As we move ahead in this mobile-first phase of digital commerce, it has become vital for businesses to build a strong presence on social platforms. WhatsApp is one such platform that has been playing a key role in improving the customer experience for e-commerce businesses. A good customer experience can lead to higher customer retention and help businesses increase their profits manifolds.
What are WhatsApp Chatbots?
A WhatsApp Chatbot is an automated chat system that allows businesses to communicate with their customers through WhatsApp. WhatsApp Chatbots are integrated with WhatsApp Business API and provide customers a platform to communicate with businesses in real-time.
A WhatsApp chatbot for eCommerce is simply a software program that runs on the encrypted WhatsApp platform and allows customers to engage with businesses through a platform they are familiar with. This AI-enabled tool gives customers the feeling that they are talking to a real human. WhatsApp Chatbots finds its utility in customer service, increases sales and enables scalable support.
Advantage of having WhatsApp Chatbots in Ecommerce
A WhatsApp chatbot for e-Commerce not only automates the process of addressing the queries of your customers but also reduces overhead and improves the efficiency of your customer support team while doing so. WhatsApp Chatbot has several advantages over traditional customer support:
- In-time responses: With WhatsApp Chatbots, e-commerce businesses can provide in-time responses to their customers and enable seamless customer service.
- Personal one-to-one interactions: WhatsApp Chatbots enables businesses to engage in personal one-to-one interactions with their customers and establish a bond of trust and loyalty.
- Security: WhatsApp Chatbots work on an end-to-end encrypted Whatsapp platform and provide a secure channel for all communications. WhatsApp also offers a strict anti-spam policy, which makes it the most secure channel for businesses.
- Effective customer service: Customer service has a huge impact on a brand reputation and good customer service can earn them good profits and customer loyalty.
Top 9 Use Cases of WhatsApp Chatbots in Ecommerce
WhatsApp finds its use in several aspects of the e-commerce business. Here are a few use cases of WhatsApp Chatbots:
1. Lead Generation
Lead generation is the primary aspect of the sales process. WhatsApp Chatbots can be used to automate the process and encourage customers to engage in conversations. By adding click-to-chat CTAs on websites and social media, businesses can invite customers for one-to-one chats. Once customers click on the link, businesses can engage with them for personal chats, for sharing product updates, or for campaign ads.
2. Placing an Order
WhatsApp chatbots make it easier for customers to place borders. They can simply browse through the catalogs on WhatsApp business and place an order there itself. This also makes it easier for businesses to remarket a particular product to their customers.
3. Refund/ Replacement Scheduling
There may be times a customer may not be happy with the product or service. By ensuring that the process is smooth and fast, the business can manage to win back the customer for future purchases and earn loyalty. WhatsApp chatbots can make this possible by automatically collecting information about the reason for return or replacement, schedule pick-up time, and make the entire process fast and easy.
4. Automating Frequently Asked Questions
Customers come up with several queries every day and managing them can be difficult for businesses. WhatsApp Chatbots can help deal with frequently asked questions and address customer’s queries easily. Especially in the case of payment related queries, a light human error can result in a huge loss for the business. WhatsApp chatbots can handle such queries with higher accuracy and redirect customers to customer service persons once basic formalities are completed.
5. Post-Sale Support
Certain products or services require post-sale support such as user-guides or installation assistance. WhatsApp chatbots can be used to provide post-sale check-ins through pre-curated templates of user guides or installation instructions.
Post-sale support is usually overlooked by many businesses, but if implemented properly, it can earn customer’s trust and build strong customer loyalty.
6. Driving Referrals
Customers that come through personal recommendations or referrals show a higher retention rate and prove to be loyal customers in the future. WhatsApp Chatbots can be used to distribute referral links with customers to be further shared within their social circle in exchange for rewards or discounts on future purchases.
7. Product Recommendations
WhatsApp Chatbots can be extensively used to interact with customers and offer product recommendations according to their choices and interests. When given choices, businesses have a high chance of swaying customers’ decisions and convincing them to buy their products.
Many e-commerce businesses use creative graphics, videos, and interactive images to give product recommendations and in many cases, these recommendations get converted into the purchase.
8. Collecting Feedback
Collecting post-sale feedback from new customers is a great way to start the engagement and make a good relationship with them. But collecting feedback from customers can be a repetitive and daunting task for humans. With WhatsApp chatbots, it can be handled easily and with high efficiency.
9. Loyalty programs
Loyalty rewards are a great way to incentivize regular customers and encourage them to make more purchases in the future. But for many people, signing up for loyalty programs and keeping track of it may seem difficult. WhatsApp Chatbots can come in handy in such cases. Using WhatsApp chatbots, businesses can automate notifications regarding rewards earned, available balance, and what they can redeem them on. This will encourage customers to redeem them.
Top 10 WhatsApp Chatbot Service Providers
For businesses looking to serve customers in fast and efficient ways, WhatsApp chatbots can prove to be an incredible asset. Apart from personalizing their experiences and offering round the clock support, it can also reduce the immense pressure on your customer support team, so that they can better assist customers on more complex queries than on repetitive FAQs. Here are some of the popular WhatsApp Chatbot service providers in the market:
1 . SocialEpoch
2. Verloop.io
3. Infobip
4. Botscrew
5. Hellotars
6. Gupshup
7. Xenioo
8. Engati
9. Smatbot
10. Landbot.io
WhatsApp chatbots, in fact, have the power to completely transform and personalize the way businesses communicate with their customer base. And the use cases shared above are a testament to the unlimited opportunities offered by this massively popular messaging app, now available for businesses also. For your business to reap the benefits of WhatsApp chatbots, get in touch with us at salessupport@socialepoch.com or visit us here
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