How to create a WhatsApp Business chatbot easily

The way you build communication with your existing and potential customers is one of the factors that greatly influence client sentiment and loyalty. To stay interested in your offers, people should feel that they are valued. This is crucial at all the stages of interaction with your business from the first contact to the post-purchase updates. However, the efforts even of the best teams may be not enough to meet customer expectations. Here is when AI automation and chatbots should enter the game. Given the popularity of WhatsApp for B2C communication, you can consider the launch of a WhatsApp business bot.

This may seem to be a rather challenging task. Nevertheless, when you have relevant tools at hand, special tech skills won’t be required. And that's exactly what you can learn about in this article.

What is a WhatsApp Business chatbot?

A WhatsApp chatbot is an automated software that is designed to simulate human conversation via text. Such WhatsApp automation solutions can not only follow the set patterns but also keep the brand identity and tone in dialogue with users. They efficiently engage with clients and can allow businesses to significantly reduce the load on their customer support, marketing, and sales teams.

Advantages of using a bot on a WhatsApp Business account

One of the main reasons for companies to start implementing WhatsApp Business bots is the convenience that they provide. But let’s take a closer look at their benefits.

• 24/7 availability. With a chatbot, you can ensure the round-the-clock functioning of your business without hiring new team members. Your WhatsApp bot can help clients to make purchases, schedule calls, answer questions, and do many other things in real time even outside your business hours.

• Immediate responses. Customers won’t need to wait for human agents to process their inquiries. Replies will be sent practically instantly.

• Elimination of repetitive tasks. Monotonous repetitive tasks (such as answering FAQs) can be fully handled by a chatbot. Human agents will have more time to concentrate on more serious issues.

• Scalability. You won’t need to expand your team and bear higher labor costs. A chatbot can manage growing volumes of inquiries and help you drive sales without extra expenses.

• Cost reduction. Implementation of a chatbot and automation of your communication with customers will let you reduce operational expenses.

• Customer engagement. Well-thought-out conversation flows will help you ensure result-oriented communication with clients, higher engagement, and enhanced loyalty.

• Strong business identity. Chatbots on the WhatsApp Business app are highly customizable. You can create icons, quick replies, and greeting messages that will support your brand's uniqueness.

WhatsApp Business chatbot: key features

• Automated replies. You can enrich your bot with ready answers to the most common queries from customers.

• Conversation personalization. To make conversations more human-like, it’s better to personalize them. For that, your bot can rely on customer data like personal details, needs, previous orders, etc.

• Interactivity. You can diversify the chatbot flow with interactive elements, such as quick replies or buttons.

• CRM sync. To ensure better data management, you can integrate a bot with your CRM system.

• Reporting and analytics. With a chatbot, you can track customer interaction and sentiment. Modern bots can also automatically generate reports.

How to create a WhatsApp Business chatbot

If you are thinking about setting up a WhatsApp Business bot, you should get a clear plan on how to do it. To better understand the process of preparation, you can study a short step-by-step guide provided below.

1. Search for the right platform

Today you don’t need to hire a development team to build your bot. Instead, this can be done with one of the available chatbot platforms. Modern solutions have visual bot flow builders that allow you to set up conversations in just a few clicks. They differ in the features and pricing policies provided. That’s why businesses should consider several tools to select WhatsApp bot builders for their needs.

One of the most popular platforms of this kind is Chatfuel. It relies on its own AI model dubbed Fuely AI. It helps to enrich ChatGPT WhatsApp Business bots with real-life expertise in sales and marketing.

Chatbots created with Chatfuel can cover the whole online sale cycle from lead generation and qualification to re-engagement and post-sale communication. The exact functionality will depend on your specific business needs and goals.

These chatbots can provide replies to FAQs as well as send personal recommendations, abandoned cart reminders, information about special deals, and other proactive messages to the contacts from your customer base. The platform offers seamless integrations with CRM systems, Shopify, Google Sheets, and other external services.

Moreover, Chatfuel chatbots can help you collect information about your customers, analyze their preferences, and conduct A/B tests.

As for pricing, Chatfuel provides various models for businesses with different needs.

You can read more about other no-code chatbot builders here.

