In South Africa, WhatsApp is the channel of choice for communication; according to Statistia, 94% of local internet users are using the platform, representing somewhere between 28 and 29 million people. For organisations, it makes sense to have an official account on the platform where customers can reach them – an account that is integrated with the rest of their communications systems, and using identity and history of past engagements to deliver a personalised level of service.
Beyond appealing to the customer, organisations are risking customer service conversationstaking place on private channels that the organisation then has no visibility or control over. Consequently, it is becoming more crucial for organisations to consider setting up policies for how WhatsApp is used for business interactions.
To understand why this shift is essential, one must look at everyday user behaviours. For some time now, individual WhatsApp users can message each other via text, but then easily switch to an audio call that uses their data. While people have increasingly becomecomfortable with interacting with brands through instant messaging, they still want to be ableto speak to a human when more complex situations arise, or there is a need for urgency. Furthermore, voice calling might still be the preferred means of communication for some customers.
WhatsApp Business was initially text only, but has now introduced voice calling. Forcompanies, this service works similar to a toll-free number, where they pay for inbound calls
per minute, currently priced at around 10c per minute. Seamless conversations across text and voice Consumers now have the ability to remain within their channel of choice, regardless of the mode of communication. By keeping interactions on the platform, customers can chat with digital agents, or initiate a call with a human agent from within the same chat window, withthe call now making use of their data rather than airtime.
Beyond the convenience, the feature is gaining in popularity as a cost-effective alternative for users who are travelling abroad, and want to get support from businesses back home.With a data-based call, they don't have to worry about high call costs from waiting in a call queue, or having to deal with restrictions on international calls from some prepaid SIM packages.
The journey is seamless: a user could start an interaction with a digital agent, before asking to be escalated to a human agent. Similar to how a traditional call would work, they would be transferred to a human agent, or placed in a queue till one becomes available. Since the chat and call are all within the same window, service agents have access to history and context, meaning that the end users don't have to repeat themselves across channels. In addition, click‑to‑call buttons, call deep links and IVR/dial‑pad support allow journeys that start on the web or digital advertising to flow seamlessly into a WhatsApp voice call.
According to Mobile Ecosystem Forum, early testers of the features reported conversion increasing from 2% to 45% when adding calling to the communication flow.
Reimagining customer outreach
While inbound interactions provide value, WhatsApp Business also gives companies the ability to initiate outbound calls to customers who are on the platform. Unlike inbound calls, outbound voice calls must comply with strict rules from Meta that are aimed at protecting
users from being inundated with spam calls. This requires sending a pre-approved template message that requests permission from the user to call them. Once the user accepts, the organisation has 72-hours to make the call. nThe user can also change their mind to no longer accept calls, so there needs to be an active poll on what the state of their acceptance is before calls can be made.
Given the costs and these strict requirements, outbound calling is unlikely to be the preferred communications method for many businesses, but there are specific use cases where proactive outreach works, such as loan approvals and collections, or in the recovery of abandoned high-value journeys. Well-crafted, personalised messaging has the potential to increase contactability, since the user knows exactly why they are being called.
Similar to the inbound calling functionality, the company making the call covers the cost of the outbound call, also based on per minute billing, currently priced at 55c per minute.
Data consolidation, compliance, and the future.
Transitioning to this platform demands a considered approach to data consolidation and security. WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption on its platform, making it a good platform for a business to send out documents, such as invoices and tickets, as well as to receive documents from users. However, since this information is then added to a company’s own system of record, they need to ensure that any private information set by customers is handled in a manner that complies with relevant regulation, such as POPIA locally. By integrating WhatsApp Business into their broader communications ecosystem, organisations can then do more with the voice calls over the platform – being in the cloud gives them access to quality assurance, regulatory compliant call recording, transcription, sentiment analysis and more. The potential of this technology is continuously expanding.
Looking further into the future, WhatsApp is looking to enable escalation to video, and the ability to send customers voice notes. To harness these benefits, businesses first need to consider what they will do on the channel, and how it will integrate with the rest of their communications. Organisations can go directly with Meta, but it is complex and they need to have the technical capabilities to set up and manage this. While some large organisations might have well-resourced IT departments
who are capable of handling such requirements, this is not the case for more organisations.
Another pitfall is that people want a new system to work in a similar way to their legacy system, when the new technology provides a far more efficient way of doing things. To get this right, brands will need to work with a competent partner. Telviva serves as an expert partner, guiding organisations through journey mapping, integration and setup to ensure
these channels are optimised rather than simply implemented as a replica of old-fashioned
processes. Ultimately, there will be missed opportunities if businesses are not where their customers are. Improving the customer's experience will come down to being present where they are, so do not miss out and start working with an experienced integration partner today to secure your competitive advantage.
