WhatsApp API is a short message application with great potential for businesses. One of the features business owners may appreciate is the ‘Message Template’ feature, which can be used as a means of sending business notifications to consumers. But why on earth on WhatsApp?
Speed and accuracy of customer service in responding to various consumer questions have always been important contributing factors to a positive customer experience. However, transparency is also an aspect that shapes consumers’ perceptions towards your business. Some forms of transparency that customers may appreciate includes receiving notifications containing updates related to orders in real-time which are accurate and consistent to keep them updated.
It is worthy to note here that what customers expect is efficiency and not spamming. Consumer comfort is one important aspect that must be maintained and providing timely updates will reduce consumer anxiety so they will not worry or have a poor impression of your brand’s service.
Being transparent can be an effective way of retaining consumers. Did you know that maintaining existing customers would be more effective than finding new customers? In addition, it was found that just by increasing customer retention rate by 5%, company profits can increase between 25% to 95%.
There are many ways that businesses can choose to provide notifications to their customers such as via SMS or e-mail. WhatsApp Business API will be an effective platform to manage your brand’s corporate communication through the message templates and interactive message features, which can be used to send important notifications to your customers.
WhatsApp as a New Short Message Trend
Based on Nielsen’s Facebook Messaging Survey, messaging apps hold big opportunities for the future. 67% of respondents said that they will use messaging apps as a medium to communicate with businesses over the next two years. Seeing this trend, considering WhatsApp as a messaging app for business use is a logical choice, what more that it has become the world’s favorite application.
Messages template
In short, Messages Template are outbound messages and requires approval from WhatsApp before being sent out to customers. Businesses can organize the messages they want, determine the purpose they are used for and even personalize notifications with the names of their respective customers.
Why Send Notifications Using WhatsApp Templates?
Apart from the very large number of users, here are more reasons why you should switch to using WhatsApp Template Messages as a medium for sending notifications:
1. Good Security Support
Every chat on WhatsApp is protected with end-to-end encryption. This means that only those involved in the communication can access the conversation within the chat. This indicates that WhatsApp is very suitable as a medium for sending notifications especially those that contain private and confidential information such as One-Time Passwords (OTPs) and updates about consumer accounts.
WhatsApp also provides a masking feature on officially registered business accounts. Masking will create higher business credibility in the eyes of consumers as it will equip businesses with official account details that can increase consumer trust. Consumers will no longer suspect sent messages as fraud unlike in the case of Short Message Service (SMS) where the level of validity is still difficult to measure.
2. Higher Visibility to Consumers
Instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp have a higher rate of being read as well as engagement rate compared to emails. The high open rate of short message applications like WhatsApp stands at 98% which is very attractive when compared to the open rate of e-mail: only 22.15%.
The initial reach from e-mail is generally very slow as compared to instant messaging applications. Therefore, e-mail is not suitable for sending notifications that have a short redemption period. In addition, WhatsApp has become dark social since it is used to send personal content, making this application more preferred by consumers.
Compared to sending notifications via telephone, WhatsApp is still the winner. Being able to do follow-ups through WhatsApp, businesses have the potential to get a 40% higher response rate than that by phone. This is because people are more comfortable using short messages rather than having to talk directly on the phone.
Interestingly, WhatsApp also offers simplicity. WhatsApp is suitable as a platform to resolve ticketing issues, for example. Consumers are more likely to feel more comfortable when sending complaints via WhatsApp rather than having to call a helpdesk. The practicality and mobility levels of WhatsApp, which uses a small amount of bandwidth, fits perfectly with today’s fast-paced lifestyle.
3. Cost Effectiveness
Compared to SMS, sending notifications using WhatsApp will be superior in terms of costs. For example, if the average OTP premium SMS cost is IDR 550, businesses only needs to spend IDR 340 to send notifications using WhatsApp. In addition, in the case of WhatsApp API the more messages sent, the lower the costs.
Both businesses and consumers will receive the benefits. Consumers do not need to issue SMS or telephone credits to respond to business notifications when using WhatsApp. In addition, WhatsApp also has a daily traffic level that is 3 times higher than SMS. Hence, the potential is enormous.
4. More than an Ordinary Short Message
WhatsApp allows businesses to send notifications that are richer than using just plain text messages. Businesses can use various other media such as PDF format files and images for free. In fact, businesses can provide Call-to-Actions using predefined buttons to make it more interactive.
This is the advantage of WhatsApp as a medium for short messages rather than SMS, which has a limit of up to 160 characters. WhatsApp can contain 4000 characters in its template messages, is also equipped with automated replies and able to provide 24/7 contact hours. Nothing surpasses the fact that it can be used at any time.
5. Many Other Supporting Features
When sending notifications, it will definitely be less effective if notifications are not trackable and cannot be measured. Therefore, WhatsApp Business API has included an analytics feature which can help businesses evaluate the effectiveness of the various notifications they have sent out. WhatsApp API also allows businesses to find out how many messages consumers have received and read. Lastly, businesses can put tags on their messages so that it can be filtered quickly.
Still in Doubt?
Sending notifications using the WhatsApp API allows a wide reach to many consumers in real-time. Judging from its positioning and potential, WhatsApp can also overcome the shortcomings of traditional methods of sending messages that exist in other media such as eliminating the shortcomings of SMS from a security and cost aspect, and also anticipating a low open rate for e-mail.
If you have other questions regarding WhatsApp Business API, please visit this page. Read more about the many other features of using WhatsApp Business API here.
