The Customer Service Revolution with WhatsApp and CRM Integration
Customer service has always been crucial to the success of any business, but recently, service and connection have become even more fundamental. This is because Generation Z has grown, now between 13 and 27 years old, making them the target audience for many brands. With this, customer behavior has changed.
This change in behavior affects the buying journey and brings customer satisfaction and connection with the brand to the forefront. Learn how to keep your business up to date and how WhatsApp with CRM is an essential tool today.
What are the main challenges of customer service today?
Among the many challenges businesses face, two key issues stand out in customer service: haste and the need for connection.
Haste is closely related to the type of service that customers consider pleasant and good. Being served quickly is no longer a differentiator but almost an obligation for companies. People have always disliked waiting, but today, they don’t need to wait for service, and this is tied to technology and the growth of the online market.
People no longer need to wait in lines or leave their homes to purchase something—everything is available online. This convenience has made waiting even more undesirable and, now, unnecessary since everything can be done online without human assistance.
The other major challenge is the need for connection. Gaining customer loyalty and becoming a reference brand remains important, but the way this happens and how it is linked to customer connection with the brand has changed.
As an article published by Vogue in April this year states, “Gen Z broke the marketing funnel,” Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2010) has a different approach to the buying funnel. This group researches social media before buying and tends to buy from brands that generate a connection.
Connection with the brand has become a more decisive factor than price or expertise. The key is using WhatsApp as a tool for connection, making your brand feel like a friend and close ally.
How to create a connection with your target audience through WhatsApp
To create a connection, you need to “speak the customer’s language” and inspire them. People, especially Generation Z, tend to buy and stay loyal to brands that inspire and create a sense of belonging.
Technology and the ease of information have brought many benefits but also caused a distance between people. Market line conversations have been replaced by cell phone screens. As a result, people feel a greater need for belonging, which brands can and should use as a trigger to build connections—and as a result, sales.
In Brazil, WhatsApp is one of the most downloaded apps, on thousands of phones, and is viewed hundreds of times a day. WhatsApp is a communication app with numerous interaction features, such as stickers, sending photos and videos, polls, emojis, and real-time conversations.
All this ease of communication that WhatsApp offers can be used to create a connection between the brand and its current and potential customers. Strategies should be designed in conjunction with other tools. Therefore, using social media as a showcase to attract people who identify with the brand to WhatsApp is the recommended path.
On WhatsApp, customer service should be fast, and personalized, and maintain the brand’s tone of voice, respecting the company’s identity. WhatsApp can be used to answer questions, send news, personalized messages for congratulations, discount coupons, and information about the company’s participation in social actions, events, and awards.
What are the best practices for using WhatsApp as a sales tool?
All the points raised about customer service, connection, belonging, inspiration, and others have one common goal: to sell. After all, every company needs to sell to remain active and grow.
We have selected three practical tips on how to use WhatsApp for customer service and sales.
Tip 1: Automate customer service
As mentioned, fast service is crucial to customer experience, and automation can greatly assist with that. Automation enables instant service at any time, day or night.
Automation should not replace human service but rather assist by providing initial support and then handing it over to a real person. Automation aims to answer simple questions, provide preliminary service, and send automated messages for congratulations, abandoned cart reminders, promotions, etc.
With automation, you can offer quick, instant service and also maintain contact with the customer or lead, moving them through the buying funnel.
Tip 2: Personalized messages
To create a connection, messages must be personalized. Use tools, such as CRM with WhatsApp integration, that offer the option to personalize messages, for example, by including the lead/customer’s name in an automated message.
This combines automation with personalization. Automated service doesn’t need to be robotic, cold, or generic. Tools are becoming smarter, and this will only grow with the use of AI in chatbots and other tools.
Customers and leads need to feel remembered, valued, exclusive, and respected. All of this can be conveyed through personalized messages, whether automated or written by a person (in which case, having customer history is essential—something done automatically by CRM for WhatsApp).
Tip 3: CRM for WhatsApp
As discussed in this article, creating a connection with customers and leads has never been more important for sales.
Everything becomes easier with organization and automation, which is why using a CRM helps in creating message flows, maintaining the history of interactions with leads and customers, creating personalized and automated messages, measuring communication actions, and observing which ones were successful and which need adjustments.
Therefore, to revolutionize customer service, it’s essential to have a complete tool, such as KOMMO’s CRM for WhatsApp.
