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WhatsApp has over 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. With that kind of user base, chances are your potential customers may be hanging out there as well. You can target them on a channel that is now the most popular messaging app in the world. You can provide support on this channel, market your brand, and on top of that, sell products.
How would you achieve all this?
You’d need a WhatsApp chatbot. It will help you engage and serve customers well which can eventually boost the conversion rate. An AI chatbot for WhatsApp can help improve customer experience on this platform. What’s more, with a bot on WhatsApp, you can give customers an easy way to reach you.
The chatbot will also help you establish a deeper, more personal relationship with your customers. By leveraging the powers of an AI chatbot and WhatsApp together, your business can stay available round the clock and help customers at every step of the journey.
In this blog, we will explore WhatsApp chatbot in detail, understand its benefits, and use cases, and learn how to create one for your business.
Before moving further, let’s first understand the definition of a WhatsApp chatbot.
A WhatsApp chatbot is an automated software that uses pre-programmed scripts to engage and interact with users on WhatsApp. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), a WhatsApp bot can understand natural language, respond to queries, handle requests, and perform various tasks.
An AI chatbot for WhatsApp can –
In addition, a WhatsApp chatbot can automate sales, customer service, and marketing activities. A business can rely on it to engage with its audience around the clock without human intervention.
A WhatsApp chatbot leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to ensure natural and contextual responses. It’s developed using the right flow, and design, and can handle customer interactions without any human assistance.
Let’s look at the key features of a WhatsApp bot –
An AI chatbot on the WhatsApp platform can help provide round-the-clock support to customers. It never tires and can answer user queries anytime. This feature proves useful for businesses as they can minimize reliance on human agents yet ensure the same level of speed and efficiency for customer engagement.
A quality chatbot comes with a well-defined fallback for situations where it’s unable to respond to queries so it can transfer the chat to the right human agent. The fallback is possible for two scenarios – first, when the bot finds the query complex, and second when users prefer to interact with the support rep.
Advanced chatbots can mine opinions, thoughts, or sentiments from text or audio data. Doing this helps them understand the mood of the customer through sentence structures and verbal cues.
A business can use chatbot analytics to track relevant chatbot KPIs and make data-driven decisions. With analytics, you can easily understand the customer journey and make better decisions.
Deploying a bot on WhatsApp can help businesses deliver tailored responses to customers based on data and information. Bots can make interactions more engaging and relevant through the use of customer-centric data.
An AI chatbot on WhatsApp can support sending bulk messages and promotional offers to your target audience. This feature is key to sending regular updates to audiences and enhancing engagement with them. You can send images, videos, and documents with your campaigns and make interactions more meaningful for customers.
Adding an AI chatbot in WhatsApp can change the way your business approaches customer communication. With an intelligent bot, you will improve the value of engagement for customers and handle up to 79% of routine queries.
Benefits are many when you use a chatbot for WhatsApp, including
A WhatsApp chatbot has the potential to transform various facets of your business. It can add a positive impact across marketing, sales, and support. More so, you can use the bot smartly to add value to a variety of processes within your organization.
There are many different ways to use chatbots for WhatsApp for your business.
Companies that adopt omnichannel strategies can retain up to 9 of 10 customers which is close to three times compared to the rest.
And if your business has high aims of customer engagement, omnichannel support becomes important. An AI chatbot is always the key to meeting that goal.
Your business can use the WhatsApp chatbot smartly to maintain an active presence across channels, be available for customers wherever they expect, and have smooth interactions.
More importantly, having an omnichannel support strategy gives the ability to streamline all conversations across channels under a single platform and ensure a seamless consistent experience for customers.
With AI-powered chatbots, your business not only boosts the engagement level but can also understand the interests and preferences of customers. Your service agents can leverage past interactions and drive future conversations with customers.
Chatbots are becoming quite a reliable tool for lead qualification. The best part, your agents now don’t need to manually collect user info over and again.
A WhatsApp Chatbot can help you automate the lead qualification process. So, you can nurture leads by collecting key user attributes.
Using the bot, you can easily collect useful info like email, age, gender, etc. When user attributes are available and when automation is possible, lead qualification feels like a breeze.
AI chatbots can easily segment the audience for you based on the data and then help generate more qualified leads automatically.
Customers today don’t like filling-up forms so you can replace forms with bots and improve the chances of conversion.
You can never engage your customers better unless you know their tastes and preferences. Similarly, you need to understand customer behavior in order to serve them better.
Many businesses make the mistake of engaging customers without analytics so it affects conversions.
You can avoid that mistake with the WhatsApp business chatbot. The bot can help you gain key user data and then track purchasing patterns and behavior.
The chatbot can also help collect feedback through simple questions and this is how you can improve products or experiences.
A chatbot for WhatsApp can help gather consumer data in various ways. It’s possible to create a customer profile by using key demographic data collected by the bot.
