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Contents
INTRODUCTION
1 / PERSONAL MESSAGING: WHY CARE?
2 / THE PRACTICAL STUFF (+ TIPS & TRICKS)
The WhatsApp rulebook
3 / STORIES OF 5 EARLY ADOPTERS
WhatsApp as a survey medium
4 / WHAT’S UP NEXT
CONCLUSION
INDEX
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We’re humbled by the extraordinary ways
all of you
have used WhatsApp.
Whether it’s sharing vital information
during natural disasters or health emergencies,
finding a date,
growing a small business,
buying an engagement ring,or seeking a better life.
We’re honored to be a small part
of what people are doing
to make their lives and the lives of those around them
better.
- From ‘One Billion’, a blog piece written by the WhatsApp team after welcoming
their billionth monthly active user, 1st February 2016
https://blog.whatsapp.com/616/One-billionhttps://blog.whatsapp.com/616/One-billion
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INTRODUCTION /Why I love conversational commerce
Let’s get it over with: you should know that I sell Casengo, software for better
customer service (including a WhatsApp integration). You could indeed interpret
everything I write as if I were trying to sell the Casengo application to you. But
there are better ways to sell software than writing a book.
I just want to share some of the lessons I learnt in the more than 15 years I’ve
been active in the customer service field. This book is my two cents worth of
wisdom about the influence of personal messaging apps on the way businesses
treat their customers. I’ll also be talking about the role of artificial intelligence –
and of China – in the messaging landscape. Quite the adventure!
All of these topics have something to do with a magical idea that is coming upfrequently these days: conversational commerce.
I love conversational commerce.
I started thinking about it around the time I was preparing to found Casengo
in 2011. Turns out I wasn’t the only one [1]. Three years later, conversational
commerce had turned out into a trendy but slightly intangible term, well
described by Chris Messina, Developer Experience Lead at Uber:
Conversational commerce is about delivering convenience,
personalization, and decision support while people are on
the go, with only partial attention to spare [2] .
1 Are You Ready for Conversational Commerce?’, February 2014, BIA Kelsey
2 2016 will be the year of conversational commerce’, January 2016, Medium
http://blog.biakelsey.com/index.php/2011/02/07/are-you-ready-for-conversational-commerce/https://medium.com/chris-messina/2016-will-be-the-year-of-conversational-commerce-1586e85e3991%23.wl697uk8ahttps://medium.com/chris-messina/2016-will-be-the-year-of-conversational-commerce-1586e85e3991%23.wl697uk8ahttp://blog.biakelsey.com/index.php/2011/02/07/are-you-ready-for-conversational-commerce/
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Convenience, personalization, decision support on the go – that’s conversational commerce
right there. If it comes into full bloom, I’m quite certain it will make our lives in the Global
Village better. But it can only succeed if both the seller and the buyer are on the same page,
on the same wavelength, communicating clearly with mutual respect. Customers love brands,
but brands need customers. They should take the time to get to know the members of their
audience, and offer support tailored just for them.
It’s the marketplace of the old days; it’s commerce just as authentic as the Friday market where
everyone knows the bald fishmonger and his son by name, and where the cupcake girl is always
in for some chitchat on the weather (followed by an order of 12 cupcakes, because it’ll make her
smile).
If you want to use WhatsApp as a professional business tool, it’s vital you’re interested in your
customer. The whole conversational commerce thing rests on this assumption. Customer is
king. You help him where you can, and you use personal messaging to do so. For the first time
in history, there’s a potential direct line between every company world-wide and every consumer
with a smartphone, anywhere. WhatsApp acts like an umbilical cord between a business
and a big chunk of its customer base. If you provide your customers and prospects with
enough nourishment, the bond between us all in the Global Village will not disappear after one
transaction - instead, it will get stronger, and the world will thrive.
With apps like WhatsApp, you are in your customer’s pocket. You live in his smartphone. You’re
in his comfort zone, and he in yours.
It’s crucial, then, that your customer doesn’t grow bored or annoyed with you. He’s the king of
the castle, and will throw anyone out who treats him like a living dollar bill . Be willing to invest
some of your precious time in him – and him alone. That means: use WhatsApp as the one-on-one channel it is, not as a social media channel.
This doesn’t mean you have to be in constant touch with your customers. Leave those poor
people alone! But when you talk to a customer (be it on the phone, via email, or through live chat
or WhatsApp), be at your very, very best.
Keep the conversation going
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AI might scare you. Or you might find it too science fictional. Or perhaps the idea of robots and
digital bots thrills you. Either way, we’ll need it. Conversational commerce is only scalable i f
we accept AI to become part of our lives. ‘It’s no longer a question of if bots are coming, but
how,’ Ted Livingston, CEO at chat app Kik. ‘For the first time ever,’ he added, ‘bots will let you
instantly interact with the world around you.
Yes, they’re here. As we speak, Google, Facebook and Apple are fighting for the best AI experts
out there. In March 2016, Alphago (made by Google) beat a human Go champion at Go, a very
complex game. Not complex enough for AlphaGo…
And let’s not forget about Microsoft. Those guys allegedly developed a chatbot that 10 million
people have declared their love to her. That’s human beings telling a robot called XiaoIce (Little
Bing) that they have feelings for her. A very successful Turing Test indeed! I hear Little Bing
comes close to Scarlett in that intriguing AI movie, “Her”. Bizarre, for sure.
Once AI becomes very good, very human-like, we won’t know whether we’re chatting with a bot
or with a human being – and neither will we care. As long as the voice on the other side feels
human to us, and is interesting (or fun, or convenient), we’ll love chatting to brands.
The power of conversation is a thousand times stronger than Facebook likes or Twitter followers.
Facebook and Twitter are nice to have around, but personal messaging is a must-have. Build
a true relationship with consumers, and watch them turn from perfect strangers into perfect
customers, coming back for more again and again and again – even if you increase your prices.
As long as you explain why, they’ll stick around.
‘I love you, little Bing!’
3 ‘The Future of Chat Isn’t AI’, March 2016, Medium
4 Intriguing movie from 2013, rated 8.0 on IMDB, with Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson’s voice. Must see! (Too
bad about the ending.)
Sharing = caring
Here’s bit about me. The first serious company I co-founded, together with my brother Thijs, was
Livecom[5], in 2003. It was a sort of Zendesk avant la lettre (Zendesk was launched 4 long years
later): an application that allows large organizations to respond to customers more efficiently.
Even back then, I felt it’s not the medium that matters, but the customer and his message.
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5 This was before Microsoft’s live.com got popular. I almost bought the URL once. Almost. It still hurts.
6 ‘Casengo Raises $2M To Accelerate One-Inbox Approach To Customer Service’, April 2014, TechCrunch
7 Check out the result of our hackathon on YouTube!
8 Videos of all of Zuckerberg’s public Q&As can be found on Facebook’s Facebook Page.
9 ‘Messaging apps are now bigger than social networks’, January 2014, Business Insider
10 ‘Why Facebook has entrusted its future to the CEO of PayPal’, October 2014 WIRED
I sold Livecom successfully in February 2016, which now allows me to focus on the company
I founded in 2012: Casengo. Casengo started off as a Livecom spin-off. It’s a simpler product,
aimed at small and medium-size businesses that appreciate the importance of excellent
customer service. By blending the best of email and live chat, we promise our users – especially
companies without a 24/7 customer service team – more happy customers. And we deliver.
In April 2014, Casengo raised 2 million dollars [6]. However, we didn’t hit the mark until January
2015, when – during an old-fashioned hackathon[7] with lots of pizza and even more beer –
we were the first multichannel support platform ever to integrate WhatsApp. We made this
integration available to some of our users in March 2015, well before the big boys did. When I
saw them follow suit, I realized that conversational commerce was finally happening.
Good conversations are meaningful messages back and forth. It sounds so simple. And yet it
kept Mark Zuckerberg up at night. Messaging is the next frontier, he said back in 2014, during
his first public Q&A session [8] at Facebook HQ. That’s exactly why he’d forced his users to
install his Messenger app a few months earlier. ‘Mobile messaging,’ he famously told his eager
audience, ‘is one of the few things that people actually do more than social networking.’ So he
quickly forced his users to install the mobile Messenger app, and bought WhatsApp, just to be
sure.
