WhatsApp is now officially one of the most used channels for customer communication. Be it running promotions, sending updates or following up on conversations, businesses are increasingly moving to the chat app to personalize how they connect with their customers.
But as with other channels, WhatsApp too now demands more efficiency for it to remain effective. That’s where we’re now seeing an increase in adoption of WhatsApp automation. In this post, we’re sharing how it is changing customer conversations for the better.
Benefits of WhatsApp Automation in Customer Conversations
Here are some of the reasons why businesses are setting up WhatsApp automation:
1. 24/7 availability – Automation helps businesses stay available at all times without human intervention. This is helping them address different audience segments and demographics with ease based on their use of the app.
2. Faster response times – With responses to frequently asked questions automated, businesses are able to reduce the wait time for customer queries.
3. Personalized interactions – AI-powered chatbots alongside WhatsApp API and CRM integration help businesses tailor responses based on customer data, previous interactions and purchases.
4. Scalability – WhatsApp automation enables businesses to handle high volumes of conversations simultaneously; especially during peak sale periods.
5. Seamless customer support – Automated FAQs, ticket routing and issue resolution are helping businesses offer better customer support and assistance during the entire buyer journey.
6. Increased engagement – Using automation, businesses can automate timely follow-ups, reminders and updates, driving higher engagement on campaigns.
7. Cost efficiency – With lesser human resource required to handle customer conversations, automation is helping optimize costs on support teams.
Key Features of WhatsApp Automation Tools For Customer Conversations
If you’re looking for a WhatsApp automation tool, here are some of the features to look for:
1. Chatbots and AI assistants – Seek a solution that comes with a chatbot builder as it will help you automate responses for FAQs as well as tiered inquiries more effectively.
2. Quick replies and templates – Look for a tool that offers predefined and customizable responses for common queries, and approved WhatsApp templates.
3. Interactive message types – The tool should enable you to use buttons, lists and multimedia with ease in your automated messages.
4. Automated drip campaigns – The solution you choose should do more than just one-time automation. It should be able to schedule a series of messages for onboarding, promotions and reminders.
5. CRM integration – A WhatsApp tool that integrates with the CRM can help you record customer data more effectively and track performance of campaigns.
6. Order and payment automation – Probe the availability of commerce features the automation tool offers. It should be able to take a buyer from discovery to purchase from the chat app.
7. Analytics and segmentation – While WhatsApp Business offers basic analytics, we recommend choosing a tool that will also let you track open rates, click through rate, response time, customer engagement and then further help you segment your audience.
Challenges and Considerations in WhatsApp Automation For Customer Conversations
While automation is being embraced by businesses actively, here are some challenges they often face:
1. Balancing human touch with automation – Businesses often risk sounding too robotic during conversations when using automated workflows.
2. Message fatigue and spam – Ensuring your messages remain relevant and non-intrusive throughout the buyer journey requires active segmentation and personalization.
3. Compliance and privacy regulations – Meta has enforced several policies to safeguard WhatsApp users. Adhering to the smallest of rules under WhatsApp Business policies and GDPR can be challenging.
4. Technical setup and maintenance – Ensuring the API integrates with other business systems can be challenging, and often requires technical assistance, unless you work with a WhatsApp Business API provider like Interakt.
5. Customer adoption – While most consumers today have engaged with automations, it can be challenging to introduce the new workflows to some.
Future Trends in WhatsApp Automation For Customer Conversations
Let’s take a look at some of the trends in WhatsApp automation:
1. AI-powered conversation commerce – Chatbots are now able to guide consumers from product discovery to purchases, creating a more seamless shopping experience.
2. Hyper-personalization – Businesses will be able to use AI and data analytics for predictive recommendations to hyper-personalize conversations, going beyond the usual reactive data around previous customer interactions and demographics.
3. Voice and video integration – Brands will soon be able to go beyond media files and use interactive support options including voice and video assistance on WhatsApp.
4. Multilingual support – Using AI, it will become easier for businesses to converse with customers in multiple languages, boosting global reach.
5. Sentiment analysis – Analytics will become more intelligent and offer sentiment analysis of customer engagement to help make campaigns better.
Conclusion
WhatsApp automation is here to stay.
With its adoption across marketing, support, sales, internal communication and coordination, and other functions, businesses are going to actively seek help from automated workflows to keep things running more efficiently.
But as Meta introduces more features to WhatsApp and the regulations evolve, there is an increased need to also choose the right tool for setting up automations.
If you’re looking at automating Whatsapp conversations, get started with Interakt today.