Reach the customer with WhatsApp
How companies can use WhatsApp APIs
First, here's an overview of WhatsApp's new offering:- WhatsApp will provide verified accounts for businesses.- The new WhatsApp Business app will help businesses communicate with their customers through the WhatsApp platform.- For larger customers, an API will be available that will allow automated application-to-person (A2P) messages to be sent.In principle, WhatsApp will allow businesses to communicate with their customers in the same way they currently do via SMS or other channels. This raises a fundamental question: Why should a company use WhatsApp when it can also address its customers via SMS?
Does WhatsApp have what it takes to become the new WeChat?
Looking at the development of WeChat in China, chat platforms should perhaps be thought of as more of a gatekeeper for users' online identities, as opposed to SMS. TenCent, the major Chinese gaming and social media provider, launched WeChat in 2011 as a simple chat app. A year later, businesses could sign up with a corporate account, and today there are about 10 million such accounts.In that time, WeChat has introduced a mobile payment service, a ride-sharing service, business chat similar to Slack, a business card replacement with a QR code, and more. The messenger has turned into a general-purpose app, with other apps already built in and no longer needing to be installed separately.What started as a chat app is now the glasses through which 889 million Chinese see the Internet. With WeChat, people are no longer tied to the phone number of a single device - instead, they have a single, cross-device online identity.Chinese perceptions of the Internet are somewhat different than those of other countries. For many people in China, their first contact with the Internet was through a mobile device. There was also much less trust in online commerce here than outside China. Therefore, for people in China, WeChat became a trusted guardian of their online experience. Western chat apps might like to have this role as well, but their starting point is different.In any case, WeChat shows us that a chat app can offer much more than pure messaging. With its huge user base, WhatsApp certainly has the prerequisites to be at least partially as successful as WeChat.
Messaging apps vs. SMS
The use of chat platforms with a wider range of offerings has both technical and social advantages. In 2012, worldwide 20 billion messages per day sent by text message. Then there were more and more smartphones, and text communication shifted from SMS to instant messaging platforms. In addition to WhatsApp and WeChat, other regionally dominant platforms emerged, such as Line in Japan and Viber in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.In view of this development, the ubiquity of SMS cannot hide the fact that it is yesterday's technology. Despite makeshift solutions, SMS is and remains limited to 160 characters and supports only text. Like telecommunications-based standards such as RCS and MMS will perform remains to be seen.And although SMS messaging comes in affordable flat-rate packages, people are calibrated to the fact that text messaging is a scarce resource where every message comes with a cost.But to be fair: Unlike mobile network operators, chat apps like WhatsApp are not forced to agree on a new standard with hundreds of competitors around the world. Still, SMS messaging is not overly popular; consumers have flocked to other, more attractive alternatives.Sure: SMS has the advantage of being received by any cell phone. But it is now just one of several options for users who want to quickly send a short message. They don't just pick and choose, but opt for the channel that offers the most options."Graceful Degradation" in Customer Messaging.In web development there is the concept of "Graceful Degradation". This means that an attractive, diverse online experience is developed for modern browsers, while at the same time taking into account the end devices that cannot fully display this experience. So, on the one hand, JavaScript, videos, animations, etc. are used for high-end devices, and on the other hand, simple HTML pages that can be read with screen readers and purely text-based browsers.The same concept can be applied to customer communication. A platform with the widest range of features gives us opportunities to engage with customers that didn't exist before. And that doesn't just mean sending videos and images.There are cases where SMS messages fail - read receipts, for example, tend to be unreliable, especially when a message has to pass through multiple networks. Another problem is the open concept of SMS, which make it unsuitable for commerce or personal information.WhatsApp, on the other hand, can deliver authoritative read receipts to its enterprise customers because messages go back and forth within the same platform. This also makes it easier to measure the return on investment.Thanks to end-to-end encryption and a reduced risk of spoofing, WhatsApp in principle offers the possibility of sending more sensitive information than is possible via SMS. If the example of WeChat is anything to go by, WhatsApp could even enable the processing of payments and purchases.Applying the "graceful degradation" principle to customer communications makes it possible to use all the functions of versatile platforms while serving customers of whom only the SMS contact data is available.Here's an example: a fashion retailer launches a flash sale. He has a list of 10,000 customers who want to be notified when sneakers are discounted.The retailer's marketing department creates three versions of the notification:Simple version (e.g. SMS only): A plain text message with only 160 characters and a link to the landing page of the promotion.Medium version (e.g. MMS): a picture, additionally a somewhat more detailed sales text with a link to the landing page of the promotion.Complex version (e.g. chat app like WhatsApp): a video of the main item, as well as a detailed sales text and the possibility to order the item on the chat interface. If the recipient reads the message but does not order within 24 hours, the company automatically sends a follow-up message via its cloud communication partner with an additional discount of 10 %.The list of 10,000 customers also records the preferred messaging platform of each user. Thanks to the fashion retailer's communication system, the specified messaging platform and its technical capabilities can be used to determine which version of the message should be sent - the simple, the medium or the complex. In this way, each customer receives the main message. But those whose chat platform offers more attractive features and higher ROI potential get the message with more extensive content.
The advantages of self-contained messaging apps outweigh the disadvantages
Of course, self-contained platforms have disadvantages. For example, a successful messaging app could lure businesses with low prices and then, once enough users and businesses have invested in the platform, massively increase its fees.To reduce this risk, there are two options: The first is to offer customers multiple communication channels. The second, to use a proxy service instead of logging into each messaging platform directly. With a proxy service, such as a cloud communications provider, companies can easily switch between messaging platforms and fall back on SMS messaging when necessary. Not only does this make "graceful degradation" much easier - the enterprise also spreads its investment across multiple chat destination platforms and is no longer at the mercy of unfair price increases from individual providers.Still, self-contained chat platforms offer significant advantages: On the one hand, they can evolve rapidly. On the other hand, all components of the platform are usually closely interlinked and authenticated. This ensures a better experience and more reliable tracking. In the case of WhatsApp, the main advantage is probably account verification, which confirms that a phone number belongs to an enterprise account.With its 10 million official enterprise accounts, WeChat pioneered account verification. In the West, however, people tend to be skeptical on the subject of verified accounts, associating them primarily with Twitter's blue checkmark. The blue checkmark has had different functions over time, so its meaning is not clear to many. However, WhatsApp's verified business accounts tend to have the same purpose as WeChat: In a world of spam and phishing, they provide assurance that the verified account is really operated by the company whose name it bears.
WhatsApp - an enormous potential
At this point, WhatsApp is still a messaging app. But it has the potential to become a broad ecosystem that enables businesses to interact with their customers in all kinds of ways. Already, a major European airline that operates several flights to China conducts 16 percent of its business through WeChat and Facebook Messenger - from customer service inquiries to issuing boarding passes.WhatsApp is in the process of rolling out this type of customer interaction in countries outside of China. Of course, SMS, email and good old phone calls will continue to exist - but a significant portion of the world's population, namely one billion people, use a more attractive form of instant communication. And if you as a company don't use WhatsApp, you have to expect that your competitors will.*Parth Awasthi is Director of Product Management at Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform. He has more than ten years of experience leading technical teams developing communications and productivity software for the cloud. Previously, he worked at Microsoft where he was responsible for key delivery projects for Skype and Word.
