Advantages of WhatsApp for companies in the bicycle industry

Digital messengers are revolutionizing the way bicycle retailers and repair shops communicate with their customers. Find out why it's time to ditch analog communication methods and switch to digital channels, and what benefits messengers like WhatsApp with the WhatsApp Newsletter offer your business in this article.

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The positive customer experience comes first

The bicycle industry in particular is keen to offer an all-round positive customer experience. After all, buying a bike is a big investment for the end customer and you want to be well advised. For most customers, a large number of possible models come into question when buying a bicycle, so you need excellent advice for the purchase decision. For many customers, this is the most important criterion when choosing a bicycle dealer. By the way, good customer advice is not only reflected in your sales, but also in the online ratings of your company on Google and Co., which in turn are highly relevant for the acquisition of new customers.

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Optimization of customer communication

In order to be able to offer customers excellent advice, both on-site and digitally, and thus make the customer experience as positive as possible, bike shops and workshops need to optimize customer communication.

Bike stores, workshops and bike rental companies have long since discovered WhatsApp as an important communication channel for prospective and existing customers. After all, they want to reduce the hurdle of making contact and often communication via Messenger is the easy way, saving both sides a lot of time. However, using private WhatsApp accounts and the WhatsApp business app are not the ideal solution for companies. After all, these channels create communication silos and there is no transparency for additional employees as to what communication has taken place. Furthermore, WhatsApp Business can only be used on a mobile device and as soon as the battery is empty or the responsible employee is on vacation, customer inquiries are quickly lost. Companies that use the private version of WhatsApp or the WhatsApp Business app also violate the GDPR in the vast majority of cases and must therefore expect warnings, legal disputes and severe penalties. In addition, WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business cannot be used to send marketing newsletters.

Companies from the bicycle industry are often faced with the problem of having to process customer inquiries quickly and effectively in order to maintain customer satisfaction at a high level and at the same time to integrate the limited personnel resources into the daily business as effectively as possible. Most of the time, customer communication is still extremely time-consuming and ineffective via email and phone. Messenger apps like WhatsApp offer the ideal solution to solve this problem. In addition, you should give your customers the choice of which platform they want to use to communicate with you. With Mateo, different comms channels like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Google Business Chat, SMS and emails are bundled into one central inbox and can also be answered centrally. We call the whole thing "Multichannel Inbox".

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WhatsApp API as a solution to the problems of bicycle dealers and repair shops

With WhatsApp, customers can contact you quickly and easily and make inquiries without having to put up with long waiting times on the phone or in the store. The advantage for your business: With the right WhatsApp API provider like Mateo, WhatsApp messages can be answered quickly with automatic replies and message templates, and a WhatsApp account can be used with diverse devices and users. The integrated contact management of modern messaging software lets you always keep track of your customers. This already seems to solve some problems in busy bike stores and bicycle repair stores. But in fact, WhatsApp is not only suitable for handling customer inquiries faster and saving human resources - with WhatsApp, bike stores, workshops, bike rentals and other businesses in the industry can directly increase their sales! We will show you all the advantages WhatsApp can offer in combination with a professional messaging tool like Mateo.

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Videos, photos, files, voice memos, etc... - Share everything that matters with your customers

You surely know it from private WhatsApp use: Even with a WhatsApp company account, all kinds of files can be sent. Be it dozens of photos of bicycles, the latest invoice or even a video with which customers can easily explain a complex technical problem to you. WhatsApp allows you and your customers to share any important files with each other. Without the typical email error messages of too large attachments.

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Automated dispatch of important customer information

With the WhatsApp API, automated sending of messages such as invoices, collection confirmations, appointments and other important customer information is possible. All functions are available for efficient and personal communication.

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Increasing sales with WhatsApp newsletters: Effective marketing to existing customers and increasing customer loyalty

This is probably, and especially in terms of your sales, one of the most important arguments for WhatsApp in the bicycle industry: The WhatsApp Newsletter

With WhatsApp newsletter marketing, you can use this particularly personal messaging channel in conjunction with consumers' emotional buying behavior for upselling and cross-selling strategies. With the help of the WhatsApp newsletter, our customers not only increase the average shopping cart size, customer lifetime value and sales, but also customer loyalty.

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Let's start with a little digression about WhatsApp newsletters:

WhatsApp can also be used to send newsletters in a similar way to e-mails. But as statistics show, e-mails are too distant and impersonal to function effectively as a marketing channel intended to influence consumers' primarily emotional buying behavior. Another advantage is that WhatsApp newsletters are guaranteed to reach recipients and are not sorted into the spam folder by the mail provider like many email newsletters. Your newsletter will get the attention it deserves between personal messages from friends and family members.

Traditional marketing channels like email are increasingly saturated. Many consumers receive dozens of email newsletters every week and delete most of them unread. In technical jargon, this phenomenon is called channel fatigue. As a marketer, there are only two options left in such a case: Either emails can be further optimized in the hope that open rates will increase by 1 or 2%. Or it can be switched to a channel such as WhatsApp, where there is no competition yet. That the latter option is likely to be associated with greater success is suggested by statistics on newsletter open rates. While e-mail newsletters are only opened in 22% of cases for the reasons mentioned, the figure for WhatsApp is a full 98% (source: Gartner).

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The excellent open rate, combined with customer proximity on WhatsApp and the resulting significantly higher conversion rate, leads to significantly increased sales revenues. Various experience reports show that switching from email to WhatsApp newsletters can contribute significantly to a company's success. How exactly your company can also set up and use WhatsApp newsletters, we have described in our article"How to WhatsApp Newsletter". By the way: Mateo provides you with reliable evaluations and statistics on the behavior of newsletter recipients, which can be used to evaluate the success of your WhatsApp campaign.