You can send push notifications based on the customer profile. You can also leverage the AI capabilities of the bot and suggest relevant content or offers to customers.
Customers generally avoid buying products they don’t know much about. So, your first priority is to make sure the products are visible to customers. For that, you can leverage WhatsApp marketing benefits and boost the visibility of your products.
A WhatsApp chatbot can be a great tool to display your product directly to customers and get their attention on their preferred channel.
You can show products to WhatsApp users based on the analytics and thus can also expect a boost in lead generation.
Many brands already use chatbots to educate customers and they often see a spike in conversions.
Using a chatbot on WhatsApp, you can easily send promotional and educational messages, or inform customers about many things be it upcoming webinars, or discounts.
You can integrate the chatbot with CRM to keep the data of every subscriber for marketing purposes.
Know more: How to Do WhatsApp Marketing: 8 Simple Steps (2024)
You should know that some 71% of consumers feel frustrated when a shopping experience is not personal.
So, should you take that much risk when all it takes is a chatbot to enable personalization?
You can use an artificial intelligence WhatsApp business chatbot and quickly adopt personalization. This is how you ensure customized experiences for users.
To personalize the experience, a chatbot collects user analytics and then presents relevant offers based on the information.
Smart bots can leverage the user data automatically helping you personalize customer experience based on key information such as name, gender, location, browsing history, past purchases, etc.
Around 78% of customers believe that quality of customer service is the key for brands to gain their loyalty and repeat purchases.
And when it comes to quality service, nothing matters as much as quick responses to customer queries. If the responses are prompt, you can expect customers to be happy. And if the responses are not quick, it can dilute the customer experience with your brand.
So, you need to focus on speeding up the delivery of service. And this is where the WhatsApp chatbot can help. It can help you adopt customer service automation. And when service is automated, responses tend to be faster, and that too without human interaction.
Your business can benefit a lot from customer service automation, particularly in terms of quick replies. Plus, your service team too can feel more productive as they needn’t answer the routine question.
More importantly, customer service automation is very helpful in dealing with customers who prefer self-service instead of human agents.
Building a WhatsApp bot is easy and quick. The entire process is smooth and it takes seconds to create a bot for the WhatsApp channel.
Let’s look at a step-by-step guide on how to build your WhatsApp chatbot –
Setting up a WhatsApp Business Profile is the first step when you plan to create a chatbot for WhatsApp. This step is key to giving your brand a credible presence on the platform. When you have a business profile on WhatsApp, you can share all your key business details with customers, such as a brief description of what you do, your contact information, logo, etc.
Once the profile is created, you can access key features like automated messages, labels, quick replies, etc. Accessing these features can make your bot even more efficient and responsible. The bot can handle queries even more effectively. These features will enhance customer support through WhatsApp.
To create a business profile, you need to download the WhatsApp Business app. After that, you can fill in your business information and verify all the details.
After setting up a WhatsApp Business Profile, you need to select a reliable chatbot platform for bot building. The platform will provide the required infrastructure and tools to create, deploy, and manage your chatbot on WhatsApp.
The chatbot platform you choose will simplify the entire bot-building process, right from building conversational flows to setting up automated responses, to integrating with systems like CRM, etc.
On top of that, the chatbot platform will help your chatbot comply with the messaging guidelines and rules set by WhatsApp. The right chatbot platform will enrich your bot with AI capabilities, together with enabling access to analytics and customization options.
You can choose revechat.com as a chatbot platform if you want to create a more engaging and responsive experience for your WhatsApp customers.
With REVE Chat, you can find many benefits, including –
Designing your chatbot’s flow is a key step in creating a bot for WhatsApp. It defines how the bot will interact with users and how it will handle queries. In this step, you need to anticipate user queries and program your bot to respond relevantly and quickly.
REVE’s interface with WhatsApp Business API will help you access user data and add automated responses to the bot design.
When you design the bot’s flow, you need to consider many things, including –
To know in detail, refer to this blog on How to Create a Chatbot for Your Website.
After designing and testing the bot’s flow, you can consider launching it on WhatsApp. The launch will make your chatbot live and this is when it can start engaging with users in real time. Before that happens, make sure you have finalized the bot’s settings and integrated it with WhatsApp Business Profile.
You should also check whether you have set up notifications or backup support channels. You should also monitor initial conversations to find errors and refine the bot’s responses based on user feedback.
Once the launch is successful, you can promote the bot across channels and let more customers know you have a WhatsApp bot ready.
A successful WhatsApp chatbot should effectively engage users, add value to them, and contribute to the growth of your business. The bot should also be functional and customer-friendly.
Let’s look at the best practices for a successful WhatsApp bot –
A purposeful and result-driven chatbot works well and helps meet your business needs. However, if the bot lacks clear goals, it might fail to deliver the results you expect. Make sure the bot serves a clear goal and is capable of performing the necessary tasks.