A year later, people were (and still are) using messaging apps more often than social networks [9].
And the smartest companies are, too. They bravely threw a line into the sea of customers, and
reeled them in, one after the other. A senior editor at WIRED saw it and wrote:
The company that controls the [world’s] messaging [landscape] will control
the future of the way we interact with people and, quite possibly, with
businesses [10] .
Mobile messaging – the game is on. Do you want to watch, or play?
The messaging landscape with c-commerce at its best
http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/08/casengo-raises-2m-to-accelerate-one-inbox-approach-to-customer-service/https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DcPAbZD6xPRUhttps://www.facebook.com/qawithmark/videoshttp://www.businessinsider.com/the-messaging-app-report-2015-11http://www.wired.com/2014/11/on-david-marcus-and-facebook/http://www.wired.com/2014/11/on-david-marcus-and-facebook/http://www.businessinsider.com/the-messaging-app-report-2015-11https://www.facebook.com/qawithmark/videoshttps://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DcPAbZD6xPRUhttp://techcrunch.com/2014/04/08/casengo-raises-2m-to-accelerate-one-inbox-approach-to-customer-service/
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01 /A direct line to your customers
We live in a global village populated by mobile consumers. People like you
and me: always online, never satisfied for long. That’s what I realized thinking
about why WhatsApp wasn’t a hit right away. After all, it was launched in
2009 - before the smartphone revolution. A time when the majority of people
owned something like a plastic black or blue Nokia that they used to text or call
people.
At the time, we were stil l deep into social networking. But as the number of
smartphone users grew thanks to the introduction of the iPhone, a proper
mobile app market was created. We started thinking in apps, not websites.
Slowly, we changed. We started bringing our smartphone everywhere likea favourite pet, even to the cinema or the restaurant. We used it to look for
answers whenever a question popped up. We started rating and reviewing,
booking and buying online. The longer we did this, the wiser, pickier and
impatient we got. Mankind took an evolutionary step forwards.
For the first time ever, the web let you access information
from anywhere in the world. For the first time ever, mobile
made connected computing constantly available [11] .
I’m writing this in April 2016. The mobile generation is thriving. We know
what we want, demanding quick answers from both our friends and the
brands we adore (or despise). The internet, with its social media, review sites
11 ‘The Future of Chat Ain’t AI’, March 2016, Medium
https://medium.com/%40tedlivingston/the-future-of-chat-isn-t-ai-b07f65bc252%23.26t04lxu8https://medium.com/%40tedlivingston/the-future-of-chat-isn-t-ai-b07f65bc252%23.26t04lxu8
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and e-commerce options, has turned into an extension of our consciousness[12]. We are now
discovering conversational commerce, and artificial intelligence will play a big part. We’re waking
up to a global but very connected village. And this behaviour forces companies to treat us like
rich, respectable kings.
12 Just as Marshall McLuhan predicted in 1962.
13 ‘WhatsApp: best for customer service?’, February 2014, The Guardian
14 GWI is the world’s largest market research study on the digital consumer. Some argue that its figures on the Chinese
market (WeChat in particular) are questionable. I have no idea whether that’s true, but to be sure I’ll only quote GWI
on markets excluding China.
15 GWI PROFILE Q4 2015 on WhatsApp, GlobalWebIndex
WhatsApp is going to be the primary customer service app. That was clear [13] even before
Facebook bought WhatsApp for 19 billion dollars. As I write this, WhatsApp has over 1 billion
monthly active users. One thousand million people using the same app? That’s close to creepy.
And the user base is growing fast: according to GlobalWebIndex [14](GWI), WhatsApp has been
growing furiously ever since Facebook acquired it in 2014. Since then, an extra 1 in 8 internet
users use WhatsApp[15].
WhatsApp was built specifically for the smartphone. It was launched in February 2009, a month
after Jan Koum, WhatsApp’s founding father, bought his first iPhone. And as this Ukrainian
university drop-out, one of Yahoo’s infrastructure engineers, was checking out the new App
Store, he realized he wanted to build an app. A wave of new apps was coming; it would wash
over the world like a benign tsunami. This was the chance to build an app that would allow i ts
users around the world to connect with their peers. An app like that would make the world shrink
comfortably into a global village.
With hardly any users, WhatsApp started off slow. At first, it was a bit of a boring app that
allowed you to update and share your status: “Hey there, what’s up?” But then, in June 2009,
Apple introduced its push notification system. All of a sudden, each status update on WhatsApp
appeared live on the screen and demanded being looked at by its receiver. WhatsApp had
turned into one of the few safe and ad-free messaging apps around, and Koum knew it. As he
said to Forbes[16]: ‘Being able to reach somebody half way across the world instantly, on a device
that is always with you, [is] powerful.’
One small app for man…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gutenberg_Galaxyhttp://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/feb/26/whatsapp-customer-service-brand-twitterhttp://www.globalwebindex.net/https://pro.globalwebindex.net/reports/23https://pro.globalwebindex.net/reports/23http://www.globalwebindex.net/http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/feb/26/whatsapp-customer-service-brand-twitterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gutenberg_Galaxy
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Soon after the push notifications added a crucial layer to personal messaging, WhatsApp started
growing faster than any other social utility[17. A famous note by co-founder Brian Acton reminded
everyone at WhatsApp what the app was all about:
No Ads!No Games!
No Gimmicks!
16 ‘Exclusive: The Rags-To-Riches Tale Of How Jan Koum Built WhatsApp Into Facebook’s New $19 Billion Baby’,
February 2014, Forbes
17 ‘Inside The Facebook-WhatsApp Megadeal: The Courtship, The Secret Meetings, The $19 Billion Poker Game’,
March 2014, Forbes
18 ‘WhatsApp: voor de mondige stedeling’, October 2015, Clou
Of the time we spend on our smartphone, we spend almost 90% on apps. And one of the most
popular of those apps, accessed at least daily by 4 in 5 users, is WhatsApp. Which makes it very
interesting to smart companies like yours and mine. No, ads are not allowed. But isn’t building arelationship with your customers worth millions more than any flimsy ad?
TNS NIPO, a renowned Dutch research institute, recently published the results of a national
WhatsApp study[18]: in the Netherlands, WhatsApp is popular mainly amongst articulate city-
dwellers with more money to spend than average. And it turns out that these consumers love
using WhatsApp to reach out to brands. ‘People who are using WhatsApp already, welcome
customer service through WhatsApp,’ researcher Job van der Berg explains. ‘However, people
who don’t use WhatsApp anyway – mainly low-skilled and older consumers – say they wouldn’t
appreciate customer support through WhatsApp at all.’
The previously mentioned global GWI study shows similar findings: almost 75% WhatsApp users
world-wide live in a city. Most users are between 16 and 34 years old, and 1 in 5 have a good
income. How’s that for a potential target audience?
… one giant app for businesses.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/02/19/exclusive-inside-story-how-jan-koum-built-whatsapp-into-facebooks-new-19-billion-babyhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/03/04/inside-the-facebook-whatsapp-megadeal-the-courtship-the-secret-meetings-the-19-billion-poker-game/http://tns-nipo.com/getattachment/Overheid-en-Non-Profit/CLOU-WhatsApp_JobvdBerg_TNSNipo.pdf/http://tns-nipo.com/getattachment/Overheid-en-Non-Profit/CLOU-WhatsApp_JobvdBerg_TNSNipo.pdf/http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/03/04/inside-the-facebook-whatsapp-megadeal-the-courtship-the-secret-meetings-the-19-billion-poker-game/http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/02/19/exclusive-inside-story-how-jan-koum-built-whatsapp-into-facebooks-new-19-billion-baby
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1 Add a WhatsApp share button to your website or in your app.
This allows your happy customers (aka fans) to easily share your
content and ‘recommend’ it to friends.
2 Compile a ‘Broadcast List’ and push messages to multiple
people at once.
But be careful: only those who actually saved your contact number
will receive your messages. As this has nothing to do with my own
business, customer service, I don’t care for this option myself. I
actually dislike this option very much. If you decide to go for it, keep
your content very relevant and only sent it to people who explicitly
said they wanted you to keep them up to date (the “opt-in” principle).
