Everything you need to know about whatsapp and whatsapp business Api

 In Blog, Tips customer service, Tips e-commerce

Wait, We are sure that when you read the title you thought: what else is there to know about WhatsApp at this point? Well, we invite you to read on, you’ll see that there are still things you don’t know (especially about WhatsApp Business).

Since this tool is so popular among users, it is worth taking a closer look at its possibilities within our company.

Whatshapp from the user’s point of view

As we said in the introduction, Facebook/Meta’s messaging tool is so popular that it needs no introduction. Everyone has it installed on their mobile phone and uses it on a daily basis.

What began as a way of communicating with friends and acquaintances (or with parents at school), has ended up taking on a much greater dimension. It has practically become a global chat, a default feature installed on the phone.

When an application has more than 2 billion monthly active users who send and receive more than 29 billion messages every hour, it is reasonable to consider its value for e-commerce. Both on the customer service side and for transactional and sales support purposes.

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Whatshapp from a business point of view

To make an analogy: if your customers use the Internet for their communications, would it make sense for you to offer them a fax number as a contact formula? Do you think they would come to you when they have a need or a query? Because, most probably, they would look for another shop where they would be attended to in the way they want.

With this example taken to the extreme, what we want to say is that not using the right channels is equivalent to turning your back on the user. Bad idea.

WhatsApp is such an efficient means of contact that at Oct8ne we decided some time ago to integrate it into our chat service. The comprehensive solution approach that distinguishes us, makes us understand that it is a means of mass contact and, as such, should be among the alternatives offered.

¿Qué es WhatsApp Business Api?

To be able to perform any integration, it is necessary to rely on an Api (Application Programming Interface). Without it, to continue, it would be impossible to make it possible to reply to WhatsApp messages or any other external platform within Oct8ne in a standardised way.

Therefore, thanks to this Api, we have open communication between WhatsApp and other business tools such as ERPs or CRMs and, of course, Customer Services.

This Api has several utilities and functionalities. We could highlight:

  • Automation: you can define automated interactions as autoresponders. Basically, it allows us to provide 24-hour customer service, even outside customer service hours, create welcome messages, quick answers to frequently asked questions or complete conversations using templates.
  • Organisation: it implements a system for labelling conversations that makes it much easier to manage them later. For example, we can have a label for leads, new orders, pending payment… This way we will have a complete overview of the status of customer service.
  • Productivity: the combination of these functionalities ends up making us more efficient in the day-to-day running of the business. Our team has advanced resources and much more practical than using the home version to operate professionally.

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In addition, it is important to emphasise that, with the leap to WhatsApp Business, we will also have a professional profile. This means that our presence will be more corporate, it will include fields such as opening hours, a link to our online shop, the use of catalogues with product sheets.

How do I access the WhatsApp Business Api?

We are not going to expand too much on the process, after all we explained it in depth in this post on how to create a Chatbot with WhatsApp.

Just to sum up, we’ll tell you that you have to go to this address to apply for it. You have to meet some important requirements to be granted, as it is not free for all users. The main one is the size of your company.

Any company can switch from a personal profile to a WhatsApp Business profile regardless of its size, but I remind you that in this case we are referring to requesting access to the WhatsApp Business Api and it is not exactly the same as creating a WhatsApp Business profile. As Meta sees it, there are three different products:

  • WhatsApp: the application for personal use that we all have installed.
  • WhatsApp Business: its professional version with the specific features already mentioned.
  • WhatsApp Business Api: reserved for larger companies, which are usually the ones that need to integrate more complex solutions.

If your company falls into the third group, what you will be required to do:

  • Comply with WhatsApp’s legal policies, including the WhatsApp Commerce Policy and the WhatsApp Business Policy.
  • Pass the business verification process.
  • Follow your Display Name Rules.

Then there is the technical part, which is complicated and which you will probably delegate to a programmer. But you can consult the online documentation anyway.

It is worth focusing on what we use every day, because so do our customers. We hope you found this article useful.

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