Innovative Ways Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp Can Serve Businesses

Did you know that businesses not using social messaging services like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger could be missing out on golden opportunities to connect with their customers and clients?  Missing out on this kind of opportunity means missing out on the chance to boost the integrity of your brand, grow your company, and generate more sales.  

Incorporating social messaging services into your business communication model could spell huge success because it can help you and your team stay on the same page and delivers greater convenience to customers.

In this article, you’ll discover that there are many creative ways that you can use Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to benefit your business, such as for:

• Quick and convenient customer support 
• Connecting with customers in a meaningful way 
• Internal business communication   
• Convenient service tool   
• Marketing and promotion

Sound interesting? Check it out!

Quick and convenient customer support

WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger could be an ideal customer support option for some small businesses. Both of these social messaging services are used by over a billion people around the world. Take Facebook Messenger for example. According to statistics from Statista, as of April 2017, the mobile messenger service was used by 1.2 billion people per month worldwide. Even WhatsApp claims 1 billion people use its chat app every day.

With so many people connected to these popular chat and media sharing apps, it’s an excellent communication tool for small businesses with low numbers of customers. They offer wider reach and many customers would far prefer sending a quick message over WhatsApp rather than calling a helpdesk or even sending an email. Instant messaging is fast and convenient. As long as you don’t have hundreds of customers contacting support daily, a messenger service allows your customers another way to reach you. The more support options you can provide, the more likely customers are to use them.

If you’re interested in setting up one of these messaging services for customer support, you’ll find that there are businesses like Wazapper, which provide tools and API to set up customer support systems using WhatsApp.

Connecting with customers in a meaningful way

The days of phone calls to follow up with customers is slowly coming to an end. Nowadays, most people have call display and no one wants to answer calls from a number they don’t know or from a business whom they don’t feel like talking to at that moment. That said, customers are far more likely to respond to a personal message sent to them over WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. There is greater anonymity via messaging, it’s a little less informal, and takes less time to communicate so customers are more relaxed and willing to participate. 

What’s more, if you’re wondering how to connect and engage with customers using Facebook Messenger in a highly effective way, consider using Messenger Codes. These are codes that can be scanned by people who have the Messenger app. When the customer scans the code, it initiates a private message with your business. Additionally, these codes can be used offline, not unlike a QR code. Place the code wherever you want, on your store sign, window, product packaging, etc. You can place it anywhere you want your customers to have the option to connect with you.  

Internal business communication  

Looking for a good way to communicate with your employees while on the job when you need to get certain tasks done, etc.? Social messaging apps could make this process easy and painless. It’s not uncommon for employees to be resistant to change or learning new things. However, using an app that they likely already have on their phone to communicate with them, makes a lot of sense. 

Some would even describe WhatsApp as a secret weapon for businesses. In addition to allowing users to chat in real-time and supporting multimedia, including both video and voice messages, it can transmit to groups of up to 50 people. Imagine being able to send out a quick and easy message to all your employees at once to which all of them can quickly and easily respond. This can help keep everyone connected, motivated and on the same page.

Convenient service tool

Aside from using a social messenger service as a way to communicate with customers and employees, in some cases, it can also be used as a tool to provide customers with a convenient service. For instance, Onionsack is a company that enables IM and SMS Text Betting to most UK and Irish bookmakers, such as William Hill and Paddy Power. Via a chatbot, Onionsack’s unique platform enables customers of these brands to type and send their bet within seconds directly via the Facebook Messenger mobile app. 

In an interview with Vegasmaster, Onionsack CEO Jonathan Power explained that messaging is the easiest way to place a sports bet. Bettors use “the likes of Facebook and WhatsApp in their everyday life, so it takes little effort to use it for their betting, too.”

“The potential of chatbots within social media apps in the gaming industry is huge, and could revolutionise the way in which players, particularly recreational punters, look to place bets,” Power added.

Marketing and Promotion

There are plenty of ways that you can market using WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, as you can send audio files, images, and short video clips of the products you want to promote. That said, you need to take great care how you market to customers via these messaging apps. Spamming users with marketing messages will frustrate them and you’re far more likely to lose customers than gain them this way.

Market and promote to existing loyal customers with whom you’ve built a reputation, rather than trying to reach new users. It’s also important to come up with creative ways to market your business. Engage customers and get them involved in the promotion to generate interest. Think of these messenger apps as a one-to-one platform that lets you directly communicate with your listeners.