Meet your customers on WhatsApp Business

First things first, you need to decide whether the WhatsApp Business app or the WhatsApp Business API fits your business best. Where the app is built for small teams (one or two users) the API is built for larger teams and holds much more features.

To start using the app, simply download it from the App Store or Google Play store.

To start using the API, you need to connect to a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider like Trengo.

Check out a step-by-step guide here.

The WhatsApp Business API doesn’t come with an interface. You need to connect to a customer engagement platform like Trengo to use it.

More specifically, this needs to be a solution that is an official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP), like Trengo.

WhatsApp has high standards for BSPs, which is why there are only a few worldwide. And although the basic features that these providers offer don’t vary greatly, there are many differences in functionality and pricing. There will be solutions that fit your business needs better than others.

The monthly costs can differ a lot per BSP. Some providers don’t communicate their pricing, while others are not official BSPs and offer the API via a third party.

You don’t want to face unexpected costs. That’s why it’s advised to research the best solution for your business first. Have a look at features (is automation included in all plans?), pricing (price/feature value), and set-up time & costs (do you need technical know-how?).

Some Business Solution Providers ask for a set-up fee, and others ask for various monthly, costs per conversation, costs per monthly contacts and add-on costs. So always have a good look at the pricing page.

Trengo offers scalable pricing plans that fit your business and start at €20 per user/month. For the Growth plan it’s €33, and for Enterprise you pay €45. With no set-up fees or monthly costs below 1000 conversations.

Short answer: yes you can bring your own number!

WhatsApp checks if your number is already linked to a regular WhatsApp account. If so and you want to keep using this number, you can transfer the chat history to the WhatsApp Business app.

You can change your number to a WhatsApp Business number but not the other way around. So it is possible to keep your number but we don’t recommend it! It’s highly likely you don’t want to use a private number for the business. So if you want to keep using your own number for private use, you need to appoint a different number for WhatsApp Business.

The WhatsApp Business application and application programming interface (API) both offer the same solution but not the same features.

The app offers the basics. You can converse with customers, create a business profile and a product catalog, use quick replies and send bulk messages.

The API offers more advanced features. The API is software that allows two applications to communicate with each other via a customer engagement platform like Trengo. Via the platform, you consolidate all WhatsApp Business conversations in one view. Teams work together on answering messages, sending notifications, using automation such as quick- and auto-replies, chatbots and flowbots, sending bulk messages, and looking into insights on team performance and customer happiness.

Important to note: the app can only be used by four people at a time, whereas your entire team can use the API at the same time.

To provide the best experiences you want all teams to have access to conversations with customers. To answer questions, gather customer data, share the workload, and of course decrease response times.

But downloading the app will not be enough if you want to start using WhatsApp Business with multiple people and teams. Only four people on one device can use the app at a time. You need the WhatsApp Business API to have WhatsApp conversations with multiple users and devices.

Check out how WhatsApp Business multiple users works.

WhatsApp Business is a great outreach tool. You can send customers a message individually, or send entire lists of customers a message via Broadcast.

Very important to note is that: there is a 24-hour rule for WhatsApp Business. When a customer initiates a conversation on WhatsApp, the company has 24 hours to reply. Messages that are sent within this time are called session messages and are free. But after 24 hours, your team needs to send a template message that the customers can respond to. After the response, a new 24-hour period begins again, without templated messages.

WhatsApp Business template messages, highly structured messages or HSM, are templates that you can send to customers outside of the 24-hour window. And these templates have to be approved by WhatsApp in order to maintain quality content on the platform.

A great way to grab attention and achieve high engagement rates is WhatsApp chat.

When a website visitor reaches out via live chat, you won’t be able to contact them after they leave. But via WhatsApp chat, you can keep in touch after a potential customer has left the website. Your team doesn’t have the capacity to respond 24/7, or at great speed all the time. And customers don’t want to stick around waiting for an answer. So this is the perfect solution.

There are 3 ways to let your customers contact you via the WhatsApp chat on your website:

1. Click-to-chat
2. QR-code
3. Trengo multichannel widget

Check out these 3 options or the WhatsApp chat on your website.

You want to make it as easy as possible for customers to find the information they need, even outside of office hours. That’s why reply buttons are extremely useful.

With a flowbot, you can add reply buttons and get to know exactly what you need. As soon as a customer sends you a message via Whatsapp Business, it’s possible to activate a flowbot. Then you’re ready to ask questions and give multiple-choice options. Questions about invoicing, orders, or opening hours? Present the customers with these options on reply buttons and redirect them to the correct team.

Let us show you how to activate the Flowbot and add reply buttons.

In order to connect with customers via WhatsApp Business, you want them to find you easily and have all the important details upfront. Within your WhatsApp Business profile, you can add all important info about the organization, such as an address, contact details, opening hours and more.

Check out our ultimate guide to find the step-by-step process of setting up a profile.

Customers will trust your business account faster if you have a verified business account. The ‘green tick’ is very important. To monitor trustworthiness on the platform, WhatsApp says a business account needs to use the WhatsApp Business API, create brand awareness, and have a verified Facebook Business account.

Check out all the criteria and the 2-step setup process here.