Companies around the world are using WhatsApp for customer service. They’re automating use cases, improving customer experiences, and making more money doing it. Let’s take a look at what makes WhatsApp a powerful customer service tool and 3 examples we can learn from. 

Why are companies using WhatsApp for customer service?

Popularity 

First and foremost, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world. It has over 2 billion monthly average users, which means that more than a quarter of the world’s population uses WhatsApp. 

Good customer service reduces friction and makes things easy for customers. So, using messaging channels that they already know and love is a no-brainer. 

API availability

Next, WhatsApp has an API available for businesses. An API is an application programming interface, and essentially it allows businesses to connect WhatsApp to a number of other software applications and tools. 

This is a critical feature. It means that you can connect WhatsApp to the tools you rely on every day, like customer relationship management (CRM) tools. You might also want to connect WhatsApp to order tracking software, appointment scheduling systems, and more. 

In short, the WhatsApp Business API broadens the uses for companies using WhatsApp for customer service. It makes it an ideal space for handling a variety of use cases. 

Team inbox

When using WhatsApp’s business tools, companies can access a team inbox. Any customer service professional knows how important it is to be able to aggregate conversations. Without a shared inbox, collaboration is close to impossible. 

Companies using WhatsApp for customer service can easily route conversations to the right team member. Not only does it save time internally, but customers get their issues resolved faster.

Automation capabilities

The WhatsApp Business API makes it possible for you to build and use chatbots on WhatsApp. You can quickly greet customers that reach out to you and ask them important questions about who they are and why they’re reaching out. 

By the time a human agent gets connected with a customer, they already know who they’re dealing with and in what context. This speeds things up for everyone involved. 

You can also automate your frequently asked questions. Our clients, for example, usually find that FAQs make up 80% of their inquiries. By automating these questions, they free up time for their agents to handle more complex questions. 

And, it’s important to note that automation isn’t just about efficacy and scale. It helps you offer immediate, personalized, and contextual service. The more you connect WhatsApp to your internal tools, the more purposeful your chatbot becomes. 

Rich media support

Last but not least, WhatsApp is a developer’s dream for building rich media experiences. A major benefit of using WhatsApp is that you can use buttons, quick replies, product carousels, voice memos, photos, maps, and other types of rich content. 

Using this rich content makes conversations more engaging. It eliminates the need for customers to type everything out, thus reducing the time to resolution. 

WhatsApp wants to be the place where commerce happens. As such, they continue to add features that make it attractive for both businesses and customers. 

Benefits of using WhatsApp for customer service

Efficiency

WhatsApp makes customer service teams more efficient. You can collaborate through a shared inbox, automate FAQs, and easily share documents that add context to conversations. 

If you’re like most companies, you’ll probably find that FAQs make up 80% of your total inquiries. By automating these FAQs, your human agents will be ready to handle more complex questions.

More control over the customer journey

These days, gaining control over the customer journey requires technology. With so many different channels, markets, languages, departments (do we need to go on?) it’s absolutely critical to have technology in place that can connect all of the dots. 

WhatsApp’s API makes it a flexible solution that can play nice in this complex sandbox. For starters, instead of conversations existing in silos, the entire team can work in sync to make experiences better. 

Because you can connect WhatsApp to other tools (like real-time analytics and reporting) you get better insights for decision-making. In short, it’s a powerful tool for orchestrating the customer journey. 

Customer satisfaction

People like WhatsApp. They also like fast service. So, it’s no surprise that WhatsApp improves customer satisfaction rates. In fact, many of our customers have doubled their net promoter scores (NPS) after combining WhatsApp and automation. 

In addition to speed, people like the visuals that WhatsApp offers. Just like in any other conversation, when it’s easy to communicate our points, we typically find the conversation more enjoyable. When you use buttons, product photos, and visuals, the conversation is easier and more engaging. 

In fact, it only takes one positive experience on WhatsApp for it to become the channel of choice for customers. As a result, over time, you can phase out the channels that bring down customer satisfaction scores and drain your resources. 

Customer retention and loyalty

Customer service is a key driver of customer retention (or customer churn). For 86% of people, good customer service turns one-time clients into long-term brand champions. 

Similarly, one-third of consumers say they would consider switching companies after just one instance of bad customer service.

WhatsApp has been proven to increase customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty. By prioritizing the user experience, companies using WhatsApp have a leg up on the competition. 

