How WhatsApp Business App and API Helps to Run Business like Never before?
Communication is always an integral part of any businesses, over the period communication channels are revolutionary changing from hoardings to mobile advertisement , and static website to interactive websites, one way messaging to 2 way messaging powered with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
No doubt after acquiring WhatsApp by Facebook for a massive amount of $19 Bn they have clear plan to monetise the huge active customer base of 1.2 Bn even though the founders of WhatsApp are against the Facebook move and both of them are quit. After the acquisition Facebook introduced 2 major features in WhatsApp
WhatsApp Business App
WhatsApp Business API
WhatsApp Business App for Android & IOS helps small and medium business owners to communicate with their customers and manage them with some additional features like Business Profile , Label, Away Message, Greeting Messages, Quick Replies , Message Statistics etc. WhatsApp Business App is absolutely free to use as of now and WhatsApp have plans to charge a small fee in coming years.
WhatsApp Business API helps large enterprise clients to communicate with their customers by integrating WhatsApp Business API with their applications which allows the business to start a conversation or sending alerts like transnational alert, OTP, informational alerts and even an interactive conversation chat session. Currently WhatsApp Business API access are limited only to large enterprise with strict rules in order to avoid misusing WhatsApp for sending unsolicited messaging or spamming,
Since WhatsApp Business API in an enterprise based solution you have to pay for sending messages and the pricing are depends on the destination country and monthly messaging volumes. Apart from the pricing you should also have a technical team and servers to host the WhatsApp Containers and Application for seamless communications from your application.
If you are approved by WhatsApp Officially then you can get Started with Picky Assist Enterprise Service and GO LIVE in just a week time. You can see more details here
Now Lets Explore How WhatsApp Business App Helps You
You can download WhatsApp Business App fo Android Or iPhone from the Google Play Store or App Store
Business Profile
You can create a business profile by giving your business name, description about your business, address, website , email, working hours etc and this info will be displayed to the users who are interacting with you WhatsApp Business Number.
To Update Your Profile Go to Settings -> Business Settings -. Profile
Labels
Label helps to organise customers by adding different labels like “Payment Pending, VIP Customer , Regular Customer” etc which will helps to identify customers easily
Try Free Social CRM for WhatsApp By Picky Assist to organise your WhatsApp Customers with Categories , Sub Categories, Tags , Custom Data Fields , Tickets , Notes and more
Quick Replies
Customers always need answers about your product or service before they buy and most of the questions are frequently asked, with quick replies you can save the most common answers and insert into your chat without typing it. To see list of quick replies you can type / in your message box.
You can Add Quick Replies from- Settings -> Business Settings — Message Tools -> Quick Replies
You can try Smart Replies which is offered by Picky Assist Inc , smart replies are powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) , Natural Language Processing (NLP) & Machine Learning (ML) so you dont need to manually reply to each chat, Picky Assist AI bot replies to your users queries 24 x 7 without any human intervention.
Away Message
You can set auto reply if you are away from Whatsapp , this will help the customers informed that you are not available for answers.
You can add Away Message from Settings -> Business Settings — Message Tools -> Away Message
With Picky Assist AI Powered Smart Replies you can open your business 24 x 7 without any employees.
Greetings Message
Greetings Message / Welcome Message can be set to greet the first time users with a basic introduction to your business. This will sent only for new users who are not interacted with your number earlier.
You can add Greeting Message from Settings -> Business Settings — Message Tools -> Greeting Message
You can try Broadcaster which is offered by Picky Assist which allows you to segment your customers and sends message from a web interference or right from your server using WhatsApp Business API
Picky Assist also offers automated followup using Automation Tools “Sequence Automation” which helps you to send a series of messages (Trip Messages) to your customers after their enquiry , like first day you can send Basic Details of Product , Second Day you can send few testimonials, 3rd Day you can send a discount offer etc
Short Link
Short Link helps you to share your business profile with your customers so that they can start a chat with your WhatsApp business number without adding the number manually into their contacts. In the Short link you can also include a short message which will pre-fill the user message box.
To Get your Short Link to Go to Settings -> Business Settings -> Short Link
Message Statistics
You can see messages received, sent, read and delivered from Settings -> Business Settings -> Statistics of your WhatsApp App
WhatsApp Desktop App & Web
WhatsApp Desktop App for Windows & Mac helps to chat with your business customers in big screen, you can download the app from and https://www.whatsapp.com/download/ sync your WhatsApp Phone App with Desktop App
Alternatively you can also use WhatsApp from a Computer Browser by visiting https://web.whatsapp.com
Please note WhatsApp don’t allow concurrent sessions that means you can use WhatsApp only in a Computer at the same time.
To Sync WhatsApp to a Desktop or Web App — Following the below steps
Using Picky Assist “Widget” you can integrate WhatsApp Chatting directly into your web page. Even you dont have web page you can share the Direct URL with your customers.
Conversational Chatbots
You can streamline your enquires using a conversation chatbots like you can collect detailed requirement of your customers through chatbots. Watch few video demo of chatbots created using Picky Assist Enterprise Chatbot Builder
Banking Chatbot — Loan Chat Bot with Whatsapp & Facebook Messenger
Laundry Chatbot : Chatbot for Laundry Business — Pickup & Delivery
Lead Generation : Automobile Chatbot — Booking A Test Drive
Gadget Search : Chatbot for Whatsapp & Facebook Messenger
WhatsApp Business API (Official)
WhatsApp Official Business API is released on August 2018 and currently available only to limited enterprise businesses and subjected to approval from Facebook. You have to pay for each outgoing messages based on the destination country and monthly messaging volumes.
In order to avoid spamming you need to get message templates approved by WhatsApp that is each message template structure need to pre approved by WhatsApp before sending to WhatsApp users.
You can directly apply for a WhatsApp Business API Access
Please read an Overview on how WhatsApp Business API Works in Detail
If you are not approved by WhatsApp then you can Get Started with Picky Assist WhatsApp Automation in 5 minutes.
Please note Picky Assist dont encourage sending unsolicited bulk messages to WhatsApp users event though technical its possible to do. Your number and mobile device will be banned by WhatsApp.
