Using WhatsApp Business to drive Growth - with CINNOX

These days, customer relationships are all about getting conversational. WhatsApp Business is a free, standalone app that lets you directly interact with customers and run a virtual storefront, used by than 50 million people worldwide. CINNOX provides tools to help you scale up this method of one-to-one communication, making it a snap to talk to a large number of customers as if they were friends and family..

What is the WhatsApp Business API?

In recent years, some large enterprises have pioneered the use of WhatsApp, the world’s most popular mobile messaging service, in their communication strategy. According to the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers, high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) expect to be updated about their banking via instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp and WeChat as a minimum requirement. The WhatsApp Business API allows companies to build their own systems that provide customer support and deliver important notifications in a channel that customers are already constantly using – while also providing CRM integration possibilities. With CINNOX, you don’t need to have a team of developers or IT support staff to leverage the possibilities these tools offer.

What is the WhatsApp Business APP?

The WhatsApp Business App is a free, standalone app for small businesses run by a single user. On top of WhatsApp’s basic features, the WhatsApp Business App provides an essential suite of business tools to run a virtual storefront and interact with customers. In short, turn WhatsApp into your latest marketplace

Key WhatsApp Business Features

Your Business Profile is the first part of your virtual storefront, including information such as your address, business description, email address and website.
An automated Greeting Message allows you to introduce your business properly, and make your customers feel welcomed - while an Away Message lets your customers know when to expect a response, when they contact you outside of business hours. You can also save a list of Quick Replies for top frequently asked questions.
Labels are a great way to categorize contacts and chats according to your business needs, aligning with stages of the customer journey. Standard labels include:

• New customer
• New order
• Pending payment
• Paid
• Order complete

Finally, Catalog lets you display up to 500 products and services along with price, description, web link and product code - letting customers shop and place orders with you via WhatsApp directly.

Setting up your communication channels

Whatsapp Business has some unique tools made to help you scale up your communications with customers, while maintaining a personal touch.

A Session Message is a response to an enquiry first initiated by customers within a 24-hour customer care window - which re-starts every time a customer replies. These can be up to 4,096 characters long, and support rich multimedia content including hyperlinks, images, documents, audio to video.

A Template Message allows businesses to schedule and send their own initiated messages at any time in multiple languages, which can be up to 1,024 characters, to customers who have opted in to receive them.

Statistics give you a performance overview of your WhatsApp as a customer service channel. The handy tool provides basic figures including numbers of messages sent, delivered, read and received.

While the WhatsApp Business App can be installed via app stores, the WhatsApp Business API requires businesses to work with WhatsApp Business Solution Providers to integrate it with their own omnichannel communications platform or CRM.

You will also need to get a verified Facebook Business Manager account on Facebook in order to subscribe to the API through a Solution Provider.

As a CINNOX subscriber, WhatsApp Business is already available for integration with your CINNOX dashboard. There’s no need to worry about APIs or verified status on Facebook – simply get on a chat with us today about using WhatsApp with CINNOX.