3 Organize a Group Chat, which will let you chat with up to 256
people at once.
Again, hard to use for customer service, unless it’s for a veryspecific, one-time campaign. Also great for in-company chats if your
company doesn’t yet use productivity apps like Slack.
4 Offer customer service through WhatsApp.
Every time someone saves your company‘s WhatsApp number in
his contact list, a direct one-to-one line is established. If you use it
wisely, you’ll be rewarded with a high customer satisfaction rate and
a higher turnover[20].
As the first three ways haven’t got anything to do with customer service, #4 is the only option I’ll
be talking about in this book. 1-to-1 customer service through WhatsApp, that’s gold.
19 I got this from social media expert Jarno Duursma. He wrote a short guide called WhatsApp for businesses, in which
he pays as much attention to commercial ways 1, 2 and 3 as to way #4. Though only a quarter of the book is about
customer service, I can recommend this book (in Dutch) all the same.
20 That’s why Casengo’s slogan is More happy customers. We aim for a higher customer satisfaction rate (happier
customers) and a higher revenue (more customers)!
4 business-ways to use WhatsApp
In the past, any self-respecting company would avoid the sacred WhatsApp arena. Friends only,
no commercial rubbish. Companies who dare to spam WhatsApp users are blocked. But thereare other ways to reach customers through WhatsApp than bothering them with spam [19}:
http://www.whatsappvoorbedrijven.nl/http://www.whatsappvoorbedrijven.nl/
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Why would you want to use WhatsApp for customer service? Some companies report shorter
phone queues and few complaints on Facebook or Twitter. Others say they use WhatsApp to
reach new audiences, meaning WhatsApp actually gives them more work rather than less. An
independent survey[21], though, recently showed that “social media is among the last places
consumers want to go for customer service”[22]. WhatsApp is the better alternative.
Unless, of course, you don’t have the capacity to answer quickly. WhatsApp is a quick channel;
people are used to get a response as soon as they see 2 blue check marks, indicating the other
person has read their message. You can’t let the customer wait 2 working days for a reply on
WhatsApp. Half an hour is the limit! If you don’t have enough people or enough time to take care
of your WhatsApp customers, then my suggestion is to ignore the WhatsApp trend for now, and
hope for better times.
21 ‘Social Media Customer Service Declines, American Consumers Don’t Know What Good Service Looks Like, New
Survey Finds’, March 2016, NICE/BCG
22 ‘Survey Finds Social Media Customer Service Declines’, March 2016, Contact Centres
23 ‘WhatsApp: best for customer service?’, February 2014, The Guardian
WhatsApp: the benefits
Benefit #1 WhatsApp is fast, highly intuitive and free.
Businesses who don’t consider this app as a customer contact channel
are way behind. Why would you not want to establish a direct line with
your customers, using one of their favourite apps? There’s nothing to lose
and a lifelong relationship to win – if you know what you’re doing (see
chapter 2).
Benefit #2 WhatsApp allows you to be present on a device your customer loves.
If you ignore the one spot your customers all hang out, you’re not thinking
clearly. Marketing and sales are about being where your customer is at
his happiest: amongst friends.
Benefit #3 WhatsApp is private.
The fact that WhatsApp is one-to-one allows more room for nuance. It
stimulates a very personal approach, quite unlike Twitter and Facebook,
where the conversation starts off publically, one-to-many. This makesWhatsApp ideal for customer service. Being personal and private, ‘it
extends the consumer relationship beyond complaints and queries’[23].
Conversational commerce at its best!
http://www.nice.com/engage/press-releases/Social-Media-Customer-Service-Declines-American-Consumers-Dont-Know-What-Good-Service-Looks-Like-New-Survey-Finds-416http://contact-centres.com/survey-finds-social-media-customer-service-declines/http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/feb/26/whatsapp-customer-service-brand-twitterhttp://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/feb/26/whatsapp-customer-service-brand-twitterhttp://contact-centres.com/survey-finds-social-media-customer-service-declines/http://www.nice.com/engage/press-releases/Social-Media-Customer-Service-Declines-American-Consumers-Dont-Know-What-Good-Service-Looks-Like-New-Survey-Finds-416
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Before you get started...
There’s one thing that all of the early adopters in chapter 4 mention when sharing their insights
on WhatsApp: ‘Don’t be scared of using WhatsApp. Just go for it, it’s awesome.’
Here’s an overview to help you through the various phases in your WhatsApp trial: thinking,
preparing and launching. They’re all just as crucial. If you don’t want your customers to catch
you stressed, slow and totally confused, don’t skip any phase. Also, keep improving your
behaviour on WhatsApp; it’s all one big exercise in adjusting and reconsidering!
Phase 1: Thinking things through
Using WhatsApp isn’t good for all of us. Before you get ahead of yourself and start
implementing, there are a few stakeholders you need to think about.
Customers
Are your (potential) customers actually ‘on’ WhatsApp?
Chances are very high that they are. But they might also just be the rare exceptions: people in
their eighties, for instance. However, don’t be too quick to assume that they don’t use it… Find
out for certain first.
Your team
Does your team have the capacity to answer the questions from WhatsApp?
If your team is already way too busy to answer phone calls or answering emails, then it might be
better to postpone your WhatsApp initiative. Unless, of course, you think that adding WhatsApp
will decrease the pressure off the phone and email channels.
How quickly can you follow up?
Because WhatsApp is such a personal channel, customers tend to have high expectations for
getting their questions answered quickly. Aim for a quick resolution time: 1 hour max. And once
you answer, you must follow up right away. You’re either in or you’re not.
Your stakeholder’s behaviour
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Competitors
What are your competitors doing?
Being the first in your field to offer WhatsApp support can be great to trump competition. But if
you’re not an early adopter, it won’t trump anybody. You’ll need to start using it to up your game
and stay on par.
Ask yourself (and perhaps a peer - brainstorming is easier with a sparring partner) why you want
start with WhatsApp in the first place. Pick one overarching goal and take it from there. What do
you want to achieve? Faster service, more happy customers, or perhaps a revenue increase?
It’s important to keep this goal in mind whilst making decisions on all the required steps and
tactics. Keep reminding yourself throughout the planning stage what you want to accomplish,
and what you need to accomplish this. Also: get everyone on the same page before you take-off.
Consider the first weeks to be nothing but a trial: test the waters gently, gain experience and
learn. As soon as you’re getting more traction, you can consider more specific metrics and
adjusting your course accordingly.
Your overarching goal
Assemble a WhatsApp team: decide who’s in charge of your overarching goal, and who will reply
to queries quickly and efficiently. These are typically members of your customer service team
who know how to handle 1-to-1 channels like email and phone. Some companies assign the
WhatsApp channel to their social media team, but that often turns out to be a mistake, as social
media is mainly about 1-to-many.
7) Get your team together
Phase 2: A 7-step prep countdown
Even though strategizing and thinking things through is important, start getting practical very
soon. What will you need to do before you can even think of making your WhatsApp number
public to your customers and prospects?
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For most people, WhatsApp is a relaxed channel, used to interact with friends, family
and sometimes colleagues. You will notice that many people will use that same style of
communication with you as they do with their friends. Depending on your company culture,
you’ll want to respond in a similarly playful fashion (while keeping it professional).
If you already have a general style guide for your customer service team to follow, check if you
need to make adjustments to fit the WhatsApp channel. This is no place to sound like a useless
robot. Consider your rules around emoticons, canned messages, humour, etc. Make sure you’re
all on the same page: giving your customers the best experience ever. Check out chapter 2 for
loads of tips and tricks!
5) Adapt the way you talk
Depending on the type of company you run, organize an introductory meeting or an actual
brainstorm session. To get everyone on board, explain the benefits of WhatsApp, translate those
benefits to fit your company and do not forgot to discuss the overarching goal. Do you want to
shorten the phone queue? Or lower the email volumes? Or get your customer satisfaction rates
up?
6) Involve your team
4) Get a WhatsApp number
You’ll obviously need a phone number that your customers can use to reach you through
WhatsApp. Two options here:
1 Buy the cheapest prepaid SIM card.
Online, or from a local telephone shop. Keep into account that mostproviders deactivate a SIM card after 6 months of inactivity. Just use
that number to have a call every 5.5 months, and you’ll be fine. (Add
it to your calendar as a repeat action.)
