We always use WhatsApp to communicate with all the people around us: friends, family, co-workers, companies. And that is why WhatsApp Business was born, a tool that emerged in 2018 and that seeks to connect companies and customers with an application that we all know well and have installed on almost all mobile phones. If you are a customer, you can use normal WhatsApp to communicate with a company. On the other hand, if you are a business you are interested in WhatsApp Business that offers you different functions and more features to use it professionally.
Practically everything is similar or almost the same: you can have conversations with other people, send messages or photos or stickers, you can block or add new contacts, etc. Everything will seem quite simple, with the same menus at the bottom or in the settings, with chats and contacts to talk to. Although everything is similar, there are differences. In the next few paragraphs we will clarify some different functions that should be taken into account and that are very useful for your business.
What is WhatsApp Business?
WhatsApp Business is designed for companies, as its name suggests. It allows us to use the same mobile phone that we normally have registered in the telephony application or it even allows us to use it with a landline phone. What WhatsApp Business allows is that we have many more options and functions to understand our customers, with specific characteristics such as company profiles, quick responses, labels to organize contacts or automated conversations or responses that indicate that you are not available or that they welcome to a person who has spoken to you for the first time.
It’s free?
Yes. It is a free service and has no additional cost. The operation is very similar to using WhatsApp as you have done so far.
Specific characteristics
Some of the most interesting features are:
- Company profile. You can have a company profile with useful information for your clients or users. For example, you can have the description of the company, the email address, the website to which they should go or even the physical address. All the information will be available so they don’t even have to call to ask.
- Quickly answers. One of the most interesting options is that you can use quick and personalized responses depending on the message. For example, you can record messages that you usually use frequently and thus you will save writing them … Like the store hours, for example, or whether or not you have a product in stock. Once they ask, you will have those quick answers handy and you can use them.
- Labels. You can have your clients or contacts organized in labels so that you have an exhaustive control of everything. For example, you can create labels for new orders, for orders pending payment, for paid orders …
- Automated messages. When you receive an exact message, WhatsApp will take care of answering for you. For example, you can create welcome messages or you can put a message stating that your establishment or office is not open at that time or that you cannot assist them. They will automatically respond when they write to you.
- Statistics. You will be able to know how many messages have been received, how many have been read, etc. You will have access to the statistics of your company and your messages.
- Direct link. You can send a link to your contacts with which they can contact you by WhatsApp without giving them a phone number. For example, you can link from a QR on your business card or in your own establishment and just scan it.
- Catalogue. You can create a catalog with all your products, etc.
How to set it up
The first thing you will have to do with WhatsApp Business is, of course, install it. You can download it from Google Play or the App Store normally and it will be installed on your mobile phone so you can add your phone number, customize the options and start using it as soon as possible. It is free and is compatible with iOS and Android in current versions: compatible with iOS 9 and later or with Android with operating system 4.0.3 or later.
check
Once you have downloaded it, you will have to decide with which phone you want to associate WhatsApp Business: with your phone from which you are using it (you will receive an SMS to verify that it is you) with a phone said (you will receive a call with the verification code so you can move on)
- Enter your phone number when you have installed it
- Touch on the “Next” section to receive the code
- You can receive an SMS or a call
- Enter the six-digit verification code
It is important that you keep in mind that you cannot have your personal WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business with the same mobile phone number unless you follow one of the tricks that allow you to have two WhatsApp accounts on the same mobile. If you have two cards in your phone, you can combine the two applications without problem using one for personal and another for business. If you only have one mobile number, you will have to choose between the company or personal messaging application. Also, as we have explained, you can use the landline of your work or company.
Company profile
Once you have chosen the phone, you can fill in your profile:
- Name
- Company address
- Company Category
- Company description
- Business hours, if you have it
- Web address
It is important that you bear in mind that company names, according to the WhatsApp Business rules, cannot be formed only by the following criteria:
- The full name of a person is not the company name
- A generic term is not the business name
- A generic geographic location does not count as a business name
- Cannot be less than three characters in total
Absence messages
You can send messages if you can’t reply when a customer writes to you. If you are not available, you can leave the absence message established that says what your schedule is or when you will return. You can choose if it is sent whenever you are not available or at a specific time and in a few days. It is very useful because you can customize it to the maximum.
