Why is WhatsApp Business so powerful?

Enterprise Nation and WhatsApp have joined forces to educate and support small businesses on the benefits of implementing and using technology, such as WhatsApp's free business app.

This e-learning video is part of a free series designed to help small business owners connect with customers, showcase their product/service and respond to customer questions. 

Why is WhatsApp Business so powerful?

Learn why many businesses are now using instant private messaging to connect with customers. Find out how to use the WhatsApp Business app to better engage your customers and grow your business.

Find out more about Enterprise Nation and WhatsApp's partnership: WhatsApp Business app: How to manage customers and drive sales

Transcript

Hi. I'm Josh. I work at WhatsApp, and thank you for taking the time to learn more about the WhatsApp Business App.

Today, we are going to talk about why so many people are using instant messaging to connect with customers and what the trends are in this area worldwide.

In this session, we're going to look at some of the reasons why the WhatsApp business app can help you better engage with your customers and grow your business.

Let's take a look at the WhatsApp story and what and why WhatsApp Business.

WhatsApp was built to connect friends and family around the world.

For those that do use WhatsApp often, you'll know this is a real time communication with anyone around the world. Messaging brings people together, and currently, ninety percent of the world's smartphone users use a messaging app, and that number is still growing.

Today, WhatsApp is used in 180 countries by more than two billion users every month. Now just imagine what that means for a small business owner.

Depending on your business, that could mean customers all over the world. As a small business, you want to be where people are engaging with each other.

The way people and businesses communicate is changing. Messaging has become an indispensable component of how we communicate. It's how people spend most of their time keeping in touch and reaching out.

It's replacing other forms of communication and transforming the very nature of daily communication for billions of people around the world.

We live in an age of immediate personalised conversation. Today, people don't want to call a business. They don't want to send an email. In fact, during 2020, two in three people surveyed globally told us that they had messaged a business. They want to send a message in a familiar, accessible, and user friendly way.

Messaging is how businesses and customers are connecting. It makes businesses personal again, something that people crave. Real connections to businesses help people be sure about the decisions they are making, and the convenience of messaging helps them get what they need quickly.

The WhatsApp Business app is free to download on Android, iOS, and desktop computers and was built with a small business owner in mind.

To support businesses and people, WhatsApp Business is guided by three key principles.

Simple. WhatsApp is designed to connect family and friends in a simple way. It's pretty intuitive.

Reliable. WhatsApp is a data and battery life. It works on the lowest cost handsets and the worst connections.

Secure. Privacy and security are the part are part of the DNA of WhatsApp.

All you need is a phone number to get started.

Features are designed with privacy and security in mind. Every personal message is end to end encrypted, so not even WhatsApp can see them.

So how can WhatsApp Business help businesses?

Conversations happen where consumers are already spending time.

The ability to engage in a conversation with a business allows for a better customer experience.

Engaging via WhatsApp can be a path to connect with shoppers where they are and on their terms.

The WhatsApp business app can be used by large businesses and also by small businesses regardless of the type of organisation they are.

The WhatsApp business app helps drive sales. It helps streamline business processes and can help make the owner be more efficient. It can be used for marketing and brand awareness, and it can also help with business part partnerships and relationships, whether they're customers or suppliers.

So how does it all do this?

WhatsApp Business makes interacting with customers easy by providing tools to automate, sort and quickly respond to messages.

It's also intended to fill and work just like the WhatsApp you use every day. You can use it to do everything that you're used to doing, from messaging to sending photos.

It helps provide real time customer service a luxury small businesses can usually not afford.

But with WhatsApp Business, you and your staff can answer any questions your customers might have quickly and simply.

Responsiveness is key to building valuable long term relationships. Consumers expect businesses to answer quickly and provide useful responses. The ability to message the businesses directly not only attract new customers, but also strengthen relationships with new with current customers.

Ongoing trusted and personal connections people develop with brands and sellers via conversations often lead to new interactions, more effective personalized recommendations, and higher spending.

This is especially important for small businesses because you can have a direct relationship where customers can message you if they need this particular product, have a question, or need support. But it also provides more functionality that helps businesses. And because the app supports rich media, you can use text, audio, or video to provide a personal customer experience.

WhatsApp can be accessed on your smartphone, tablet, or PC, so you'll be able to talk to your customers anytime if you choose to make yourself available.

So you may be asking what is the difference between the WhatsApp business app and WhatsApp messenger. Let's start by looking at what both can do. They can send messages, send documents, send pictures and videos. Both are end to end encrypted.

Both have built in security features. Both can make phone calls and have built in privacy features as well. They can create groups. But when we look at the WhatsApp business app, we have some additional features that are super valuable to business owners.

You can use a landline, so you're not restricted to your private handphone number. Business profile helps you list important information, such as a company's address, email, and website.

Messaging tools are available to quickly respond to customers, away messages, quick replies, and so on. You have statistics to see how many messages were successfully sent, delivered and read.

Customer broadcast, so you can push out a custom message, but restrict people replying to all. Imagine if you had a sale and you want to tell all of your customers about it.

Create labels so you can put groups of people, in the same place and types of messages to easily find those categories, catalogues so you can showcase your products and services, and a cart to make shopping easier.

We provide short links and QR codes to share with your customers so you can be more easily searchable, in the real world, Link to Facebook pages or Instagram pages so your various platforms are connected.

And we're just getting started with WhatsApp Business App, and we'll be introducing new features in the future to help you best connect with your customers and grow your business.

So today, we talked about why use the WhatsApp Business app. We talked about how people and businesses communicate and how it's changing to be more immediate, personalised and more conversational.

We talked about how WhatsApp Business is simple, intuitive, reliable and secure.

Privacy and security are at the heart of DNA of WhatsApp.

How can WhatsApp Business help your business to drive sales, streamline business process with marketing and brand awareness and help with business partnerships and relationships, whether they are customers or suppliers.

We also looked at the WhatsApp Business App's features and the additions to the WhatsApp Business App as compared to WhatsApp Messenger App, such as cart, catalogue, labels, and so on.

The next module we will cover is creating your business account, which includes topics such as installing the WhatsApp Business App, using WhatsApp Messenger and WhatsApp Business, four steps to migrate your account to WhatsApp Business, how to change your phone number or use dual SIM, and keep conversations safe and secure.

To learn more about the WhatsApp Business App, visit whatsapp.com/business. Thank you.

Find more WhatsApp Business e-learning

• Getting started with WhatsApp Business

• Creating engaging content

• Building your engagement plan

• Using broadcasting messages

• Sharing short links and QR codes