12 reasons to use a WhatsApp chatbot

WhatsApp is the most used messaging app worldwide and is still growing. With 11.9 million users in the Netherlands, WhatsApp is already an important tool within many customer service departments. WhatsApp recently released the official integration to a number of select partners. This has let Watermelon connect it to the Chatbot Management Platform. Using WhatsApp for business has never been so easy. Read why deploying a Chatbot via WhatsApp improves your customer contact and so gets the maximum out of your customer service!

1. Extend your availability to 24/7

By connecting a Chatbot to your WhatsApp channel you are reachable for your customers day and night. Your customers never have to wait for a live agent during office hours again.Customers can come straight to you with the questions they have.

2. Always immediate and correct answers

Customer contact via WhatsApp is appreciated by many visitors. Visitors like to have an immediate answer to their question, after all. For customers, sending a message via WhatsApp is very easy. A Chatbot can meet the need to get an immediate answer too. Another advantage is that the Chatbot gives a consistent answer without spelling mistakes. If information has to be retrieved from a system automatically, a Chatbot will always do this correctly; you do not have to be afraid that someone copies something wrongly. A visitor therefore always gets a correct answer.

💡 Read our Guide to WhatsApp

3. Communicating securely

All messages via WhatsApp are secured by means of end-to-end encryption. This means only your customer and the party holding the conversation can read the conversation; even WhatsApp cannot read it. This gives your customers a feeling of security when they talk to your company. Security is also security is guaranteed, even with the implementation of the WhatsApp API.

4. Low-threshold

We see that telephone contact with the customer service department is falling over the years. If we have the choice between calling and sending a WhatsApp message, you probably choose the second. The threshold for approaching a company becomes even lower with WhatsApp. This way you reach customers who might not have contacted your company before.

5. Hybrid model

Let your Chatbot work together easily with your human staff. Does your Chatbot not know the answer yet? Then it will automatically transfer the conversation to an available customer service agent. They can easily take the conversation over up to 24 hours after the customer sent a message. But with a Chatbot your customers will of course never have to wait that long!

6. Easily set up an out-of-office message

Do you have particular office hours when customer service staff are present? No problem! Set up an automatic away message and inform your customers that you will respond again later. Your Chatbot can of course already catch a lot of questions in the meantime.

7. More than text alone

Supply your customers with the right information straight away by sending attachments with it. Via WhatsApp you easily send photos, videos, GIFs and documents. Your visitors can also send media files to explain a particular situation. They always say a picture is worth a thousand words!

8. Official integration

WhatsApp can now also be connected to the Watermelon dashboard via an official WhatsApp integration. This also lets you easily connect your Chatbot to your WhatsApp number. So you can make use of WhatsApp in an official way.

💡 Read more about the Best AI Chatbots

9. Existing number

Answer all your questions via existing numbers. The new integration makes it possible to use an existing number for your customer questions via WhatsApp. At Watermelon we have chosen to use the company number for WhatsApp conversations, for example. So this does not have to be a mobile number either.

10. All conversations in one clear dashboard

WhatsApp is probably not the only communication channel for your customers. In this day and age it is important to be reachable via different channels and to maintain your customer contact. Maintaining these contact points via different platforms is of course not efficient. With Watermelon's platform all your messages from both Chatbot and employee, from all channels, come in in one clear dashboard.

11. Several users via one number

You can connect your business number to WhatsApp; this is a good solution when you only get a few customer questions via WhatsApp per day. It was not suitable, though, for chatting with several users via one business number. This makes it very hard for companies with a lot of customer contact to guarantee a short response time. In a dashboard such as Watermelon's you can add several users and keep a clear view of which messages have already been answered and which have not.

12. Ever more engagement

We see that more and more companies want engagement. Personal contact with the visitor is central to this. WhatsApp is seen as much more personal than email and therefore seems an excellent solution for (more) personal customer contact. Chatbots can remember a user's preferences, for example, which means they supply your visitors with relevant content.

As a customer contact centre you really cannot do without a WhatsApp channel any more. This most-used channel is indispensable for good customer service. By connecting a Chatbot to your WhatsApp number you also extend your availability to day and night. With the official integration, maintaining your customer contact via WhatsApp becomes even easier.

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