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How Businesses Can Maximize Whatsapp API Integration

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Whatsapp API Integration|How Businesses Can Maximize Whatsapp API IntegrationThe introduction of WhatsApp business API has offered enterprises a top marketing tool. The tool provides significant possibilities for communication with clients bearing in mind that WhatsApp as a messaging platform enjoys over two billion users globally. As businesses continue to integrate the API, there is a need to understand how to get the most out of the tool.

Upon launching any business, the first step towards getting more clients is effective communication. You need an awareness campaign to target both existing and potential customers. Besides offering an opportunity for communicating with clients, the WhatsApp API designed for enterprises also comes with a host of benefits, including:

  • Seamless customer support
  • Instant collection of feedback
  • Understanding users better through the gathering of insightful data
  • Ability to recommend products
  • Global reach
  • Automated communication
  • Instant two-way communication

How to Get the Most Out of the WhatsApp Business API

The use of WhatsApp in your business is meant to offer a personal touch with customers. Considering the number of businesses leveraging the API is high, getting the attention of your clients can be a challenge in the absence of some effective practices. Below are some key tips that will likely push your business to attain the maximum potential through WhatsApp business API.

Use different message formats

Relying on text-only messages may fail to meet the desired targeted goals. Generally, text-only communication is not very engaging. To get customers’ attention, use photos, videos, locations, GIFs, files, and more. Once clients begin to engage with your content, always respond by answering questions intuitively.

Get consent

Before sending any message, ensure the target audience has agreed to receive your communication. Not only is this practice ethical, but it is also a requirement under WhatsApp policies. Always ask customers which type of communication they would like to receive through WhatsApp. Note that WhatsApp offers opt-in templates which can be placed on the website, hence exposure to more customers.

Establish a response timeline

Chances are high that your current and potential customers have scouted for several similar service providers. If they land on your business, show them you value them. Normally, it is recommended to have a 24 hour response time to avoid customers losing interest. Although you can use chatbots, always ensure a human agent is available if the message needs to be escalated further.

Maximize on personalized messages

The ordinary WhatsApp messaging app requires a more personalized approach to sending messages. Customers want to have real conversations, but not just respond to one-way messages sent to them. This should be reflected in your messaging strategy as it will also boost your brand reputation.

Work with authorized dealers

Setting up a WhatsApp business API is a technical aspect of your business that needs a reputable provider to carry out. Leveraging the services of an unauthorized company may land your business in trouble. Ensure to choose wisely to get the right fit for your business.

Endnote

The ultimate end goal of any business is to retain and attract new customers by providing quality service. Fortunately, the advantages of WhatsApp business API like instant feedback mean that enterprises can easily understand the needs of customers and use the feedback to improve services.

3 Common eCommerce Mistakes to Avoid

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |eCommerce Mistakes|3 Common eCommerce Mistakes to AvoidBeing an eCommerce store owner is no easy ride. There are many things you need to consider; the customer journey, the user experience, technical issues, minimizing cart abandonment, and many more. But there are also a plethora of opportunities to sell to customers all over the world. With the right strategies in place, you can skyrocket your eCommerce business for success.

Whether you own an established eCommerce store or just starting out, here are some of the most common eCommerce mistakes you should avoid if you want to grow your business to new heights.

#1 Not identifying your ideal clients

While it is ambitious to want to serve everyone, it, unfortunately, will not serve your business any good. This results in a strategy that is not very clear or focused and will waste a lot of time, energy, and resources as you drive the wrong traffic to your store, which will also increase cart abandonment rates and bounce rates. No matter how good or well-priced you think your product may be, you are selling to the wrong people.

It may seem like you are limiting your business, by narrowing down and specific on who you are serving, but it will mean you can talk to them directly in your marketing, find them quicker, and drive more intentional traffic to your eCommerce store. Make sure you create a brand persona, whereby you outline who your target market is, and include specific information such as their age, location, income, marital status, hobbies, interests, needs, how they make purchasing decisions, and their preferred platforms.

#2 Using the wrong technology

There is a lot of technology, applications, services, software, and platforms that you can use for your eCommerce store, and often, it’s not the most expensive, or how many that you have that means it will be successful. It is the opposite. If you use too many platforms or the wrong platforms, your data is likely to be all over the place and you risk a business that is disorganized and unaligned. This then means that data cannot be analyzed correctly, and you have a huge gap within your business to excel and make sales. Make sure you research the correct platforms right from the start, one that is right for your product and your internal working, to ensure all your departments are aligned and able to excel in reaching business goals and objectives. If you already have an eCommerce store, you can read more about integrating your current tools.