When you create a bot for the WhatsApp channel, you should aim to engage users meaningfully rather than just answering queries. A bot that just responds and does not engage may not add the kind of value you expect, either to users or to your business. Create a bot that makes interactions feel more human so that users can feel engaged.
A smart chatbot makes conversations as interactive as possible. It makes conversations easy to follow and smooth for customers. That can only happen when the bot uses simple and easy-to-understand language and offers short responses. A bot that is optimized for UX can respond logically and keep users engaged for longer.
A chatbot can continuously learn and improve when trained on user data and information. You can collect user feedback about their experiences with the bot and then improve the bot further. You can use the WhatsApp Business API and track key metrics to improve your bot’s performance over time.
A multilingual WhatsApp chatbot can easily cater to different user preferences. Such a bot can be accessible to a broader and more diverse audience. This will expand the reach of the business manifold. This kind of bot is helpful for a business whose audience is multilingual.
WhatsApp has strict guidelines in place on what a chatbot can and can’t do. There are rules regarding data handling, user privacy, permissions, etc which a bot needs to adhere to. If a bot does not adhere to the platform’s rules, it might face penalties and may get banned. Make sure your bot is always in compliance with the platform’s rules.
Chatbots have changed the way we interact with machines or computers. They are now our reliable digital assistants whether we need to book a ticket, a meeting, or talk to customer service teams. From banking to healthcare, ecommerce to education, bots are now adding value to various spheres of life.
Let’s look at WhatsApp chatbot use cases in different industries –
Brands across industry verticals are relying on the power of chatbots to engage with customers and provide great support. Whether marketing products or services to assisting customers through processes, an AI chatbot is being used by organizations to serve various purposes.
Let’s look at some WhatsApp chatbot examples from different industries –
6thStreet is an e-commerce platform based in Dubai. It once wanted to increase sales without increasing spending. So, it decided to use a WhatsApp chatbot and support its customer engagement. The idea was to leverage the power of artificial intelligence in multiple languages. The company was successful as the WhatsApp bot helped it have more control over its engagement with customers. The company was successful as it achieved a 20x ROI in a month compared to SMS through personalized marketing on WhatsApp.
OYO is among the world’s largest chains of hotels, homes, and managed living or workspaces. It wanted to provide customer support over WhatsApp to leverage the potential of the most popular messaging app in the world. So, it created a WhatsApp bot and soon started handling multiple conversations simultaneously while providing quick responses to customer queries. All this helped it cut back on call center traffic by 15%.
India’s leading private sector bank, HDFC BANK, uses WhatsApp to make banking services more accessible to its customers. Customers can reach out to the bank on WhatsApp channel and find information about various things. They can check the outstanding balance on their credit card, gain information on reward points, know their credit limits, pre-approved loan offers, etc. The WhatsApp bot will provide important updates, payment alerts, and notifications to add to customer convenience.
Unilever is a brand that sets standards for customer engagement. Once it leveraged the WhatsApp chatbot for one of its marketing campaigns in Brazil and achieved great results. The focus was on engaging with customers and the bot helped by automating the conversations. The bot also ensured quick answers to repeat queries. It witnessed a 14x jump in sales which was purely due to increased rates of engagement that the WhatsApp bot enabled.
A WhatsApp chatbot is key today for businesses looking to leverage the potential of the world’s most popular messaging app. The bot can serve as a vital tool to provide support on this channel, sell products, and give customers an easy way to reach you.
In the blog, we discussed the definition of a WhatsApp chatbot and what it can do for your business. We thoroughly analyzed the key features of the bot and how those features could add value to businesses.
The blog also touched on the benefits of using a WhatsApp bot, like –
In addition, we also learned how to use a WhatsApp chatbot for your business followed by the step-by-step guide to creating one. The blog also dwelt on the best practices for a successful chatbot, including –
In the end, we also discussed WhatsApp chatbot use cases across different industries and saw some real-life examples of brands using those bots for various purposes.
With REVE Chat, you find a reliable chatbot platform for building your WhatsApp chatbot. You can sign up with us and analyze our AI platform and its capabilities for your business.
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Praveen Singh is a content marketer, blogger, and professional with 15 years of passion for ideas, stats, and insights into customers. An MBA Graduate in marketing and a researcher by disposition, he has a knack for everything related to customer engagement and customer happiness.
As a writer and analyst, he pours the heart out on a blog that is informative, detailed, and often digs deep into the heart of customer psychology. He’s written extensively on a range of topics including, marketing, AI chatbots, omnichannel messaging platforms, and many more.
Mr. Singh also has a passion for subjects that excite new-age customers, be it social media engagement, artificial intelligence, machine learning. He takes great pride in his learning-filled journey of adding value to the industry through consistent research, analysis, and sharing of customer-driven ideas.
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