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Now back to the ways you can benefit from WhatsApp newsletters

Especially in the bicycle industry, there are almost unlimited opportunities to upsell and cross-sell with occasional newsletters to your existing customers. For example, you can remind your customers about an upcoming service, changing the hydraulic fluid or checking tire pressure and correct seat position, ideally directly with a few appointment suggestions.

Send out regular updates on your inventory of new or used bikes to customers you know have a specific interest in buying. Or, as winter sets in, draw your customers' attention to your wide selection of warming bike apparel, lights and reflectors - perhaps even with a 10% discount code. You can also offer appropriate accessories (saddlebag, helmet, lock, bell, mudguard, cup holder, etc.) via WhatsApp to customers who have recently bought a bike from you.

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WhatsApp newsletters can be used in a variety of ways. Thanks to our integrations with CRM systems, you can, for example, automatically write to all customers via WhatsApp who purchased an e-bike from you 12 months ago and offer additional services.

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Not every newsletter necessarily has to tap direct sales potential: you can also send helpful tips on topics such as tire repairs, ergonomic seating positions, and beautiful nearby bike routes, and use these added values that you offer to build a close and personal relationship with your customers. Increased customer loyalty ultimately increases customer lifetime value and thus your sales in the long term.

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What customer is not happy about birthday wishes? Be creative and offer your customers added value. In this way, you will ensure long-term customer loyalty thanks to the WhatsApp newsletter.

With a little creativity, you can find countless ways to use WhatsApp newsletters to generate additional revenue and retain existing customers with useful reminders and discount promotions.

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How companies from the bicycle industry benefit from Mateo

Mateo has many customers in the bicycle industry, all of whom benefit from its multiple features. For example, our customer "HAVEABIKE" has managed to reduce the number of unproductive phone calls by 37% with Mateo. The bike retailer's communication primarily runs through the web widget, which allows HAVEABIKE's customers to choose their preferred communication channel. The monthly number of new positive Google reviews has also doubled. The increased customer satisfaction and better visibility on Google let HAVEABIKE benefit from increased sales.

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Mateo customer quote from HAVEABIKE — Several local retailers, such as Munich-based bike shop HAVEABIKE, are already benefiting from Mateo

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"As a dynamic company, we want to enable our customers to exchange information via new media. We can do that wonderfully with Mateo."
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Alexander End - HAVEABIKE

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The main advantages of Mateo for bike stores summarized

Increased customer satisfaction through better and faster digital advice
Save working time & personnel resources through the central inbox with message templates and automations; fewer telephone calls
Increase attractiveness for new customers through more positive Google reviews‍
GDPR compliant communication
Facilitate contact for prospective buyers with the web widget and the choice of different communication channels
Increase sales and profits through high-margin upselling and cross-selling activities with the WhatsApp newsletter to existing customers
Retain existing customers with important customer information and tips on bicycles via WhatsApp newsletters and increase customer lifetime value

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Efficient communication with customers via Mateo's WhatsApp API

At Mateo, we are your messaging experts when it comes to customer communication. Dozens of bicycle stores and garages already use Mateo and are enthusiastic about it. Our customers particularly appreciate the following advantages of Mateo:

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Central user interface

In addition to WhatsApp Business API, Mateo bundles many other communication channelssuch as email, Instagram, SMS or Facebook Messenger in a central inbox. On the intuitive and clear user interface, you will find various helpful tools for particularly efficient customer communication. A web widget with the messaging channels you support is available for your customers for particularly easy contact.

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Custom Message Templates

Thanks to various message templates that can be created individually, the amount of paperwork is minimized and the efficiency of customer communication is increased. This means that personnel resources in the service area can be deployed elsewhere.

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WhatsApp Newsletter

With Mateo's WhatsApp API solution, newsletters can be sent in a GDPR-compliant manner. Due to the first-class open rate of 98% for WhatsApp messages, marketing can thus be carried out significantly better than via email or other channels.

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More positive Google reviews

With Mateo, you create an outstanding customer experience. Mateo can automatically request online reviews from your customers. The more reviews you have, the better you will be found on Google, for example. Reviews also create trust in your company.

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Privacy

Mateo's messaging tool is compatible with all German and European legally binding data protection requirements. If the law changes, the software will be revised accordingly. For absolutely secure customer communication, all messages are encrypted end-to-end. You can read all the info about the GDPR when using WhatsApp in our article"WhatsApp Business and GDPR". This will help you avoid the warnings, severe penalties and expensive legal costs that often occur in the event of non-compliance with the GDPR (= use of the standard WhatsApp Business app).

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Scalability for all company sizes

The scalability of the messaging tool has been confirmed by the large number of companies already using Mateo with a high level of satisfaction. Whether customers have just a few employees or many hundreds, the software works smoothly and, depending on the package, with an unlimited number of end devices, users and phone numbers. The fact that Mateo significantly reduces the workload in the customer service area opens up new growth opportunities for many companies.

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Low cost provider for WhatsApp Business API

With an entry-level price of just 79 euros per month, Mateo is a cost-effective provider for WhatsApp Business API solutions on the German market. Combined with the integration of additional communication channels and various helpful tools, Mateo offers excellent value for money. Mateo's personal customer support assists companies with every step of the integration, ensuring very low barriers to entry.

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How bike shops and bike repair shops benefit from WhatsApp [August 2023].