2 Get a SIM card with an actual subscription.
This is the more expensive option that gets you peace of mind: you
won’t run the risk of disconnection.
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If you’re offering international support with WhatsApp, you might want to consider getting
different local numbers, depending on the type of company. Generally, this is more important in
B2C than B2B.
Although your WhatsApp number is supposed to be used for WhatsApp support only, there is
always the odd customer who decides to give you a call on that number. Depending on how you
manage your messages (phone, software, web.whatsapp.com), this can be problem. So if you’re
not using a dedicated phone, you have two options:
1 Record a voicemail to let people know which other number toreach you on.
2 Install an automatic forward of incoming calls to a different
number, for example your support line.
3) Consider voicemail versus call forwarding
First add your company name, your logo, email address, URL etc. Then update your status,which is easier than it sounds.
A status update for business purposes should be a helpful description of what your company
is doing on WhatsApp. You might want to add the “opening hours” of the WhatsApp channel,
for instance. When are you available to respond to queries sent through this channel? Turn the
default status (“Hey there, I’m using WhatsApp”) into something much more concrete.
A good status update, for instance, could be: ‘Need product advice? Happy to help from Mon-
Fri 9:00-17:30 CET!’
If, later on, you have multiple WhatsApp numbers to involve different departments or query
types, you might want to present different status updates for each number, making clear which
number is meant for which type of questions. If, however, you have multiple WhatsApp numbers
simply to cover a bigger volume, keep the status update identical.
2) Personalize your WhatsApp account
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There are three options to manage your incoming and outgoing messages:
1 A smartphone
2 WhatsApp Web (web.whatsapp.com)
3 Specialised software for WhatsApp support
1) Manage your messages like a pro
Sometimes it’s perfectly possible to start testing WhatsApp support with just a phone. But
depending on your company size, that might not be feasible. There are four major factors to
consider when deciding what the best option is for you:
1 How big is your team?
If your company needs only one person answering customer questions
through WhatsApp, a smartphone or WhatsApp Web will probably do
the trick (at least in the beginning). If, however, your WhatsApp team
needs to be bigger, operating from a phone and WhatsApp Web quickly
turns into a bottleneck. Specialised software helps multiple colleagues
collaborate, forward conversations, assign conversations to the right
colleague, etc.
2 How many incoming questions do you think you’ll be receiving?
If the number of WhatsApp questions remain limited (say maximum
10 a day if you have more than 2 customer service people “on”
WhatsApp - this number may vary), you could make do with the phone
or WhatsApp Web. But you should get specialized software the minute
you get stressed about volume. A large number of incoming questionssoon makes WhatsApp an unmanageable channel unless you use
professional software.
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4 How many WhatsApp numbers do you manage?
Lots of companies chose to have various WhatsApp number for various
departments, products, subsidiaries, countries, etc. Whether you need
Whether you need software ultimately depends on the size of your
WhatsApp team and the volume of incoming WhatsApp queries. So just
like pointed out in the two previous paragraphs, let those two factors
influence your decision.
5 Do you need more advanced features?
Although getting started quickly can be important to prove whether
WhatsApp works for you or not, sometimes a more sophisticated
approach is needed. If your manager or boss demands solid data and
metrics, easier search abilities or centralised data with the rest of your
customer data, specialised software will be your only way forward.
How do you know which WhatsApp support tool is the best?
Most software providers are ticketing systems that allow you to collaborate effectively as a team.
But customer service is more than that. There are a few things you can look for in your customer
service tool. After all: the more useful features the tool boasts, the easier it will be to rock ‘n’ roll.
1 Pick a software provider with a helpful support team.
Offering customer service through WhatsApp can be risky, mainly
because WhatsApp doesn’t support an official API. An alert provider
with a flexible and knowledgeable team helps mitigate some of those
risks. Contact and compare several tool makers before making any sort
of decision. Do you like them? Are they flexible? Do they keep their
promises?
2 Don’t consider tools that only focus on WhatsApp.
Your tool should allow you to receive customer questions from different
sources, like email and live chat. If you can “catch” all of these
questions in a single app, your efficiency will skyrocket!
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1 Get to know the tool’s features.
Check whether it allows you to send and receive photos, videos or
other types of messages. Perhaps you don’t want to send pictures
now, but you might want to in the future. Keep your options open! And
might you ever be using various WhatsApp numbers? Then get a tool
that collects them all within the same system! Also, check how the
tool operates: does it have native integrations with your systems of
choice, does it work with an open API, and is there another easy way
to export your data? Don’t focus too much on reporting or analytics
options just yet. WhatsApp is hard to measure. What matters in the
end is whether WhatsApp works for your customers and your business.
Also: don’t be seduced by the message broadcasting option: Run away
as fast as you can if the software provider keeps raving on about theirmessage broadcasting feature. You do not want to use WhatsApp as
a newsletter tool! Sure, it’s tempting - but withstand the enemy! You
don’t want to risk a ban or a block because WhatsApp thinks you’re a
notorious spammer!
2 Check if the tool offers quick responses & automated replies:
You can take some workload off your back by using templates and
automated replies. Careful though - this sounds more awesome than it
is on WhatsApp specifically. As talked about before, WhatsApp is too
personal a channel for quick response templates, that usually serve as
a good basis for answering frequently asked questions. And automated
replies can provide a warm welcome to customers “in queue”, but
only if you’ve thought it through perfectly. However, if you use macros
excessively, you may be triggering a block by either your customer or
WhatsApp itself. Be careful.
3 What about the smartphone?
Another thing to consider: some providers require you to keep your
“WhatsApp smartphone” (the smartphone with the SIM number used
for WhatsApp support) active at all times. It’s up to you to top up the
credit in time or the number will stop working. More expensive (but
reliable) tools allow you to connect your number once to the system
and be done with it.
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Need your manager’s (or your mirror image’s) approval to proceed? Download this clever prep
checklist for your team to refer to during the 3 phases preceding your WhatsApp trial. Then go
for it - and discover the power of conversational commerce.
Phase 3: 3-2-1 lift-off!
Now that you’ve ticked all the boxes of the preparation, you’re ready to get your WhatsApp
hands dirty and start receiving questions. Time to get down to action.
3) Let the world know you’re on WhatsApp
This is the most important aspect of whether you can gain traction on WhatsApp or not. If
nobody knows you’re there, you’re wasting your time. So make sure you spread the word far
and wide to both customers and prospects – but start slowly!
The most important place to start is adding your WhatsApp number to:
1 your ‘contact’ page on the website;
2 your email signature, especially of your customer support team oraccount managers (in B2B);
3 the footer of your newsletters;
4 your social media account profiles;
5 a pinned post on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn;
6 your homepage.
Be careful when adding your WhatsApp number to your homepage, though. Don’t just throw
it on there if your website gets a lot of daily traffic. It’s smarter to show the number to a select
part of your online visitors (say 10%), and gear up only after gathering experience and insightful
data. Know what you’re doing!
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Don’t forget to provide context and let your customers know what they can use your WhatsApp
support channel for. Managing expectations is super important to prevent disappointment.
No, people can probably not call you on the WhatsApp number, and you won’t be available for
support 24/7. But this only becomes a problem if you haven’t communicated it clearly.
If it’s relevant to your line of business, don’t forget to mention that you won’t send or accept
delicate personal information like bank account numbers or medical advice. Unfortunately,
a recent report showed that WhatsApp does not do a good job protecting its data from
government requests. So don’t share delicate data, and make sure your customer service team
knows this!
2) Manage your customers’ expectations
After you’ve tested WhatsApp and are getting satisfactory results, it’s a smart move to integrate
it with your other channels. After all, customer service is at its best when it’s not the medium that
counts, but the message and its sender. You’ll find that you’ll need specialized customer service
software to get more context, paint a more complete picture and make the WhatsApp channel
scalable.
1) Pick a great customer service tool
Besides these obvious starting points, get creative. You could, for instance, send an email to
your customer base to inform them of the new support channel, develop a marketing campaign
to position your WhatsApp service as a competitive advantage, use posters and flyers around
your physical locations, etc.