#3 Not optimizing your eCommerce store

Many eCommerce businesses opt for paid marketing, such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads. While there is nothing wrong with this, it is also vital that you are incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) into your marketing strategies. Without SEO, as soon as you turn the paid ads off, you will unlikely have visibility anywhere on the internet.

SEO is a long-term game, which is why it is not easy to measure an ROI at the beginning. However, implementing SEO strategies will enable you to build authority, rank, and visibility within the search engines, and start driving intentional, and sustainable organic traffic to your store.

For an eCommerce business to be successful, the right strategies are vital.

4 Ways Your Business Premises is Giving Your Customers The Wrong Impression

StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Business Premises|4 Ways Your Business Premises is Giving Your Customers The Wrong Impression Many businesses, especially retailers, have a blended approach to their operations encompassing elements of ecommerce and brick and mortar retail. However, running a business with a physical presence brings with it a certain set of responsibilities. Like your website, your social media presence or your content marketing materials, your physical premises is an extension of your branding. Your customers and visitors will judge it accordingly. And if you plan on growing your business, you can’t afford to take a single first impression for granted. The challenge, then, is to ensure that your physical premises gives your customers or clients the right impression even before they walk through your door.

But that can be easier said than done.

No matter how hard you work to create and maintain an optimal business premises, sometimes even little things can undo everything you’ve worked so hard to build. With that in mind, let’s look at 5 ways in which your business premises can give your customers the wrong impression…

They can’t park

Your customers’ first impression can be formed long before they set foot on-site. If they have to drive around for a long time to find a parking space because your employees have taken up the best ones, this can inject a sour note into their experience that you’ll need to work much harder to erase. Optimizing your parking lot, encouraging car pooling and having clear policies on where employees can and cannot park can all be useful in creating a harmonious customer experience and a great first impression.

It’s not consistently clean or tidy

You know how important it is to keep your space clean. Especially under the current circumstances. But customers don’t just notice the broad strokes. They notice the little details, too. For instance, they’ll notice if there’s one corner that the cleaners have missed that’s dirty and grimy. They’ll notice a bathroom that’s not been cleaned to a satisfactory standard. They’ll notice if an employee’s desk is cluttered or swamped with paperwork. It’s up to you to ensure that cleanliness and tidiness are consistent in your space, and that each employee does their part to ensure a clean, tidy and pleasant workplace. Even if you have cleaning staff.

It’s too hot

It’s a scientific fact. We all hate being too hot. Even if your premises is a little on the cool side, that’s infinitely preferable to being too hot. Being too hot makes us cranky and irritable. It can make small inconveniences seem like big issues. It can escalate conflicts and at the very least make us feel sweaty and unpleasant. So it’s up to you to keep your premises cool. From ensuring that the orifice HVAC system is working to servicing air conditioning units regularly or placing filters over your windows to block excessive heat from the sunlight. There are all kinds of ways in which you can maintain a pleasant temperature.

Your employees seem stressed and irritable

Finally, even if your premises is immaculate, your employees’ actions can make things seem chaotic, poorly managed… or really unfair to them. If your employees look visibly stressed, irritable and on the verge of nervous breakdown that can send a very strong message to your customers. Of course employees have stressful days. But they need to be trained and encouraged to seek out help when they feel out of their depth and to keep stress-induced outbursts out of the eyes and ears of customers.

How to Build Customer Relations That Cannot Be Broken

StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |build customer relations |How to Build Customer Relations That Cannot Be BrokenAre you a switcher?

Switchers are unhappy customers who switch from one company to another. Across the nation, businesses are losing close to $62 billion every year because of switchers.

As a business owner, you work hard to provide your customers with incredible experiences. However, sometimes things that are outside of your control are going to happen. Thankfully, business owners can learn to build customer relations that survive bad experiences.

Are you ready to find out how to create loyal customers? Read on to find out the secret to building resilient customer relations.

Build Customer Relations

The first step in learning to build customer relations that last is by knowing where you stand.

Here’s a short quiz to evaluate your company’s current customer relations:

  1. Are your customers recommending your company to family and friends?
  2. Are you attracting new customers regularly?
  3. Do you have a positive customer retention rate?

