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Christian Strauch
Managing Director & Co-Founder
Managing Director & Co-Founder
With Mateo, you provide your customers with an outstanding customer experience and gain loyal fans.
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What was once thought of as a simple messaging tool to communicate with friends and family has now evolved into an extremely powerful platform for businesses. Since the launch of WhatsApp Business in 2018, the platform has been continuously developed and today it is hard to imagine the modern business environment without it. More and more companies have realized that WhatsApp is the optimal platform for customer communication.
In this article, we'll dive into the variety of different versions of WhatsApp and describe how you can transform your current WhatsApp version into a business account. From the private WhatsApp app to the WhatsApp business app to the transformation into a business account with the WhatsApp API - with this guide you can tap the full potential of WhatsApp for your business.
The differences of Whatsapp, Whatsapp Business and Whatsapp API
What is WhatsApp Business?
WhatsApp Business is a free app available for Android and Apple smartphones, designed specifically for small businesses. WhatsApp Business simplifies interaction with customers by providing tools to automate, sort, and quickly reply to messages. The user interface and many features are similar to those of the WhatsApp Messenger app for individuals, making WhatsApp Business very easy to use for most businesses.
Compared to the app for individuals, a WhatsApp corporate account offers the following additional features:
- Company profile to list important information, such as a company's address, email, and website.
- Messaging tools to quickly respond to customer inquiries, such as text modules and automated responses
- Categorize customers and chats (e.g. new customer, prospect, service request, etc.) for better clarity
- Automated responses to customers (e.g. outside business hours)
- Creation of product catalogs
WhatsApp Business can be downloaded free of charge from the Google Play Store and the App Store.
What is WhatsApp Business API?
To provide larger businesses with a secure, scalable, and GDPR-compliant solution tailored to their needs, Facebook launched the WhatsApp Business API in August 2018. This application programming interface (API) enables businesses to receive and reply to WhatsApp messages from their customers.
Unlike the WhatsApp Business App, the API itself comes without a user interface. The API connects WhatsApp with a professional messaging tool, such as Mateo offers. Companies integrate the WhatsApp API endpoint into the software of an official WhatsApp Business Solution provider. Mateo offers enterprise customers the corresponding integration in a clear user interface with its in-house software.
The most important features of the WhatsApp Business API
In order to keep WhatsApp free of excessive advertising and spam, there are some restrictions that companies must follow when contacting users.
Marketing via WhatsApp Business
Companies are only allowed to send advertising messages, spam and marketing messages as so-called "Promotional Messages". These are individually customizable message templates that must be approved in advance by WhatsApp. Customers can, for example, receive product suggestions based on their last order. Cold call messages and certain words or phrases that make the message sound too promotional are not allowed. Important customer information such as order confirmations can, of course, be sent at any time.
Consent (Opt-in)
Messages can only be sent to users if they are a reply to a message from the user or if the person actively opts in to receive WhatsApp messages (e.g. by entering a phone number and checking a box).
Service window for answers
If a user sends an inquiry to the company via WhatsApp, the answer must be provided within 24 hours ("customer care window"). This means that customer inquiries are answered promptly, which improves the user experience of WhatsApp users and prevents the company from contacting them (without opting in).
Within the service window, communication with WhatsApp Business works just like with the application for individuals. Messages can be sent with text, web links and emojis, and of course images, videos and attachments like PDF files can be shared in the chat.
Automation in the form of chatbots is allowed within the service window. However, the option to forward the user to a customer service representative must be available.
When the service window is closed, a special message template must be sent to ask the user to contact you.
Message templates
Message templates (called "template messages" by WhatsApp) can make customer communications very efficient for the business. WhatsApp business customers can use pre-written messages to send order confirmations, payment requests, and shipping information in seconds.
Technically, a message template is a text string that uses placeholders (for e.g. order numbers, dates and prices) to provide personalized information. In addition to the selection of frequently used templates provided by WhatsApp Business by default, custom message templates can also be created to cover all service situations for the individual use case. These must be approved before they can be used by WhatsApp. The approval process takes up to 24 hours. WhatsApp reviews message templates to prevent companies from sending unwanted content such as advertising messages to consumers.
Message templates make customer communication via WhatsApp Business highly efficient (Source: Google Play Store).
Combined with a clear user interface like Mateo offers, these tools unleash their full potential and make WhatsApp Business API customer communications highly efficient.
Tabular overview of the differences between the various WhatsApp versions
To keep track of these three variants of WhatsApp, all the important information is summarized in the following table.
By the way: With Mateo you can even connect WhatsApp with over 6,000 other software programs (e.g. Shopify, Salesforce or Hubspot) connect and send automated messages.
How to: Convert WhatsApp to WhatsApp Business
The conversion from WhatsApp to WhatsApp Business is done quickly. Just follow these instructions from WhatsApp parent company Meta (source: Meta):
Attention: Provided that you want to keep your previous chat history, you should definitely make a backup of your previous WhatsApp version before converting. Here you can find the instructions for Android devices and for iPhones.
- Update WhatsApp Messenger and download the WhatsApp Business app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
- Open the WhatsApp Business app.
- Read the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service. Tap AGREE AND CONTINUE to accept the terms.
- The WhatsApp Business app automatically detects the number you use in WhatsApp Messenger. Tap the option with your company's phone number to continue.
If the number displayed is not the one you want to use, tap USE ANOTHER NUMBER and proceed to the Verification as usual.
- For Andriod devices only: Tap NEXT > ALLOW to give the WhatsApp business app access to your chat history and media.
- WhatsApp will send you an SMS with a six-digit code. Enter the six-digit code to verify your number.
- Create your company profile and tap NEXT.
You can edit your Edit your company profileonce your WhatsApp Business account is active.
How to: Convert WhatsApp Business to WhatsApp Business API
WhatsApp only allows very few large corporations direct access to its API. For most companies, the path to the WhatsApp Business API leads via so-called Business Solution Providers. These are official partners of WhatsApp owner Facebook that support companies in accessing the API. Accordingly, the setup of the API depends on the API provider.
The professional messaging tool from Mateo not only offers the integration of WhatsApp Business via the API, but also a clear user interface and the connection of many other communication channels such as email, Instagram, SMS and Facebook Messenger. Mateo offers a fully comprehensive service with professional account managers when setting up the software including the WhatsApp Business API.
An inventory analysis is used to identify how the software can best be integrated. Following this, if not already in place, Mateo applies for company phone numbers and sets up the system. Now the communication channels are united in the user interface provided by Mateo and can be used directly. A dedicated contact person is always available to answer questions and provide additional tips for highly efficient customer communication. All details are discussed in a free consultation appointment.
Revolutionize your customer communication with Mateo!
At Mateo, we are your messaging experts when it comes to customer communication. Hundreds of companies already use Mateo and are enthusiastic about it. Our customers particularly appreciate the following advantages of Mateo:
Central user interface
In addition to WhatsApp Business API, Mateo bundles many other communication channels such as email, Instagram, Google Business Chat, 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. For your customers, a web widget with the message channels you support is available for particularly easy contact.
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.
WhatsApp & SMS Marketing 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 done much better than via email or other channels. With Mateo, you can also send your marketing newsletters automatically via SMS.
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.
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).
Scalability for all company sizes
The scalability of the messaging tool has been confirmed by the large number of companies already using Mateo with great 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.
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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