Also: when sharing your WhatsApp number online, make sure it’s clickable, leading to a vcard.
If a mobile visitor of your website clicks on the number, he’ll be able to download your contact
info, allowing him to save it to his address book with just one tap.
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02 /Customer support via WhatsApp:the basics with tips & tricks!
It’s astonishing how many companies underestimate the importance of “little
things” - details like customer support. Isn’t supporting your customers extrahassle? It’s not quite your core business. Spending time on customer service
and actually sounding like you care… Right. Your customers have already given
you their money, haven’t they? You’re not missing out by not providing great
service.
Except that you are. You need your customers to come back at some point.
A one-time customer is pretty useless in the long run, unless you sold them
a rocket ship or something. And yet bad customer service may be just as
harmful to your company’s future as no customer service at all. Customers
who hate your guts – because of, say, a service conversation gone wrong –
will ferociously blacken your brand when talking to friends or online followers.
Customers who remain indifferent won’t be quite as bad, because they never
got to speak to you in the first place.
Whether you’ve got a hangover or the flu, come rain or come shine, be nice on
WhatsApp. It’s an extremely direct channel, diving right into your customer’s
heart. He’ll hate you or love you. Home is where the heart is, and the heart’sextension, these days, is the smartphone.
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Lesson 1 Having A Great WhatsApp Conversation
How should you open and close a WhatsApp conversation with a
customer? What about tone of voice and empathy? And have you
thought through the issue of macros (preprogrammed messages)?
Lesson 2 Dealing With ‘Tough’ Conversations
It’s easy to gracefully accept a compliment through WhatsApp, but
elegantly handling complaints, spim and endless chit-chat is another
matter.
Lesson 3 Rocking the WhatsApp channel
Start upselling. Yes, you can! Also, you’ll get the most of this channel
if you add it to your array of communication channels. But first
promise to use WhatsApp to gather feedback from your customers,
the key to turning your brand into something much better and more
loved than before.
Read on to find out how. And don’t forget to prep your WhatsApp team properly! Just as live
chat, email, social media and the good old phone, WhatsApp comes with its own set of rules.Rules that you make because these will determine what your brand feels like to your customers.
Your team must adopt a consistent way of communicating through WhatsApp.
Be sure to download the “style guide” version of this chapter[24], add your specifics to it, and
make your WhatsApp support team understand what it’s all about: being in touch with your
customers in an absurdly intensive way. WhatsApp can be a great channel, but it’s not peanuts.
3 lessons to learn before starting a trial
24 You can download this worksheet slash style guide here.
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Lesson 1Having a great WhatsApp conversation
The primary reason to use WhatsApp is to strengthen the bond between you and yourcustomers, right? So your task is to make them love you. That’s quite easy to achieve: stick to
your word and sound human. It’s not only what you say, but it’s also how you say it. You are a
being of flesh and blood, just l ike the person you’re chatting with – so sound it .
1 Keep your tone of voice bright and helpful
Unless you’re responding to a complaint, you should type as if you
were smiling. Use positive words, think in solutions and be flexible.
Be profuse in your apologies and words of thanks, showing you work
for a customer-friendly company with empathic employees, happy to
be of service.
2 Mirror the other person’s style
Not sure whether emoticons are allowed? Quite a good rule to go by
is to take your customer’s behaviour as an example. But as always:
use your common sense. So if your conversation partner cracks
jokes, be careful: stay clear from jokes that are even slightly related
to gender, nationality, ethnic, political or religious background. And
skip football, too! After all: you don’t actually know for sure what kind
of person you are dealing with.
3 Avoid canned responses (preprogrammed messages)
There you have it: I’m not a fan of replies void of personality. Empty
messages and WhatsApp: not such a great combination. Canned
responses save time, but you risk sounding robotic if you use them
constantly. Also: to the guys at WhatsApp, canned responses are
red flags. If you send the exact same message regularly - or worse:
continuously - you might get marked by WhatsApp as a commercial
Sound human
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account, and will risk a ban [25]. If you do decide to preprogram
messages, think them through!
4 Correct typos but don’t sweat it
Made a typing error? Don’t make a big deal out of it. Errors aren’t
as bad as they seem – as long as you correct them. Little mistakes
might even inspire sympathy. Having said that: you might refresh
your team’s spelling abilities… You’re just human, sure, but you don’t
want to come across as an incapable human misrepresenting your
business.
5 Be relevant
The consequence of WhatsApp’s power to ban its users without
notice is that companies must do their very best not to annoy
either their customers or WhatsApp itself. You must invest in your
customers, only sharing relevant content with them. Relevant
content, in this case, is content that people actually want to read
– nothing resembling spam. The direct line between you and your
customer is paper-thin; sever it once, and you’ll have to build that
trust all over again.
There are 2 types of conversations. Whilst proactive conversations are the ones you strike
up (which doesn’t happen often in pure customer service), reactive ones exist only on the
customer’s initiative.
Proactive conversations are the ones you’ll probably have the least often. We’re ignoring
the ‘broadcast list’ option here, which has nothing to do with customer service; it verges on
marketing and advertising. However, sometimes it’s okay to strike up a conversation from a
customer service viewpoint.
Join the conversation
25 You can read more on being banned in ‘How not to get blocked by WhatsApp’, coming up right after this chapter.
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Say you want to send a WhatsApp message to Alex, a customer you’ve never reached out to
before – at least not through WhatsApp. He filled out his mobile number during checkout. An
elegant way to engage in conversation is to share some interesting content you’d usually share
by email. Try something like this:
!" $%&'( )*"+ "+ ,%-."+ /.-0
12+&34-5 6 78+) 923)&: )- %&)
;-8 &.+
/"3"+*&: )*& /83?)"-32%"); ;-8
)-%: 8+ "3 2 +8.=&; ;-8 9&.&
92")"34 /-.5 @23) )- ).; ") -8)A
You want Alex to be happily surprised, not annoyed or feeling hunt down like prey. He’ll block
you if he doesn’t like what you just said. But if he responds, you’re in – and the game is on. After
a bit, you can gently try something like this:
6/ ;-8B: %">
242"3( >%&2+& +2=& -8.
380C&. "3 ;-8. >*-3& ."4*)
3-95 D2
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We’re talking about reactive conversations here, where you respond nicely and quickly to a
customer question (definitely within 60 minutes, but preferably within 5 minutes or less), and
introduce yourself. You’ll never get a second chance for your first impression!
Welcoming your prospectsand customers
A simple canned response can be of great help when reacting to questions
quickly and professionally. Tell the people reaching out to you through
WhatsApp whom they’re chatting with and when they can expect a response
to their specific question. So manage their expectations. What can yourprospects and customers expect in terms of timeframe and benefits?
!"( 9&%?-0& )- E?-0>23; 320&F
23: )*23
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Bigger volumes to respond to? Then canned responses, also known as preprogrammed
messages, are a must. You’ve probably also heard of macros: they’re shortcuts to a set of
actions, sometimes containing canned responses (for instance, to deal with spim).
Canned responses seem useful in busy times, but they are to be handled with care as they might
set off the alarm bells at WhatsApp HQ. You should consider getting software enriched with a
human behaviour algorithm. This algorithm adds human characteristics to canned responses,
preventing you from being banned or blocked by WhatsApp.
Experience taught us that companies which send a message like ‘Welcome! Thanks for your
question!’ as a response to every single question, hundreds of times a day, eventually find
themselves blocked. Instead, add empty fields to your preprogammed messages, forcing your
team to complete the message with personal, relevant information. Your canned response goes
from being general and boring to genuine and personal. ‘Welcome! Thanks for your question! As
I understand, you …’
Be super careful with canned responses and macros
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First customer message Preprogrammed company reply
A standard question, such as:
Hi, I still haven’t received my order.
Could you track it for me?
Hi, welcome to and
thanks for your question. I’m and happy to help you
out today! So you .
A complaint, such as:
Hey, why don’t you guys respond to myemails? I’m getting sick of this.
Hi, sorry to hear that... Let’s get to the
bottom of this.
Or:
Oh dear, let me get this sorted for you.
