Whatsapp means business, to onboard new entities within ‘five minutes’
Whatsapp is also rolling out new messaging features to help people get business done faster on the portal
Whatsapp Business is making it easier and faster for businesses to get on to the platform, cutting down the time from a few weeks to five minutes.
It will also provide more ways for businesses to reach out to their customers.
“We’ve cut down the time it takes for businesses to get up and running from weeks to just five minutes. Whether a business wants to work with a business solutions provider or get support directly from Facebook in the future, these improvements will make it easier for more medium and large businesses to have customer conversations on Whatsapp,” the company said in a blog post.
These announcements are a part of Facebook's annual developer conference called ‘F8 Refresh’. Whatsapp, which is owned by Facebook, said it is also going to provide businesses more ways to communicate with their customers, apart from timely notifications.
"For example, businesses were often limited to sending timely notifications, which made it difficult to follow up with customers outside a 24-hour window. So now, we’ll support more types of messages to let people know when an item is back in stock, for example. We’ve also seen how periodic updates from health authorities about responding to the pandemic have been helpful and we want to make this kind of service available for more types of conversations," the company said.
It is also rolling out new messaging features to help people get business done faster.
The new list of messages will present a menu of up to 10 options so people no longer need to type out a response. Reply buttons will allow people to quickly make a selection from up to three options, a quick tap that a business can set ahead of time through its Whatsapp Business API account.
"As always, people remain in control of their chats. People still need to reach out to start a conversation or request a business to contact them via Whatsapp. With these updates, we’re also providing new ways for people to give greater feedback about the experience they are having if they have a reason to block a business," Whatsapp said in the blog.
Whatsapp has been focusing on its business app by adding new capabilities and features that have helped small and medium and even large enterprises reach out to customers effectively during the pandemic.
From its mobile storefront called Catalog, which displays and shares goods or products businesses are selling, to launching QR code-enabled chat, Whatsapp has been making it easier and simpler for businesses to reach customers.
Whatsapp Business has a user base of over 400 million in India. “We have seen a great uptake in the number of businesses wanting to communicate with their customers through Whatsapp API. There have been several businesses that have seen a clear uplift in their user engagement and click through rates through the Whatsapp solution.
This new update will make it easier for businesses of all sizes to consider Whatsapp API for their customer engagement journey," said Harsha Solanki, managing director of Infobip India, which provides omnichannel communications to its customers.
Similarly, Ravi Sundararajan, chief operating officer (COO) at conversational messaging platform Gupshup, said: "Over the last one year, businesses have realised the importance of having a seamless online communication with their customers. Whatsapp is where most customers are and there isn't a better platform for quality customer engagement. We are excited that with the new easy onboarding, more businesses will be able to benefit and find an efficient way to interact with customers."