We have been talking for many months about the intentions to reach companies that WhatsApp had, and just a few days ago WhatsApp Business , the sister application of WhatsApp with functions focused on business management, officially arrived on Google Play .
The deployment of WhatsApp Business in the different countries is being done in a staggered manner and just a few hours ago it arrived in Spain. We have taken the opportunity to test it first hand and find the differences with the standard version of WhatsApp. We will tell you below.
Same interface, different profile
Creating an account in WhatsApp Business is as simple as creating it in WhatsApp, that is, once we download the application we only have to verify our phone number although yes, once we start working with it it will depend on WhatsApp and your verification parameters whether or not you grant us a verified account badge .
Remember that WhatsApp does not allow us to keep two accounts on the same mobile phone ( although there are tricks to do so ) so if we register the same phone for WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business, we can only use one of the two applications with it.
Once registered we will enter the application, which as we can see in the sample screenshots, does not differ too much from the “normal” version . We have the same sections with stories, chats and settings, although this is where the substantial differences really come.
Automated responses
As we say, it is when entering the application settings where we come across the functions really focused on companies. We have an option literally called “Company Settings” from which we can access various options. The first one is the profile, in which we can edit all the information of interest to our clients.
Here we can add our physical address and even locate it on the map , add the activity of the company (it offers us options to select) as well as a short description written by us to better clarify to customers what is the objective of our business.
It also allows us to indicate what our business hours are and the contact channels that we have available for our clients, such as the email address or our website (we can also apply our profiles on social networks). These options generate a hyperlink that automatically takes customers to them once they click.
But in addition to the options to configure the profile, WhatsApp Business provides specific business tools, which, although they are quite basic for now, are very useful after all.
Welcome messages
The first of these options are welcome messages. With it we can create a standardized message that will be sent automatically when a client writes us for the first time , or when we have not had interaction with him for more than 14 days and he writes us. The character limit is 200 and we can add emojis.
Absent message
This second option also allows us to create automated messages of up to 200 characters that will be sent when we receive a message and we are not available (at the time that we ourselves select). It is important to note here that absent messages are only sent when the phone has an Internet connection , so we do not trust that our customers will always receive it.
Quickly answers
The last option is quick responses, similar to keyboard shortcuts. They are phrases that we previously recorded and then just by typing a word or a character they are filled in automatically so that we don’t have to add them over and over again. For example, we can add “/ thank you” to automatically answer “Thank you very much for your inquiry, it has been a pleasure to help you”.
Statistics
Finally we have the statistics that at the moment, are quite basic. It only shows us the number of messages sent, delivered, received and read (by us, of course). We hope that in the future it will show data on conversions or clicks to our website such as Facebook.
WhatsApp Business, you still have a way to go
As we have seen during the tests and as we have shown you with the captures, the application, although it has useful functions, is still very green (pun intended). When using it you have the feeling that you are on WhatsApp but with some additions and although the options to automate messages are very useful, some things such as statistics are still a bit scarce, but we do not doubt that WhatsApp will continue to add improvements in the form of new ones functions as it does with its original application.