10 April 2019
Organisations large and small are scrambling to keep up with the proliferation of communications channels that their customers expect them to support. In most sectors, voice (phone) continues to be the dominant channel, but in recent years digital channels such as email, chat, SMS and social media have become increasingly important.
Now WhatsApp is set to burst onto the scene, as the next big digital channel. Here are 10 reasons why we believe WhatsApp will be the fastest growing customer interaction channel of 2019:
1. It’s Ubiquitous. WhatsApp is used by an astonishing 1.5 billion users in 180 countries – making the Facebook-owned platform the most popular messaging platform in the world.
2. Millennials Prefer WhatsApp. According to research by ‘We Are Flint‘ 92% of UK 18-24-year-olds, and 93% of 25-34 olds use WhatsApp.
3. WhatsApp is Secure. WhatsApp messages benefit from end-to-end encryption, making WhatsApp one of the most secure public messaging platforms available.
4. WhatsApp isn’t Just Text. WhatsApp allows the sending and receiving of media such as photos and videos, opening up much richer online conversations.
5. WhatsApp is Cost-Effective. Users love WhatsApp because they aren’t charged message fees – the app uses data (mobile or Wi-Fi). Businesses are charged a small fee when using the WhatsApp Business API – which is typically lower than the equivalent SMS charge.
6. WhatsApp Delivers Conversational Commerce. WhatsApp allows the creation of interactive e-commerce through messaging – often called ‘conversational commerce’.
7. Businesses are Using WhatsApp. Facebook revealed that in the first three months after WhatsApp business accounts were launched in January 2018, 3 million such accounts were activated – largely by small and micro businesses. The WhatsApp Business API was launched in August 2018, allowing medium and large organisations to build their own customer interaction solutions.
8. Interaction Platforms are Offering WhatsApp. Customer interaction and interaction orchestration platforms such as Buzzeasy are adding WhatsApp to their portfolio of channels - delivering consistent omnichannel communications to customers.
9. WhatsApp is Spam Free. WhatsApp has implemented strict policies and tools to ensure that outbound notifications from businesses are permission-based and spam free.
10. WhatsApp is Bot Friendly. The use of bots in customer interaction is growing – delivering always-available customer assistance and increasingly sophisticated self-service. WhatsApp customer interaction lends itself to the use of bots, which become even more powerful when combined with automated escalation to human assistance (chat or call) when required.
To learn more about how quickly and effectively WhatsApp can be incorporated into your customer interaction strategy, contact Geomant today.
