How the unitex association group uses WhatsApp with Mateo.

For about half a year, unitex has been a satisfied Mateo customer - and has thus taken an important step towards modern member communication via WhatsApp.

WhatsApp as a communication medium has already been used by unitex since December 2020: Since then, the weekly newsletter to members has also been sent manually via a WhatsApp business account. This process is time-consuming, prone to errors and the time of sending cannot be planned in advance. Therefore, unitex decided to automate the process and chose Mateo as the provider.

Other advantages of WhatsApp sending via Mateo: WhatsApp sending is 100% DSGVO compliant. One can define customer groups and campaigns and tag the chats. Messages can be personalized, anyone on the team can chat with recipients from anywhere, and incoming requests can be assigned directly to the appropriate team member. And Mateo can be integrated with any existing system, such as CRM.

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About unitex GmbH

unitex is a modern service association for fashion retailers with a focus on digitalization and innovation. Over 800 members with more than 1,900 locations in Germany and Austria are affiliated with the association group. It works with over 500 supplier and service partners. This makes it the association group with the largest number of members and suppliers for the textile retail sector in Germany. unitex acts as an interface between fashion retailers, service partners and fashion suppliers. And also supports fashion retailers in their digitalization projects. For this reason, the association group is constantly on the lookout for partners to join them in driving forward digitization in the fashion retail sector.

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Why unitex has chosen WhatsApp

WhatsApp is the number 1 messenger channel in Germany. The medium has more than 60 million users. WhatsApp also reaches a broad age spectrum - unlike many other social networks. For the vast majority of end users, Messenger has been the standard way to communicate with friends and family for years. unitex was looking for ways to make communication with its members more modern and easier. WhatsApp was the only logical choice, which has had a wow effect on many members and has been very well received. Today, the communication medium WhatsApp is integrated into the entire B2B corporate communication of unitex.

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“Mit WhatsApp haben wir den richtigen Kanal gefunden, um unsere Mitgliederkommunikation als Verbundgruppe auf ein neues Level zu heben. Mit Mateo haben wir für die Umsetzung außerdem einen starken Partner zur Hand, um das Medium DSGVO-konform und professionell in unsere Geschäftsabläufe und bestehende Systeme zu integrieren!”

Xaver Albrecht, Managing Director of Unitex

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How unitex uses WhatsApp with Mateo

In a business-to-business (B2B) environment as an association group, the possible uses of WhatsApp in corporate communications are many. unitex uses WhatsApp in conjunction with Mateo in many places to optimize communication with members and service.

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Member newsletter via WhatsApp

A central component of the tasks of unitex is information of the members about business-relevant news. It is particularly important to reach members quickly and reliably. With over 60 million daily active users and an average open rate of 98%, reachability on WhatsApp is extremely high. WhatsApp messages are read by 75% of recipients on the very first day. This makes WhatsApp the ideal channel for unitex to send information in the form of a newsletter to its members' decision-makers.

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Service communication via WhatsApp

unitex also relies on WhatsApp for service communication. This makes it even easier for customers to reach the member service than via e-mail, for example. The personal character of the WhatsApp messenger also creates a pleasant atmosphere in communication. QR codes or buttons can be used to make it easier for members to start a WhatsApp conversation. The QR codes can be placed on promotional materials or on the homepage, for example.

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Graphic 75% of consumers would like to chat with companies.

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Mateo and WhatsApp at the unitex FashionFestival

Also at this year's unitex-FashionFestival WhatsApp was a central part of the communication strategy with the help of Mateo. Among other things, the messenger was used to send time-critical visitor information in the form of a trade fair ticker. Thanks to the intelligent scheduling function for WhatsApp messages in Mateo, all trade fair newsletters could be created and scheduled in advance. The sending of the messages was 100% automated in the background. This ensured that the event messages reached the visitors at the right time. Since most WhatsApp users have push messages activated, the info is read promptly: Ideal for live information.

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Graphic Mateo at the Unitex Fashion Festival 2023.

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Easy registration at the event

Mit dem aus Mateo generierten WhatsApp-QR-Code konnten sich die Besucher des unitex-Fashion Festivals direkt am Messeeingang und an den Infopoints für den WhatsApp-Newsletter anmelden. Das Double-Opt-In-Verfahren direkt im Chat garantiert zudem für eine 100% datenschutzkonforme Anmeldung.

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"Mateo and WhatsApp were a real asset to Fashion Festival 2023. By sending targeted messages, we were able to flawlessly draw the attention of trade show attendees to specific events."

Xaver Albrecht, Managing Director Unitex

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The collaboration between unitex and Mateo

Während des gesamten Prozesses der Einführung von WhatsApp in die Unternehmenskommunikation haben unsere Mateo Chat-Experten die unitex unterstützt. Zum einen bei der technischen Implementierung, zum anderen in Form von strategischer Beratung, wie der Messenger WhatsApp am besten in das Kommunikationskonzept der Verbundgruppe integriert werden kann. So entstanden gemeinsam viele neue Ideen, spannende Ansätze und eine rundum moderne Kommunikationsstrategie. Wir von Mateo möchten uns an dieser Stelle beim gesamten unitex-Team für die positive Zusammenarbeit bedanken!

WhatsApp newsletter as a composite group: unitex x Mateo