Believe it or not, the messaging app WhatsApp has more than 1 billion users. That’s billion, with a B. Though it may not feel that way in the North America, which has only a 7% penetration rate versus mid sixties for Latin America and the Middle East, it is one of the most popular and fastest growing messaging platforms on the planet.
People use WhatsApp for nearly anything related to communication – messaging their friends and family, keeping up with their child’s progress in the nursery, and even complaining about price gouging. Presumably, then, people prefer to use WhatsApp compared with many of the other instant messaging platforms. WhatsApp is convenient, cross-platform, facilitates delivery of messages, images and videos seamlessly and quickly, is accessible from your computer and even lets you make calls. What’s not to like? But most importantly, their friends are on WhatsApp, so they are too.
As a business (and this is especially true for virtual e-commerce businesses), you want to make yourself accessible. In many countries in the world, more and more of people’s daily interactions take place via WhatsApp, including with businesses. And with OwnerListens, your business can be receiving customer messages in 49 seconds (from signup to confirmation).
Here are three awesome advantages to using WhatsApp as a major channel for customer engagement (if you still need convincing about the benefits of mobile messaging for your business, check this out first):
- International customers. If you live in the US, you may not have heard much about WhatsApp, but trust us (and the data) – it’s huge. By enabling customers to message you via WhatsApp, you can attract and support more customers, specifically internationals. All with the same easy to use OwnerListens email/SMS/dashboard interface.
- Short on time. There is usually an inverse correlation between a customer’s financial means and the amount of free time s/he has. One of the most important things you can do for high-powered customers is save them precious time by answering questions lightening fast, in the app they’re already using.
- World flattened. If you sell internationally and want to be more messaging friendly you might face the challenge of securing and maintaining a local number in each country to which you sell . That can become expensive and difficult to manage very quickly. With WhatsApp, messages sent from one device to another cost exactly the same regardless of location. They’re free.
What can mobile messaging in general, and WhatsApp specifically, do for YOUR business? Find out today.