WhatsApp for Business?
In the past decade, social media has greatly aided businesses in different climes by networking them to clients/customers.
WhatsApp Business was introduced into this market with the addition of business profiles and new messaging tools and is now available for download in Nigeria for android users only with over a million downloads on the google play store at the time of writing. Prior to the world wide release of the app, It was only available to Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the UK and the US.
Majority of small businesses have Facebook Pages, Instagram for business, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn for business and other social media networks installed and connected on their mobile phones together with the regular WhatsApp communication app.
However, the developers of the WhatsApp app considered supporting small businesses to be able to serve their clients and customers realtime by creating a different application entirely to harness the over 1.3 billion! users in the WhatsApp platform. There are plans to release an updated application for enterprise businesses with advanced features.
I decided to review the app to know what benefits these small businesses stand to gain by migrating from their current WhatsApp application to that for Business and discovered a few exciting features.
What’s New?
Looks: the WhatsApp Business app is very similar in looks to the WhatsApp we are conversant with and as such I believed this may not be too different from what we are used to. I believe the developers had in mind to reduce the learning curve. The most significant differences are;
• The Icon: the original WhatsApp application has a very popular icon that depicts a retro landline receiver enclosed in a chat bubble, while the WhatsApp for Business icon is just a “B”.
• The title of the App on the home screen is “WhatsApp Business” as against the “WhatApp” in the original application
• The colour scheme practically remains the same with green and grey being the dominant colours.
Features
Downloading and installing the application presents you with an interface that you are already familiar with. However, the new features are embedded in the settings menu which also has business settings for configuring your business profile, messaging tools and statistics
Business Profile
• The profile menu lets you provide useful information about the business that will be visible to customers on your chat list.
• You can add a display image and your business address
• The location can also be pinned on Google Maps for customers to locate you easily.
• You can go on to choose a category of your industry and add a description of your service too
- Website, opening and closing hours and email address details can also go in here
Messaging Tools
In a bid to streamline the conversations, businesses can now send smart messages to their customers via the smart messaging tool with options to configure and send the following;
• Away message — A predefined message that is automatically sent to customers that contact you when you are unavailable. Messages can also be sent based on a schedule, for example, you can make customers get this message during your closing hours.
• Greeting message — A customised greeting message that introduces first-time customers or customers that have been inactive for two weeks on the chat platform to the business.
• Quick replies — Allows businesses create keyboard shortcuts for frequently sent messages, so you don’t have to type the same message repeatedly.
Labels
Using this feature, businesses can categorize chats with their customers. Some default labels are;
• New Customer
• New Order
• Pending payment etc
After your business is verified via a green checkmark, customers would be notified that they are chatting with a business. These customers can still block or report a business so it’s best to apply strict business ethics while communicating with your customers.
Besides these features, the other features from the traditional app are also included in the WhatsApp for Business application, these include the WhatsApp web which gives you access to run the application from your desktop computer, privacy, two-step verification, broadcasts etc.
Worried about getting another phone and line to run the application? The beauty of the WhatsApp for business app is found in a dual sim phone. You can run both the traditional app and the business app with different phone numbers, keeping your personal as well as your business life on one phone.
