Expanding omnichannel support with WhatsApp

For more and more companies, offering customers exceptional omnichannel service and support has become a top priority. Customers have come to expect that they can connect with companies in the channels that are the most important to them—whether that’s email, phone, live chat, self-service FAQs, or social media. And for hundreds of millions of people around the world, that list of critical channels now includes WhatsApp.

By nearly any measure, WhatsApp is one of the most pervasive and important communications platforms in the world. The numbers are staggering: WhatsApp is used by more than 1.5 billion people in 180 countries, and is the third most downloaded app in the world behind only Facebook and YouTube. Users are also highly engaged, sending more than 65 billion messages, and making 55 million video calls every day on the platform.

While WhatsApp is still growing in the US (where it has more than 23 million users), the service is already ubiquitous in the rest of the world. For example, it’s estimated that 300 million people use the service in India; and in Brazil, more than half of the country’s 200 million people use WhatsApp. For many users, it is their primary method of communication with friends, families, and increasingly, brands.

Therefore, it should be little surprise that companies that serve a global customer base are increasingly putting WhatsApp at the center of their omnichannel support programs. And with more than 80 percent of consumers indicating they’re willing to change brands based on a bad customer service experience, it has never been more important for companies to deliver incredible support where their customers expect it.

The good news is that it can be fast, easy, and affordable to add WhatsApp support to the workflow of organizations that use customer engagement platforms like Zendesk to manage their omnichannel support efforts.

Support agents use Zendesk to track tickets and conversations, solve customer problems, and access every interaction they have with a customer, regardless of the channel. This means customers are getting the answers they need quicker without getting shuffled between departments, or having to ask the same question over and over again.

By integrating WhatsApp Business Solutions into Zendesk, companies are able to seamlessly bring customer conversations from WhatsApp directly into their dashboard alongside email, phone, chat, social media, and other channels that they support. When they respond to requests or resolve customer problems, those records will be available as part of the customer’s holistic profile.

In addition to fast, reactive support, companies that use WhatsApp for business can offer proactive support for customers with opt-in notifications based on a company’s unique business—whether that’s purchase receipts, flight times, or shipping changes. WhatsApp Business features make it easy to tailor a companies support experience to match its customers lifestyle and preferences.

Getting started with WhatsApp Business Solutions is easy. To learn how you can do this with Zendesk, check out our WhatsApp for Zendesk solution.