July 04, 2024 - 3 min read

How to integrate a chatbot into WhatsApp business?

Introduction

Opting for the integration of a chatbot in WhatsApp Business messaging means choosing the #1 ally for customer relations in an application made for 2.0 conversation. WhatsApp connects billions of users. Thanks to WhatsApp Business, companies now have a multi-functional channel for engaging their customers. Using chatbots within WhatsApp enables you to stand out quickly and on a massive scale. This tool alone can change your brand image. A conversational bot helps your support team, engages your customers and gives you an omnipresence capable of boosting your sales processes. Follow our guide to implementing a WhatsApp Business chatbot implementation.

How does WhatsApp Business work?

WhatsApp has launched WhatsApp Business, a free downloadable mobile app for small businesses. The app energizes your mobile communication and takes it to the next level by helping you connect with your customers via message, engage in conversations with them, showcase your products and answer your customers' questions. With WhatsApp Business, you can create a catalog to showcase your products and use special features to automate, sort and reply to messages. By using WhatsApp Business APIAPI, you can also connect a chatbot to your business accounts.

Attention

Marketing is tightly controlled on WhatsApp Business. To guarantee a quality customer experience, push marketing is not possible. You can sell your products on WhatsApp (a payment system is integrated), but the exchange must be initiated by the consumer. Only template messages are initiated by the brand, but they are subject to prior validation by Meta before they can be sent to customers.

Billing is per conversation, with a lower cost when the conversation is initiated by the user. Once the conversation has started, everyone can interact for 24 hours. During this window, messages sent by the user to the brand, as well as those sent by the brand to the user, are free.

The model chosen by WhatsApp for its business app is very user-friendly, making it both a service and an ideal channel for customer relations. The integration of a chatbot is therefore more than relevant.

What is a WhatsApp chatbot?

Definition of a chatbot :

A chatbot is a program capable of interacting with humans via messaging, a web platform or a mobile application.

This conversational robot, considered AI in some advanced cases, "replaces" the customer advisor for users, most often during the first contact. Chatbots are ideal for solving simple problems, answering frequently asked questions or clearly defining customer needs before a human agent intervenes .

In short, chatbots are expert tools for easily enhancing your customer experience via message.

The use of chatbots in WhatsApp Business

While the use of chatbots is widespread on web solutions or Facebook Messenger, it is not yet extremely present on WhatsApp Business. On the user side, it works like all conversational chatbots: people communicate with it on WhatsApp via the messaging interface, as if they were talking to a real person. In most cases, the chatbot is simply a set of automated responses organized in a tree structure that simulates a human conversation.

But for truly convincing results and a better customer experience, it's best to opt for an AI-enhanced chatbot. This is the case with the chatbot we offer in collaboration with our partner Dydu, an expert conversational AI startup that offers a chatbot based on natural language understanding, artificial intelligence and generative AI, for a seamless customer experience.

While it's "possible" to build a response tree on WhatsApp Business yourself, the service has many limitations that you should be aware of before embarking on a development that won't offer all the advantages of a true conversational bot. Building the bot yourself can be tricky and time-consuming, which is why you need real assistance.

Why create a WhatsApp chatbot?

With the chatbot, you win on all fronts:

You offer your company a potential customer base of 2 billion users and a simple way to establish a dialogue.
You can increase customer satisfaction by 60% (Forrester consulting)
You guarantee a minimum response time and reduce the time it takes to process requests.
You give your advisors greater peace of mind , and more time to concentrate on complex issues.
You can allow your advisors to manage multiple simultaneous conversations and also launch large campaigns to obtain information that you would not otherwise have the resources to obtain.
You can automate part of your support, but also part of your sales!

Customer relations involve a fair amount of repetition, so being able to entrust these tasks to a virtual agent is a big plus. Chatbots are available H24, never worn out by answering the same questions, and insensitive to the annoyance that can sometimes arise from a dissatisfied customer.

