, redirects or is even capable of automatically answering some of the questions posed by users. We need a communications manager. And the best way to implement one is through Low-Code.
Advantages of using Low-Code
We already know that Low-Code is the versatile tool that allows us to program in a simpler and faster way than with the traditional method. Its multiple options are the core of a system that works to reduce costs, increase productivity and improve the user experience. In addition, among its many possibilities, there are modules that allow you to channel WhatsApp communications. Thanks to Twilio, an existing module in Mendix, it is possible to keep WhatsApp in your business by linking an account that is then managed in a program developed in Low-Code. In this way, incoming messages are automated, discarding irrelevant or offensive messages, redirecting others or even responding to some by means of artificial intelligence.
It is, therefore, a simple and elegant way to add a communication channel to your business that is likely to become your customers’ favorite. Not surprisingly, the easier it is for consumers to engage in conversation, the more satisfying the experience of dealing with you will be for them. And that, today more than ever, is more important than any specific sale that can be made.
