While many of us consider WhatsApp a handy way for staying in touch with friends and family, the messaging service with 800 million users is also an incredibly powerful tool for businesses.
According to Breda Today, a Dutch local newspaper, when they started experimenting with the platform they had click-through-rates (CTR) of 114 percent for their content. When compared to Facebook’s CTRs of 63 percent, the messaging service suddenly looks like an untapped resource by marketers everywhere.
In this post we’ll explore examples of how others have used WhatsApp in their business, and ways it can help your own company connect with users in more powerful ways.
Use it to instantly connect and interact with audiences
Sending out emails to your customers is an effective way of informing them what’s happening with your company. However, trying to solicit feedback through email is a challenge. On WhatsApp however, users can instantly message you with requests, questions or even content for your business.
Breda Today, also uses WhatsApp to allow readers to send news tips or photos directly to the newsroom. The editor also sends news alerts to the paper’s subscribers, and receives direct feedback via CTR on what stories resonate the most with readers.
The paper also discovered that when they used WhatsApp to ask subscribers to fill-out a user survey, they had a completion rate of 24percent. When you compare that to an average of 5 percent using more conventional methods, you can start to see WhatsApp’s power.
Use it the same way you use email
While WhatsApp is predominantly a mobile based platform, you can still use a desktop to reach those audiences. There’s an email application from CM Telecom that allows you to communicate with your user base more efficiently.
At present WhatsApp has not published an official API and the service doesn’t support third party apps, so CM Telecom has developed an SMS based backup, allowing businesses and clients to stay in touch, whatever happens.
This allows your customer management teams to easily integrate the service into their workflow. It will work with any email program, there’s little or no training involved, and can be easily searched to find previous conversations or keywords. Just like email.
This service allows anyone with an email account to see comments, add photos or videos, and create sub-lists of users so you’re not sending out everything to all of your customers at one time.
Use it to offer a personalized service
Offering a bespoke service on WhatsApp is a free way of making your customers feel valued, even if you’re a web only company. Rare Pink, a bespoke diamond “ring-maker”, offers online consultations to customers who are looking for unique rings via WhatsApp.
WhatsApp makes it easy for Rare Pink’s staff to send videos of the jewels that will be incorporated in the bespoke jewellery, as well as regular progress reports on how their jewellery is coming along. Thanks to WhatsApp’s functionality having video built-in at no extra cost, this means companies can communicate inexpensively in a more immersive way.
In one case, a city worker from the UK used WhatsApp to communicate with the ring-maker because she wasn’t allowed to use her phone at work. The client eventually bought a ring for £13,000 – all because the designer had installed the app on his or her phone.
Save your customers – and your sales teams, time
According to research from CTIA, the wireless association, text messages are read within 90 seconds on average, whereas the response times to emails are around the 90-minute mark.
If you’re working in a time-sensitive environment and you need to contact and communicate with your customers directly, WhatsApp can be a valuable way of cutting down those times.
Fashion designer Roberto Revilla uses the service to communicate with his customers in the high-end tailoring business. “In the past 12 months, we’ve gained more than 320 hours by using instant messaging, which is worth at least £80,000 in revenue,” he told the Telegraph newspaper.
Thanks to WhatsApp messages being easy things to process and respond to, it increases the dialogue between you and your customers.
Use it to report bugs and problems with the service
Many companies have already started using WhatsApp as a way of communicating to users if their services are currently functioning, or even for customers to tell companies their services aren’t running correctly.
In India, the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) provides a helpline service for its buses on WhatsApp. Here passengers can file complaints, make suggestions and even find out if the bus is running on time.
Indian Railways (PNR) is another service provider that integrates WhatsApp. It has connected its API for train routing to a number people can add to their contacts and see if there are delays, maintenance works or what time a train is due to arrive.
Take Away
Above are just a few examples of how WhatsApp has been implemented as a service for businesses to use. While the company itself is notoriously anti-advertising, the above methods are unobtrusive ways of communicating with audiences in more meaningful ways that don’t involve huge upfront costs. So, what are you waiting for?
No comments:
Post a Comment