- Click on the menu button and go to the settings
- Go to Company Settings
- Find the Absent message option and activate it
- Tap on the message to edit it and write what you want
- Confirm with the OK button
- Choose the schedule you want
- Always send
- Custom schedule
- Outside the business hours you have chosen
- Choose the list of recipients
- Everyone
- Those who are not in the contact book
- All except …
- Send only to …
- Tap on the “Save” option
Welcome messages
Welcome messages allow something to be sent to anyone who has written to you for the first time. If your customers write to you for the first time or after a period of 14 days of inactivity, they will receive this personalized message that you can configure from the settings.
- Go to the Menu button and Settings
- Choose the Company Settings option
- Check the Welcome message option
- Activate the corresponding button
- Tap on the message and edit it
- Choose from the list of recipients who it will be sent to
- Everyone
- Those who are not in the contact book
- All except …
- Send only to …
- All in SAVE
Quickly answers
As we have explained in previous paragraphs, you will be able to configure quick responses that work as keyboard shortcuts for messages that you send frequently. You can have a total of maximum 50 quick responses associated with your WhatsApp Business account and these can have text messages but also multimedia files (photos, video, GIF). To configure them, follow these steps:
- Go to the menu button of the WhatsApp application
- Click on Settings and Company Settings
- Go to the Quick responses option
- Click on Add (+) to create the one you want
- Write the quick reply message you need
- Set the shortcut you are going to use on the keyboard
- Type in the keyword for the quick response, which you will then use to easily find it when you want to submit that response. You can add up to three keywords for each one you register
- Tap on “Save” to confirm
Differences and similarities with WhatsApp
If I take the step and install WhatsApp Business, what are the differences that I will find compared to a normal WhatsApp user? The similarities will be based on merely formal aspects, such as the appearance of the app, while the main differences that we will find is the addition of some functions that do not exist in the version for ordinary users and that in this application Business appear to facilitate the day to day in our company.
Similarities between applications
Interface
As we have said, the interface is one of the aspects in which we will not notice differences between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business. In the version dedicated to companies we are going to find the same interface, which will be comfortable for us so that we do not have to learn to handle another application when we are already used to the habitual use of WhatsApp.
It’s free
It is, like the version you have used so far, a free service, so you will not have to pay anything extra to start enjoying the Business version. It has no additional cost and is one of its strengths.
Maintains double check
As we have said, its interface does not change and neither does this aspect. It is very important to know that the message that we have sent has reached the client correctly and to avoid later disputes, so this utility continues to be present in WhatsApp Business.
WhatsApp Web
Another of the WhatsApp utilities that is most used at work is the possibility of using it on our computer, in the browser, without having to constantly look at the mobile to read and answer messages. Obviously it is a tool that users of the Business version find very useful, so it is also kept here.
File sharing
Photos, videos, links, documents, addresses … File exchange will also be important for companies, so it makes no sense that this utility is not present in WhatsApp Business. You will be able to send your clients those contents that are necessary for the functioning of your relationship.
Differences between applications
Tags
The Business version has implemented some advantages over its personal version so that the operation of the company is more fluid. And one of the most interesting is this option of categorizing our contacts by labels, depending on their status with respect to our company, whether they are partners, suppliers, premium customers, new customers … A quick way to organize the company’s agenda and quickly identify those contacts we need at all times.
Automatic messages
As if it were the company’s answering machine or automatic email message, we can also take advantage of this advantage from our mobile phone thanks to WhatsApp Business. Thanks to this functionality we can program welcome or absence messages , something that is not possible in the normal version. If a client contacts us for the first time, they will automatically find this reply and we will speed up the conversation process with them. Also if we are outside office hours this tool will manage our responses.
Quickly answers
In a company there are many questions that are repeated, such as the opening hours, a price, the address … With this utility we can have the answers to these repetitive questions at hand. When this message arrives at our WhatsApp Business number, the client will get a response automatically and quickly, without having to repeat the same information over and over again.
Description of our business
In WhatsApp Business we can see ourselves a little better than in WhatsApp , since we can add a description of our business to the company name, in addition to some formal aspects. Email address, website, other means of contact or the hours in which we are available.
Reasons why your account could be blocked
Like a normal WhatsApp account, the company could block or disable your account forever if you do not comply with the responsible use clauses of the application. Some of the causes that could cause the temporary or permanent blocking of your account are:
- If several users block your number with a WhatsApp account in a short period of time, although the application does not specify how many users it requires or what the established time limit is.
- Use third-party applications such as WhatsApp Plus and company.
- Use the service to send messages in bulk, as it can be interpreted as spam by the messaging application
- If WhatsApp detects an incongruity between your IP address on WhatsApp Web and the nationality of the phone number you use.
