WhatsApp Business: Every entrepreneur must know these features for growth

It has been reported that WhatsApp is one of the most liked and used tools for businesses to connect with their customers. There are millions of people who exchange messages with a WhatsApp Business account every day across the world.

Keeping the need of business owners in mind, WhatsApp has built specific offerings for businesses of all sizes through two solutions: 

• WhatsApp Business Application 
• WhatsApp Business Platform

Let us understand how both the platforms are different from each other and how could we make the most out of each of these offerings for the businesses:

WhatsApp Business App:  the perfect ally for small businesses

WhatsApp Business is a free application, available for Android and iOS, designed specifically for small businesses. With this app, small business owners can share details about their business, stay connected with their customers and use tools to manage their messages and conversations. Some of the features of the WhatsApp Business App are: 

• Business profile: Through this function, businesses can display useful information for customers to learn about the company, description of products and services, business hours, location and website at a glance, as simple as consulting a contact's information on WhatsApp. 
• Product Catalog: This tool allows you to create a Catalog available directly in the business profile where customers can quickly view the available products with a simple click on the icon. You can build a catalogue with details such as name, photo, price, description and code.
• Quick Auto-replies: Messaging tools make it easy to connect with customers to automatically reply with a welcome and leave messages, or create quick replies to reuse frequently sent messages.
• Labels: Up to 20 labels with different colours can be created and added to an entire chat or to specific messages, so entrepreneurs can locate messages quickly.
• Promote your business: A company's WhatsApp profile can be shared in two ways: as a direct link or a QR code. By sharing any of these with customers, they can use it to automatically start a chat with your business. Creating this is as simple as going to Settings > Company settings > Direct link / QR code > Copy
• Ads that click to WhatsApp: With ads that click to WhatsApp, you can add a Send Message button to your Facebook or Instagram ads that will open a conversation thread in the WhatsApp Business App. This allows customers to connect with your business on WhatsApp after clicking the button on your ad.

WhatsApp Business Platform:  Ideal for managing large volumes of messages

The WhatsApp Business API platform enables midsize and large businesses to chat with customers at scale through programmatic access to WhatsApp, strengthen the checkout process, and deepen customer relationships. It enables brands to create unique solutions that deliver interactive conversational experiences that engage and delight consumers

Featured tools include:

• Connect through conversations at scale: Communication with customers can be automated through built-in bots, so companies can create a welcome, absent or frequently asked questions message and automate customer service functions
• Build a buyer journey:  Build custom solutions that make e it easy for customers to browse your products and place an order, right from within WhatsApp

Productivity features: Businesses can enable autoresponders with a list of options to answer questions, so customers avoid having to type out an entire question, thus making the experience easy and intuitive.

WhatsApp has positioned itself as a fundamental tool in customer service for companies of different sizes, implementing the WhatsApp Business application or its API platform as a communication channel will allow any type of business to be promoted.