WhatsApp for customer services

Why WhatsApp?

“WhatsApp is now where business gets done. Whether it’s a mom-and-pop shop or a Fortune 500 company, businesses of all sizes today rely on WhatsApp to help their customers.” [1]

“WhatsApp is expected to reach over 2.26 billion unique users in June 2022 and was the leading communication channel for global smartphone users in 2021.” [2]

WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging app for keeping in touch with friends and family and, increasingly, for business, too. In 2021, 175 million customers worldwide sent a message to or interacted with a business account on WhatsApp. [3] WhatsApp is owned by Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram. With market data proving the potential value of the popular messaging service to business, it’s a good time to include the app in any digital customer care strategy. To enable medium to large organizations do that, Meta offers a solution called WhatsApp Business Platform, which gives access to the WhatsApp API.

From integration to channel

Our customer engagement platform, Syntelate XA, provides our clients with a WhatsApp channel by using one of our trusted third-party solution provider’s WhatsApp API integrations.

Trusted third-party solution providers

The unified agent desktop of our customer engagement suite, Syntelate XA, supports the WhatsApp integrations that are offered by the following third-party solution providers:

• MessageBird
• Sunshine Conversations

Because they are listed on Meta’s Business Partner directory, MessageBird and Sunshine Conversations are considered to be trusted WhatsApp solution providers.

That means they comply with WhatsApp’s Terms of Service. When we create a WhatsApp channel for you in Syntelate XA, you have the assurance that your WhatsApp channel complies with WhatsApp’s Terms of Service.

Features of Syntelate XA’s WhatsApp channel

Syntelate XA provides customizable functionality to empower managers to implement an efficient WhatsApp channel while also ensuring that agents are equipped to provide customers with a seamless and positive experience.

We’re proud of the WhatsApp features we’ve developed for our clients who use Syntelate XA in their digital customer care strategy:

• Signpost the customer journey: Customizable automated greetings and prompts.
• Manage WhatsApp 24-hour sessions:
  • An expiry setting prevents agents from sending messages to customers after the 24-hour session.
  • Notifications for the agent informing them of expiring messages so they can act accordingly.
  • SMS and Email call-to-action buttons that let agents contact the customer by SMS or email when the WhatsApp message has expired.
• Full interaction history: Agents can see at a glance how things went in earlier conversations.
• Reduce customer frustration: Direct a new message from an existing customer to the same agent who handled that customer’s previous message.
• True omnichannel: Blend WhatsApp with email, voice, web chat, and more.
• Reporting: A range of metrics are provided on reports that you can export for sharing with MI/BI.

Sources

[1] Ami Vora, ‘Making It Easier for Businesses of All Sizes To Get Started on WhatsApp’, 20 May 2022, Meta, available at: <https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2022/05/19/whatsapp-cloud-based-api/>, accessed on 30 June 2022.

[2] Published by L. Ceci, ‘Number of Unique WhatsApp Mobile Users Worldwide from January 2020 to June 2022’, May 11, 2022, Statista, available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/1306022/whatsapp-global-unique-users/#:~:text=In%20April%202022%2C%20WhatsApp%20had,unique%20users%20in%20June%202022>, accessed on 30 June 2022.

[3] Jason Wise, ‘WhatsApp Statistics 2022’, 19 June 2022, www.earthweb.com, available at: https://earthweb.com/whatsapp-statistics/, accessed on 30 June 2022.