What's more, exchanges on WhatsApp Business are charged by the conversation, which means that on this messaging service more than any other, resolving a customer request within 24 hours saves money. The use of a well-configured chatbot that can respond to messages all the time is also advantageous from this point of view.

WhatsApp limits commercial approaches, prohibiting outbound marketing. The use of messaging for businesses is therefore reserved for customer relations. But not every customer has a problem. Some will contact you in search of a product. If you want to be there for them quickly and at the right time, this is the ideal tool.

Chatbots for all subjects

All companies can use these tools, as all corporate functions are concerned. Whether it's a question of retrieving a purchase order, a forgotten password, a customer address... All support departments, from accounting and IT to general services and logistics, are confronted with recurring questions that AI can handle efficiently.

The chatbot can also be a true digital collaborator, influencing the well-being and efficiency of your employees . The possibilities are endless, and the data that can be transferred to your robot is virtually infinite.

Management, HRHRIS, stress management ...

These diverse issues in a large company can be easily managed bythe robot's artificial intelligence. These "Business to Employee" (B2E) applications are available on several channels, including WhatsApp, and are able to support employees in small, medium-sized and larger companies.

GOING FURTHER

Discover WhatsApp Business features

Choosing the chatbot smsmode^© for WhatsApp business

Many platforms can help you build a WhatsApp bot, but not all of them will help you get your account validated for access to the service's API. And without WhatsApp validation, you won't be able to launch your chatbot.

It's possible to create a company profile on your own, or even set up a basic chatbot without an API, but doing so without support is very time-consuming, and processing a large number of requests may prove impossible.

Creating a chatbot yourself means writing all the answers to a huge tree structure and selecting (on a smartphone) all the trigger keywords.

To access the WhatsApp Business API and send large volumes of messages, it's best to use a service provider recognized by Facebook. WhatsApp is an application that aims to inspire trust. It takes to heart the verification of all business profiles to guarantee its users a quality experience and avoid SPAM and phishing at all costs. Validating a profile can therefore be arduous, and authorizing use of the API even more so.

Choosing us also means making the process of creating your company accounts, and therefore your WhatsApp chatbot, easier.

By using our WhatsApp chatbot solution, bot development can begin immediately, while awaiting WhatsApp approval. This means you can save time and have a working bot as soon as you get your API key.

Like all bots, our solution lets you create conversation flows, but it does so with the help of Artificial Intelligence. Its AI is based on LLMs (Large Language Models), like OpenAI's Chat GPT. In other words, advanced technology for human language recognition and dialogue assistance.

A dedicated, experienced team is with you every step of the way, whether you want to set up a high-performance, easy-to-use response tree, or begin a machine learning process dedicated to your business. We'll help you rapidly create the most efficient conversation flow capable of responding to +90% of requests.

By choosing smsmode^©, get your company profile validated quickly and enjoy all the benefits of a WhatsApp chatbot:

95% comprehension rate from launch.
A solution that is insensitive to spelling mistakes.
Artificial intelligence that's constantly improving.
Quick answers to best guide the conversation.
A deep conversational pattern that can be perfected by analysing your chat history.
The right tone for your brand.
A 100% French solution offering a level of security guarantee that complies with RGPD requirements.
The possibility of integrating your bot with your customer service or CRM software.

How do I integrate my chatbot? The steps

The first step for real chatbots is to have a connection to the WhatsApp Business API. Secondly, you need to meet certain prerequisites. The purpose of the chatbot is important to WhatsApp. It is forbidden to use a WhatsApp chatbot for marketing messages, WhatsApp chatbots are reserved for customer service. Also, at any time, switching to a human agent must be possible.

The stages of creation :

Conclusion

WhatsApp Business is expected to become a preferred customer service channel for users. Its intuitive use allows users to get answers quickly and at any time. On the brand side, WhatsApp Business is a great way to build loyalty. It allows you to adopt a personal communication and keep in touch. With a chatbot, your presence on WhatsApp Business is constant. You have the opportunity to relieve your customer service and at the same time give the consumer a 360° support. This will fully satisfy your customers and boost your sales.

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