Spim, such as:
Your mother is a prostitute and you’re
even worse.
That’s not a very decent thing to say.
We’re going to block your number now.
Or:
Haha thanks!
(then block or stop replying)
Examples of canned responses
Ending the conversation
Be sure to end each conversation nicely, picking the right time. This depends on the specific
content of the conversation and on the type of customer. Some customers respond every 10
minutes and are suddenly quiet – then you make your move. Others take days to get back to
you, which forces you to be patient. Only when you’re quite sure it’s not too early and you won’t
offend the customer, you ask him something along the lines of:
6+ )*&.& 23;)*"34 &%+&6 ?23 *&%> ;-8 9")*(
Q320& ?8+)-0&.RA
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No response? Then you might one to continue with something like:
6 *2=&3B) *&2.: /.-0 ;-8 /-.2 9*"%& 3-9( +- 6B%% ?%-+& )*"+
?-3=&.+2)"-3 /-. 3-95 6/ ;-8*2=& 23; -)*&. G8&+)"-3+(
78+) +&3: 8+ 2 0&++24& *&.&
23: 9&B%% 4&) C2?< )- ;-8I
Lesson 2
Dealing with tough conversations
Enjoying a direct line with your customers comes with a drawback: they won’t always come
to you with neutral questions. Some customers will moan, some will s hout, some won’t stop
talking. And yet you’ve got to deal with them – through WhatsApp.
Needless to say, the friendly factor should always prevail. You must remain friendly however
wrong or unreasonable you think the customer is. Here’s how to deal with complainers,
spimmers and chatterboxes.
Complaints
Strange as it sounds, customers who complain are potential brand ambassadors. Yes, really.
Deep down, a customer who takes the trouble to complain, wants to stay your customer. He
just needs a li ttle love. I believe – and this also goes for channels other than WhatsApp – that
if you listen well enough to a customer with a complaint, and solve his deeper problem (feeling
betrayed, unheard, unloved), you will turn his mood around completely. Actually I believe every
complaining customer is a potential ambassador. Since there is a change of mood around a
brand of product you can also change it again. In fact in that case you can even move him
further towards a real ambassador!
Use the LAST approach: Listen, Acknowledge, Solve, Thank.
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1 Listen
Let your unhappy customer vent for a bit. Don’t interrupt him and
send him encouraging messages (‘I see’, ‘Oh dear’, ‘Oh no’) to show
you are indeed listening. Remember: he can’t see you. By hearing
your customer out, you can find out what he’s truly upset about. And
don’t take any of it personal: it’s about your brand, not you.
2 Acknowledge
Say you are sorry. If not for the specific complaint, then at least
for the situation. Show you are sorry for the fact your customer
is unhappy. If your company did indeed make a mistake, admit it.
There’s nothing wrong with that. By acknowledging the problem, you
show that you hear your customer. You understand the problem and
will do everything within your powers to fix things between you.
3 Solve
Nothing quite as human as making mistakes, but fix them. If you’ve
got a perfect solution right away: go for it. If not, ask your customer
what he’d like you to do about the issue. Perhaps they’re happy with
a discount, or something you haven’t thought of. If you can’t solve
the problem right away, communicate clearly about the steps you’d
like to take. If you make promises, keep them. Follow up throughWhatsApp and grasp this opportunity to strengthen the bond!
4 Thank
Thank, thank, thank. Just like “sorry”, you can’t say this word enough
(whenever you mean it). You want the customer to feel you care.
And all of LAST through your customer’s favourite communication method! Complaints are
opportunities to turn angry customers into fans, which is easy on WhatsApp, as long as you
make them feel that the conversation you two are having, is worth the trouble, because you
seem to care.
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Spim simply is “spam” on instant messaging platforms. It’s a lot less of a problem than actual
spam. Most spim falls into the category of harmless and understandable: it’s actual prospects or
customers checking if your WhatsApp number really takes them right into your customer service
offices. It’s messages like: “Does this work?” and “Hello”.
Most companies I talked to didn’t find spim horribly annoying. It’s usually a temporary thing:
most curiosity fades three or four weeks into the launch of the new WhatsApp customer service
channel. After that, the spim that remains is hardly a problem: you can block numbers easily so
the spimmer won’t be able to cause trouble again, at least not using the same number.
You could always try to react to the spimmer (as this guy talking on Ted actually did), which can
cause a laugh or a frown (if the spimmer turns out to be a competitor). But from a business point
of view: leave it. There’s not enough spim going around yet to cause great trouble.
Spim
Let’s face it: people who can’t stop talking are a nuisance, on WhatsApp or on any other
channel. They waste your team’s time asking a thousand l ittle questions because they’re eitherbored or lazy. Sure, a WhatsApp conversation should never end, but conversations that last days
aren’t ideal. At some point, you’ve got to start dropping hints.
First try: asking them if you could talk to them through phone, in order to help them better?
(That’s something you should always do, by the way, as soon as delicate information is needed
to establish the customer’s identity.) If they decline that offer, sticking to WhatsApp for another
two or three days instead, try gently but firmly guiding them to the website’s FAQ (which should
be very good: well-filled knowledge bases drastically decrease the number of customer queries)
With the right software…
And if none of that has any effect, just go with the f low and help the chatterbox as well as you
can. Some customers need more love than others.
Long-winded laments
https://www.ted.com/talks/james_veitch_this_is_what_happens_when_you_reply_to_spam_emailhttps://www.ted.com/talks/james_veitch_this_is_what_happens_when_you_reply_to_spam_email
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Lesson 3
How to rock ‘n’ roll
Even though the WhatsApp channel is too personal for hard, cold sales, you can use it tosell more, simply by keeping the conversation going with meaningful messages. It’s hard for
me to give examples you can use right away, because upselling through WhatsApp is greatly
influenced by what it is you sell. It will require some brainstorming, preferably with a bottle of
wine and some cheese crackers. This step is all about you and your business.
Questions to get in the mood
The best way to use WhatsApp is related to what you sell and who your customers are. Whenbrainstorming with (part of) your team, get into a “WhatsApp state of mind”, let the ideas flow,
and try to come up with a way to find the most customer-friendly way tailored to your specific
company. You could wonder what you are doing right now without WhatsApp that you could do
with WhatsApp instead.
1 What could you do through WhatsApp that you’re doing through email now?
Perhaps you can confirm each new order with a WhatsApp message
instead (or on top of) an email. You can update your customer’s
order status or send news about an item on his wishlist that was out
of stock but has arrived now. Or say you sell mattresses: you could
WhatsApp your customers after 6 months to remind them to turn
their mattress soon. The sky is the limit!
2 What could you do through WhatsApp that you’re doing through phone now?
Some follow-ups are better sent through a less pushy, more “silent”
channel, because it gives your customer the freedom to decide
what to do next: ignore or respond to your message (without anyone
listening in). Say you sell vitamin pills: you could WhatsApp your
customers when they might be running out of pills: “Hey, are you out
of vitamin B12 yet? Just thought I’d let you know I can get you two
bottles with 40% discount if you respond within 24 hours. Just drop
me a line.” If you do this on the phone, cold-calling style, conversion
rates will be lower, as will the chance of irritating your customer
(because they’re having lunch).
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1 Could you get chatting with check-out drop-outs?
If you use professional software that allows you to see who’s
abandoning their online shopping cart, after filling out their mobile
number (but before actually paying), you might want to send them
a WhatsApp message along the lines of: “Hi, just noticed you’re
interested in but didn’t quite make the purchase. Anything I
can do to help?” If you send a short, informal but valuable message,
you will get a response. Take it from there.
2 Could you get the conversation going with positive reviewers?
Just thanking people who took the trouble to post a positive review
on your own site or on a third-party review site might open up the
door for more. Only start talking sales-pitchy if it feels natural. Do
not force anything on your happy customer – you want him to stay
happy.