If you can’t answer yes to the questions above it’s probably because you need to improve your customer service in one or more areas. If you want to be a customer service expert, that means you want to build meaningful relationships with your clientele. Depending on the nature of your business and the budget you have at hand, you can achieve this goal by investing in phone systems for small business or training your employees to improve their customer service. Any of these strategies will require resources from your business, but as long as they’re implemented with consistency, these can serve as bridges for your business upon which to build customer relations.

The best way to lay the foundation for any relationship, whether business or personal, is with trust — and it’ll be very easy for customers to trust your brand if you prioritize their needs and provide excellent customer service whenever they reach out to you.

Be Real With Your Customers

Customers can’t trust you if they don’t know who you are. One of the biggest steps in learning to build customer relations involves learning to be yourself.

Customers want to know the real you. While it’s true you can’t come to work and behave the same way you might at home, this doesn’t mean you have to be fake. Authenticity will go a long way with each of your customer interactions.

If you want to be real with your customers, start by letting them know what your business does and what your brand is. Are you a business that prioritizes customer service? Or do you want to be known as a business that provides high-quality products and services? Regardless of what you want your business to become in the eyes of the public, it’s important that you communicate this message properly.

As a business, you should be real with your customers by setting their expectations and letting them know what your business can and can’t do. Transparency is always key when building customer relationships with your target audience.

Ask the Right Questions

One way you can be truly authentic with your customers is by asking them questions that matter. Let’s say for instance that you work in the hospitality industry.

As the customer is getting ready to leave your hotel, ask them, “Will we be seeing you again soon?”. After you ask the question, be quiet and give your customers a chance to answer. There are typically 3 answers your customer will give; Yes, Maybe and No.

Aside from building customer relations that can’t be broken, asking the right questions at the right time can also help your business improve its process. The information you can gain from your customers during this phase can help your business streamline its efforts, so you’ll end up providing products and services that suit your customers’ needs and wants.

Retaining Happy Customers

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. You can always ask customers if they’ll be bringing their business to you again.

If the customer says, “yes”, you’ll know you provided A-class service. However, just because a customer says they’ll return, that doesn’t mean you should end the conversation.

A happy customer is likely to want to share details about their interactions with your company and employees. Taking the time to listen to a customer talk about their positive experience, shows them you truly care. If the competition isn’t willing to really listen, you’ll instantly have a loyal customer.

You can also use the conversation as an opportunity to learn more about what you’re doing that’s working. Perhaps the customer loved the way you packaged their documents, or they enjoy your user-friendly website. The more feedback you can get from customers, the easier it’ll be to keep making them happy.

Winning Back Unhappy Customers

Let’s pretend you ask a customer if they’ll be returning to your business and they say, “maybe”, or “no”. When a customer feels comfortable saying they’re unhappy, you have a golden opportunity to win them back. However, it’s a delicate situation and you have to be careful to position yourself correctly in the conversation.

Contrary to popular belief, winning back unhappy customers is an attainable task. When you come across unhappy customers, take the time to listen to their concerns or complaints. Often, customers are unhappy about a specific business if they were unsatisfied with the products or services given to them. If this is the reason why your customer is unhappy, provide a guarantee that your business will do better moving forward.

Stop Saying Sorry

You never want the customer to feel as if you’re arguing with them or pushing them to choose your company. This is why you should avoid saying “sorry”, and instead show sincerity by actively listening.

Statements like, “I’m sorry to hear that”, can sound like an excuse to customers. It’s also a bad idea to say sorry since you don’t know what the customer’s experience was yet.

One of the best ways to have difficult conversations with customers, is by asking open-ended questions. An open-ended question is one that you cannot answer by saying yes or no. Instead, open-ended questions cause people to think, speak, and reflect on how they’re feeling.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

After a customer tells you they might not be returning to your company, or they’re not coming back, politely ask them why they won’t be returning. You can say, “I don’t want to bother you, we pride ourselves on the experience. Please tell me, why wouldn’t you come back?”

The main idea here is to ask an open-ended question that will help reveal the full story of your customer’s experience. After the customer explains why they’re unsatisfied, make sure you reply with a real response, not something fake.

To keep it real, avoid having employees use scripted responses. Instead, summarize and speak back the story you just heard to the customer. Now, they’ll know you were listening, and they’ll be able to offer any details they may have left out.

Express Genuine Interest

Chances are you’re super excited about the product or service you have to offer customers. Your excitement is contagious and people want to know that you care about your brand and your products. When you’re interacting with your customers, listen more than you talk.

Focus on Customers Life

When you speak with customers, the majority of the conversation should focus on things that have to do with the customer on a personal level. Ask the customer how they are doing, how their family is, what life goals they’re achieving, and so on. If you’re providing a service for their business, find out how their company’s doing.