Increased revenue

Lastly, it’s no surprise that companies using WhatsApp for customer service can increase their revenue. Higher profits are a natural result of all the benefits we mentioned above. 

Consider the following statistics: 

• Improving customer experience by just one point can drive more than a billion dollars in revenue (Forrester) 
• Companies that excel at the customer experience drive revenues 4% to 8% higher than those of their market (Bain and Company) 
• Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95% (Harvard Business Review)

So, now that we’ve gone over the (many) benefits of WhatsApp for customer service, let’s see some use cases in action.  

3 Great examples of companies using WhatsApp for customer service 

Let’s review 3 great examples of companies using WhatsApp for customer service. 

1) Decathlon (Retail)

Decathlon is the world’s largest sporting goods retailer and operates over 1,350 stores in 39 countries across the globe. It is the market leader in Spain by far, generating over 1.7 billion in revenue each year.

Like any major retailer, Decathlon deals with a variety of customer support issues. They offer assistance in buying equipment, field questions about in-store experiences, as well those related to order tracking and return policies. 

Before using WhatsApp, Decathlon offered email and phone support. But, these channels slowed down their response times. They wanted to offer a more convenient customer service experience without hiring more agents.

Objectives

• Increase customers self-serving simple queries
• Maintain or improve customer satisfaction score
• Improve the response time for customers

Solution

Decathlon adopted WhatsApp for customer service. It started with simple automation flows and agent handover. It was important for Decathlon to make sure the team was not overwhelmed with increased volume, and automation helped them do that. 

A bonus for Decathlon is that WhatsApp is asynchronous. Meaning, unlike phone or web chat, customers typically multitask, dipping in and out of conversations. For Decathlon, this means that agents are able to handle multiple tickets at once.

Key results

• Bots currently handle 22% of all queries 
• 50% decrease in average handling time
• 4.5/5 average CSAT score for WhatsApp users
• 98% reduction in time to respond for agents
  

Clearly, Decathlon is a great example of a company using WhatsApp for customer service. They were about to impact key metrics related to efficiency and customer satisfaction. 

2) Bankia (Banking)

Bankia is the fourth largest bank in Spain with assets of 180B. It provides banking services to businesses, consumers and investors. This includes asset management and insurance services. 

Bankia's main point of differentiation is its customer-centric approach. With a motto of "it's that simple," Bankia is committed to making life easier for its customers. 

Bankia saw WhatsApp as an opportunity to really make “that simple” for customers to apply for mortgage loan applications. They believed that guiding customers through the application process conversationally would increase leads—and they were right! 

Objectives

• Increase customer satisfaction
• Improve customer service efficiency 
• Drive qualified leads

Solution

Bankia created an automated loan application process on WhatsApp. In a tightly regulated industry like banking, it needed to integrate with critical business applications. This was necessary to securely centralize customer data and remain GDPR compliant.

Key Results

• 9.6/10 NPS score 
• Reply > 2 minutes 
• 3x higher engagement on WhatsApp than other channels 
• Increase in qualified leads 

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3) RACC Mobility Club (Insurance)

Insurance giant, RACC, uses WhatsApp to field roadside assistance requests. It manages over 500,000 insurances policies and helps with over 1.1 million insurance assistance cases a year.

WhatsApp plays a critical role in helping customers get fast roadside assistance. It also helps people submit insurance claims instantly and automatically. 

Objectives:

Before adopting WhatsApp, RACC had the following goals: 

• Reduce incoming calls by promoting self-serve
• Create a smoother experience roadside assistance experience 
• Reduce case management time
• Increase customer satisfaction scores

Solution

RACC developed a WhatsApp chatbot for both roadside assistance and insurance claims. 

For roadside assistance: WhatsApp’s features make it possible to share photos, locations, and other important information related to claims or roadside assistance. Location sharing, in particular, plays an important role in getting a team to the scene quickly. 

For insurance claims: Now, almost half of all new claims are completely automated (48%). People can easily share photos of the damage, voice memos of engine noises, and other information that’s difficult to share through other channels.

Key Results:

• 20% call reduction
• 70% decrease in case handling time
• 9.7/10 customer satisfaction score
• 48% of claims are fully automated

Join these companies using WhatsApp for customer service

At Hubtype, we have the expertise you need to get started with WhatsApp. You can join the many companies using WhatsApp for customer service with great success. 

Get started by booking a demo with our team. Or learn more about our conversational platform.