Use WhatsApp for customer feedback
Here’s another trick for advanced users only: use WhatsApp to gather customer feedback. Input
from actual customers, for instance, can be great to improve your website. You can conduct an
entire survey – albeit a really short one – via WhatsApp, as part of the conversation. Only askfor feedback if it feels natural. If the customer just said he’s got to catch his train (which will
be the sort of personal information you’ll spontaneously get during WhatsApp conversations),
don’t bother him with a survey. If the stars are aligned, though, go for it - even after a negative
conversation! As long as you phrase the question delicately, you’ll find your customer will
often be happy to help. Check out pages 52 onwards for various ideas on WhatsApp surveys,
for instance to find out your Net Promoter Score (NPS), your customer effort score (CES), or a
combination of both.
Input from customers doesn’t always require asking for feedback: the actual conversation will
tell you what’s wrong. If you get the same question over and over again, add it to your online
FAQ list. If the same product seems to cause problems, check it out and fix it. And if you were
looking for a way to upsell: the clues lie in this kind of conversations. What’s this customer
interested in? What would make him buy more, or visit you more frequently?
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Even though live chat and WhatsApp are much more appreciated by customers than email
and phone, the majority of them still send old-fashioned emails or dial your number as if their
existence depend on it. To boost customer satisfaction overall and to increase your team’s
productivity it’s wise to integrate WhatsApp with your email channel.
Promote WhatsApp in your outbound email, and i f your customer uses WhatsApp and you’ve
got his number, follow up inbound email through WhatsApp. If you consider using professional
software, check whether the software supplier has both products: WhatsApp and email
management.
Integrate WhatsApp with your email channel
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Using WhatsApp for customer service
Extra / The WhatsApp rulebook
If you use WhatsApp for customer service purposes only, you shouldn’t be too worried aboutWhatsApp blocking or banning your number. After all, all you do is honestly respond to genuine
queries. You’re having true conversations with other people, which is something WhatsApp
stimulates.
But you might find that once the line between you and your customer is established firmly – the
minute you finish your first WhatsApp conversation – you might be enticed to let your customers
know about upcoming sales, a contest you’re having or new items in your store. And before you
know it, you’ve sent the same message to 500 customers and then – nothing. Nobody responds,
except what I like calling the WBI, the WhatsApp Bureau of Intelligence[27]. Their message:
Your number is no longer allowed to use our service
Signed: WhatsApp
If WhatsApp sends you the above message, you’re fucked. They just banned your number, probably
because they thought you were spamming. Which – in all honesty – you probably were. Ouch.
On its website, WhatsApp states that accounts are blocked ‘if we believe the account activity is in
violation of our Terms of Service.’ So what’s in those Terms of Service[28]?
27 I made that up!
28 Find the terms of service on WhatsApp’s website.
https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/%3Fl%3Denhttps://www.whatsapp.com/legal/%3Fl%3Den
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Section 3, paragraph C: WhatsApp access
You agree not to collect or harvest any personally identifiable information,
including phone number, from the Service, nor to use the communication systems
provided by the Service for any com mercial solicitation or spam purposes. Youagree not to spam, or solicit for commercial purposes, any users of the Service.
Basically, the following actions are not allowed[29]:
1 Sending too many messages (more than 1.200 a day, a few days in a
row).
2 Being blocked by too many people in a short period of time.
3 Submitting content (in the status, profile picture or messages) that is
unlawful, obscene, threatening, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically
offensive, or plain inappropriate.
4 Being annoying to other users, for instance by sending the same
message to too many people, or by creating too many groups that
contain users who didn’t save your number in their address books.
If the WBI finds out you’re breaking any of these rules (which means that yes, they sometimes read
or analyse your messages), WhatsApp reserves the right to refuse service for any reason without
prior notice, at their sole discretion. That means you can be banned – usually for a period of 24,
48, 72 or 120 hours, depending on how bad you were – or blocked forever without a warning or
explanation.
Unless you get in touch with WhatsApp ([email protected]) and beg them on your bare knees
to forgive and unban you, your account – and your hard-earned direct lines to so many of your
customers – will die a slow death 72 hours after your account was banned. Your contacts (in your
case: your customers) will no longer be able to see you in their Favourites list.
29 WhatsApp explains it on its website, and Tech PC Tricks writes about it here.
https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/28030003http://techpctricks.com/how-to-get-unbanned-from-whatsapp/http://techpctricks.com/how-to-get-unbanned-from-whatsapp/https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/28030003
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To keep your reputation spotless, you should avoid being banned at all costs. It’s hard to say
what’s spotted by the WBI and what isn’t. But some of my customers have confirmed this is a good
strategy:
1 Use your common sense.
It will probably (and hopefully) tell you that you should only communicate
with people who actually want to receive messages from you. So don’t spam.
2 Make your conversation safe.
You know very well not to send pictures of male or female body parts, but
be aware of that fact that your customer must save your number in his
smartphone in order for the conversation to be seen as ‘safe’ by WhatsApp.
How? As soon as you dispatch the order, send a him a happy life signal
through WhatsApp. Not to say something dull like ‘welcome, new customer’,
but something very relevant and interesting to that specific customer. ‘Hi!
It’s Jack from Top Company. Just wanted to give you a thumbs up: your
order has been dispatched!’ If your customer responds, respond at least
one more time before you kindly ask him to save your number in his phone.
‘By the way, if save this number in your address book, you can reach out to
me whenever you have a question. I’m here for you, 24/7. Don’t hesitate to
reach out if there’s a problem with your order, or if you want those cartridges
refilled.’ That will give you the green light needed to go ahead with WhatsApp
marketing. Keep the conversation going with relevant content: the customer
must not get annoyed with you and block you.
3 Don’t spam.
Just thought I’d mention it one more time. Don’t send same lines over
and over again - even if it’s about a discount you just have to share with
your customers. Some campaigns or messages simply aren’t welcome on
WhatsApp because only a few people appreciate in-your-face commercial
activities on a channel this personal.
4 Messed up before?
If you got banned before, read the above guidelines once more, because if
you don’t, you might get blocked forever. Sure, you can just get a new phone
number and try all over again, but it’s a lot of hassle that’s just not worth it.
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03 /Stories of 5 early adopters
An NPS score of a whopping +27 – that’s how popular the new WhatsApp service is at ABN
AMRO, one of Holland’s biggest banks. ‘+27 is bizarrely high,’ confirms Andius Teijgeler, ABN
AMRO’s customer experience director. ‘Like most banks, our general NPS score is -20. That’s
about average for a financial institution. People don’t necessarily love a bank. But they love
WhatsApp, that’s for sure.’
Andius started looking into WhatsApp in the final months of 2014. Several of his colleagues had
suggested he’d look into this simple little messaging app. In the first quarter of 2015, quite a few
companies in the Netherlands bravely announced they were starting a trial offering WhatsApp as
a customer service channel.
ABN AMRO was one of these early adopters: in January 2015, Andius set the WhatsApp train
in motion. ‘I felt we were obliged to do so: companies that claim they take customer service
ABN AMRO:
‘Prepare yourself, launch softly and keep your teamhappy.’
About ABN AMRO ABN AMRO, a Dutch bank for retail, corporate and private banking
headquartered in Amsterdam, offers its clients a full range of products and
services as well as in- depth financial and industry expertise. Located in over
20 countries, it allows its clients to reach out through WhatsApp, Snapchat,Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, live chat, email and phone.
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seriously, can’t ignore a channel used by so many people. It’s simply not an option not to offer
WhatsApp customer service. Only if it turns out that this type of service doesn’t meet the clients’
wishes, would we consider giving up this service.’
In ABN AMRO’s case, it’s not about the number of customer queries received each day. It’s
about being there for customers, taking them by the hand when the world of finance gets too
complex. ‘Our clients should be able to get in touch with their bank as quickly and easily as
possible. WhatsApp is one of our extra services, just like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And all
of these are just as important as the traditional communication channels.’
Based on ABN AMRO’s experience with WhatsApp, Andius has 3 golden tips to share: be
prepared before you take off, launch softly and sweetly, and keep your WhatsApp team happy at
all times!
So if you decide to run a so-called “test and learn” pilot, think it through and take it slow. You
don’t want to fail this test. What if there’s a crisis at your company, and your WhatsApp channel
is suddenly bombarded with an overload of queries? Would you be able to handle them all
quickly easily? Make sure you have enough people on your webcare team capable of responding
to the WhatsApp channel.
ABN AMRO – renowned for its high-quality social service – took a few months to do research.