The more you can learn about your customers, the more you’ll be able to find ways to provide value to them in your relationship. Oftentimes, companies fall into the trap of promoting their specials or deals or packages to customers that don’t need it.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Actively listening to your customers will help you avoid suggesting products or services they don’t need. Sure, a company’s package deal may be great for somebody looking to get a bundle, but what if the customer just wants to buy one thing?

If employees try to push the package deal on them, the customer may leave upset, or worse buy the product and not get enough value. A customer that doesn’t feel heard, or doesn’t receive value from your company, isn’t going to come back.

Small Words Big Sales

Listen to your customers, the smallest things they say can sometimes lead to the biggest sales. Not only will you get sales opportunities, but you’ll also be building meaningful relationships.

Another benefit of listening closely is you’ll create a work culture that cares about the customer first. When new customers see the way you treat your existing customers, don’t want to be a part of it.

Strengthen Every Relationship

Now you know how to use expert customer service to build customer relations. Taking the time to listen to what people have to say, is one of the strongest ways to show you care.

Remember, customer relationships aren’t static, they’re always changing. For more ways to keep up with your customers in the ever-changing market, check out the rest of the site.

The Customer Really Is Always Right

StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Care|The Customer Really Is Always RightIf you are a new startup, the chances are that you are overwhelmed by the amount of things that you need to get done. While you were once a specialist, you are now having to be a Jack of all trades. As well as being the owner, you are now the marketing executive, the financial guru, the social media manager, the reprographics assistant, the web designer and the coffee maker. You have a business plan to write and you might not even know where to start.

While you might be obsessed by getting all of your financial ducks in a row, securing funding for your business and ensuring that you have a buoyant cash flow, you need to consider the customer experience that you provide.

Your new venture will live or die depending on the reviews it receives. Nowadays, people venture online in the first instance when they are looking to research a company. Consumers are now incredibly savvy and want to know more about the startups that they are looking to do business with. If you are keen to hone your positive reputation, you need to have a policy in place that recognizes that the customer is always right.

Under Promise And Over Deliver

As a new startup, you have an array of already well established rivals to compete with. This means you need to solidify your reputation immediately. Ensure that you have a policy of under promising and over delivering. If you know that you can deliver a product in forty eight hours, ensure that you state that you’ll have it delivered in seventy two. This is an effective way of trading. When your customer sees that their item is on their doorstep seemingly a day early, they will assume that you have gone the extra mile. This creates a positive buzz and warm fuzzy feeling about you. This emotive response is vital if you are to encourage positive feedback.

First Contact

When a customer first makes contact with you, they need to feel inspired and confident that your company will provide what they need whether this is legal representation or a custom made tee shirt. An answering service for lawyers is perfect for those legal firms that want a polite and professional representative for their potential clients. Outsourcing this sort of service also means that you are more free to deal with more pressing area of your business vision.

If customers contact you via Facebook or Twitter, respond speedily. You can also utilize a less formal and corporate voice. Converse with your potential customers in a chattier tone and enjoy selling and marketing your wares on social media. If this will take up too much of your time or you are not au fait with social media, consider outsourcing this to a professional. These professionals will work with you to achieve your online and customer service goals through analytics and market research.

StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Care|The Customer Really Is Always RightIncentivize

While you can’t pay for positive feedback as this is not ethically sound, you can incentivize your customers to leave a review of any kind. When people receive the services or goods that they expect, they aren’t inclined to leave a review. However, if someone is let down or feels hard done by when dealing with a company, they will be proactive in seeking out ways to get their voice heard. You need to incentivize those people who are happy with your service. When you deliver items, place little discount cards in the packaging stating that your customers can receive twenty per cent off of their next order if they leave a review. Ensure that you have a range of platforms that accept reviews of your company such as Amazon, Trustpilot, Feefo and your social media channels.

Social media is the key platform that your potential customer base will flock towards when researching your company. If they spot a swathe of negative feedback, they won’t do business with your startup and will move onto another company providing the service or product they need. You need to hone those positive reviews. Any complaint (and you will receive them) needs to be dealt with promptly. Keep the customer informed and say sorry. Anything aired on social media is public so respond professionally and remain committed to resolving any issues.

You could have all of the funding that you need, a perfect supply chain and incredible cash flow, but if you don’t have the customer backing and reviews, your company will not survive. Provide an exceptional customer experience and your business will thrive.