‘We first gathered information about security, privacy and identification. Then we played around
a bit with a WhatsApp tool that would allow us to engage in lots of conversations at the same
time. We got a team of people ready to join the WhatsApp team. Only then did we go public
about the new service – and that was only on Facebook and Twitter, where our customers are
well-disposed towards us already.’
Tip #1: Prepare yourself
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On July 14th, 2015, ABN AMRO posted a status update on Twitter and Facebook about the new
WhatsApp service: “Today, we’re enabling the first group of clients to reach our customer service
desk 24/7 through WhatsApp. Would you like to ask us a question using WhatsApp? Send us a
private message.” Lots of people responded positively, and with this beloved and loving group,
ABN AMRO gently started experimenting.
After 2 months, ABN AMRO was certain enough to open up the doors: in September, a
newsletter to 240.000 clients contained a small post about the WhatsApp number the bank
now used for customer support. ‘We sent out a second newsletter to another 240.000 clients in
November,’ Andius says. ‘Both times the number of queries went sky-high.’
The bank, however, didn’t encounter any major problems. ‘We just kept on doing what we did:
managing both risks and customer expectations. We asked for feedback and listened to what
clients and our WhatsApp webcare team experienced.’
Tip #2: Launch softly
Don’t underestimate the importance of your webcare people. They should be a happy team,helping out customers in need with a big smiley. If they don’t enjoy dealing with WhatsApp
questions, your customers will notice and your company will pay. Appearing genuinely interested
is extremely important with a channel as personal as WhatsApp.
Thankfully WhatsApp is a rewarding channel for customer service representatives, because most
people love it (which is why the NPS is so high). If you play it well, both sides will be smiling.
Ideally, your WhatsApp team consists only of people who proactively said they wanted to join
the team. Whatever you do: don’t force anyone to be on the WhatsApp team.
AMRO now has a total of 34 webcare specialists responding to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, live
chat – and WhatsApp. They typically respond within 5 minutes. In the first 5 months of the trial,
over 5.000 conversations were conducted through WhatsApp – totalling up to 50.000 in- and
outbound messages about daily bank affairs, such as changing withdrawal limits, replacing
broken or stolen debit cards and applying for a credit card.
Tip #3: Keep your team happy
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ABN AMRO is one of the few companies that use a stand-alone tool to manage WhatsApp as a
customer service channel. It’s Andius’ conviction that a CRM-driven tool isn’t always necessary
or even better. ‘CRM isn’t a solution – it’s a tool that should serve a purpose. If information isn’t
relevant, why bother? With a channel like WhatsApp, speed is more important than an elaborate
customer profile. For us, WhatsApp is about dealing with messages in a way that makes our
clients feel heard.’
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The idea for Tep Wireless, a pocket wifi rental company, was born in 2009. Dennis Jorgensen
and Simone Rigoni were brainstorming about how annoying it was to have expensive (or no)
access to the internet whilst travelling. ‘Every single traveller should be able go online without
going broke,’ Dennis said. ‘It became our goal to make this happen.’
Two years after that initial chat, their company Tep Wireless was launched. It was an instant
hit. ‘Apparently we were right: almost everyone on earth wants to enjoy internet on the go. It’s
no wonder they love our pocket wifi devices.’ So far, Tep Wireless rented out its smart little
gadget to hundreds of thousands people, aged 18 to 60 years on average. Dennis’ and Simone’s
company now has 2 logistics hubs and 40 employees, 10 of whom work from South-East Asia,
where the customer service team is based.
Tep Wireless takes customer service pretty seriously indeed. Apart from email and phone,
(potential) customers can reach Tep through live chat, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram
and Pinterest. In 2015, WhatsApp was added to that list. ‘WhatsApp is one of the best
communication channels out there, period, for any type of interaction (business or pleasure),’
Dennis explains. ‘Ultimately, our service is all about making life easier for our customers, so why
not maintain the same ethos for our customer service? We want our customers to be able to
contact us in any way possible. WhatsApp is a perfect addition to the other channels. Especially
since it’s highly personal and has virtually replaced SMS for a lot of people.
Tep Wireless
‘Use good software, reply quickly, and cherish
each conversation.’
About Tep Wireless Tep Wireless, founded in 2011 and based in London, is a hotspot rental
company that provides today’s travellers with wireless internet access in
most of the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. Tep’s wifi device works
just like any other Wifi hotspot, but is yours only and fits in your pocket.
Customers can get in touch 24/7 through WhatsApp, live chat, email, phone
and SMS.
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Dennis tried a bunch of alternatives before nding Casengo, Tep’s current software provider. ‘It’s
very important to nd a tool that your team can use collaboratively to reply to customers quickly
and without fail. Only be happy with a solution that allows your customer service team to deal
with multiple chats simultaneously. Responding quickly to WhatsApp messages really pays o!’
Tep offers a 24/7 WhatsApp service that is staffed by 2 to 4 customer support agents at the
same time. So the company needed a scalable and structural solution to support this setup.
With a customer service team of 10 people, it’s just not workable to have a smartphone go from
hand to hand.
Tip #1: use good WhatsApp customer service software
If you send the Tep customer service team a question through WhatsApp, you’ll usually get a
reply within a minute. Four minutes is the absolute maximum, which is only easily achievable
when using good, intuitive software.
Tip #2: reply quickly and efficiently
With about a dozen WhatsApp conversations per day, the volumes aren’t particularly high
yet. ‘But it’s not about the numbers. If we’ve done our job, then our customers shouldn’t be
contacting us at all.’ If they do, however, have a question, customers should be able to get in
touch with a company through whatever channel they want – like WhatsApp. ‘Ultimately, our
service is all about making life easier for our customers,’
Tip #3: cherish each WhatsApp conversation
(even just one a day)
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Studystore is widely known amongst students and alumni in the Netherlands: when they were
at school or university, lots of people ordered textbooks from this brand or its parent company
Van Dijk (established in 1937). As the Dutch academic year starts in August or September,
Studystore is a major e-commerce player in the Netherlands from June until September, when
most students order their educational material.
Last summer, Studystore launched a new, fully responsive web store, allowing students to order
material quickly and easily on their smartphone or tablet. ‘We wanted to enrich the new store
with more communication channels,’ Simon Bosschieter, product manager at Studystore, says.
‘Students don’t function without their mobile phone or their laptop. That’s why we started with
both live chat and WhatsApp.’
Email, live chat and WhatsApp were all bundled in one software tool: Casengo. ‘That way,
our customer service team was able to respond even quicker and more directly to students,’
Simon explains. ‘It was rather scary to start using new software right before the summer peak.
But we’re happy we just went for it. We had a great summer revenue, with a more complete
customer view than before, and much shorter response times.’
Studystore
‘Enjoy the personal connection, mirror your customers
and don’t let fear spoil the party.’
About Studystore Studystore is one of Holland’s largest suppliers of higher education textbooks
and other educational material. Through 5 campus stores, hundreds of
student societies and an excellent website, Studystore sells, buys and resells
books to over 250.000 college students. They can get in touch using phone,
email, live chat and WhatsApp.
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‘Sure, the new WhatsApp, live chat and email tools help us to assist our customers from start
to finish much faster. We’d expected that. But something that happily surprised us, is how
wonderful it can be to be personally in touch with your customers. We got WhatsApp messages
right from the beach! We loved being able to respond to them right away.’
Tip #1: Enjoy the personal connection
‘For both live chat and WhatsApp, it’s important to get on the same wavelength as your
customers. Our customer base is young. We don’t react like college professors when a student
asks us: “Yo, where are my books? Should have received them two days ago!” A formal reply
would immediately make us lose the true connection with this customer.’
Tip #2 – Mirror your customers
‘If you start with a new customer communication channel like WhatsApp, it’s easy to be a bitanxious about negative reactions. Our experience is that this is a false fear. Don’t worry too
much. Sure, you’ll get unpleasant messages once in a while, but remain open and calm. At the
end of the day, customers are happy you are willing to listen!’
Tip #3: Don’t let fear spoil the party
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Offering advice through good old SMS. That seems like a great idea – one-on-one yet very
accessible communication – until your customers receive the monthly phone bill�
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