2. WhatsApp Business API integration

To integrate WhatsApp with a customer communication tool, you need to use a cloud-based solution known as WhatsApp Business API. For detailed information on how to work with this API, you can turn to official WhatsApp documentation.

But if you don’t want to dive deep into this topic on your own, you can choose a chatbot builder that has a built-in WhatsApp Business API option. For example, Chatfuel is an official Meta partner and supports the latest API version.

3. Chatbot creation

The exact process of chatbot creation may differ depending on the chosen platform. The main task for you will be to think about scenarios (or conversation flows) that will be applied in various situations. To begin with, you will need to presuppose what customer queries you can receive. And then you will need to add the best replies.

As Chatfuel has a row of ready-made templates that can be customized, the chatbot creation won’t take long.

4. Chatbot testing and launch

Never launch any new features without testing them. You should be sure that everything functions as it is supposed to. The same rule works in the context of your chatbot on WhatsApp. Stay attentive while testing as this tool will have a direct impact on customer experience.

WhatsApp Business chatbot use cases

Today, it is possible to detect the most popular spheres where chatbots are applied. Nevertheless, with the enhancement of the technology behind such solutions, the range of their use cases can significantly expand.

1. Customer support

With a chatbot, you can automate a lot of client care tasks. For example, bots can answer customer questions from the FAQ list, as well as send them greetings and special offers.

2. Lead generation

Chatbots can ask qualifying questions to understand users’ needs and segment leads into different categories. Moreover, a WhatsApp bot can nurture leads with the help of customized interactions.

3. e-Commerce

Bots can provide customers with detailed information about different products and services, as well as assist them with placing orders and getting delivery statuses. They can also send product recommendations, abandoned cart reminders, and promotional messages to your clients. Moreover, if you launch a chatbot with Chatfuel, your customers will be able to make payments directly via a bot. This will be possible thanks to the integration with Stripe.

4. Appointment scheduling

You can rely on a WhatsApp Business chatbot to automate the process of making appointments. A lot of professional service providers such as beauty salons, healthcare providers, and others have already leveraged this opportunity.

5. Feedback gathering

Chatbots can conduct automated customer surveys to collect their opinions.

Chatbot conversations on WhatsApp Business app: best practices

Clear and short messages

Your messages shouldn’t be confusing. Don’t try to provide as much information as possible just in one response. Everything should be absolutely coincide and relevant to the asked question.

Human touch

Conversations should be personalized and human-like. To achieve this, you should design interactions that mimic patterns of natural human conversations. Use informal language, variations in phrasing, as well as slang or idioms if they are appropriate. Avoid overly formal language unless it fits your brand voice.

Regular updates

It is important to enrich your chatbot with new data, tools, and features on a regular basis. This will ensure that your customers have only the most relevant information and that the delivered experiences can meet their expectations.

Monitoring

To ensure excellent functioning of your chatbot you need to continuously analyze its performance and collect customer feedback. For example, you can implement a feedback button and ask people about their experience at the end of every conversation.

Challenges and limitations of using a WhatsApp Business bot

You should stay aware of possible limitations and be ready to mitigate their consequences.

• Complex queries. Chatbots are good at working with standard inquiries. However, with more complicated issues, human intervention is required.

• Controversial user attitude. Today, there are still some groups of people who don’t fully trust automated interactions and prefer to communicate with human agents.

• Initial investment. In the long run, chatbots can ensure great cost reduction. Nevertheless, if you create a custom chatbot from scratch, you will need to allocate a budget for its development and deployment. Or if you choose a solution offered by a provider, you will need to make monthly payments based on the subscription model.

• Security and data privacy. It is vital to make sure that your chatbot is fully compliant with regulations and that sensitive data is well protected.

WhatsApp Business chatbots: Trends to watch out for

• Advancements in AI. The progress made in the artificial intelligence industry and natural language processing has a strong impact on the development of modern chatbots. In the future, chatbots will start to better understand the tone and context of conversations, detect emotions, and provide adaptive responses. All this will ensure a more personalized customer experience and increase satisfaction from such conversations.

• Voice functionality. With voice recognition technologies, a chatbot for business will be able to ensure hands-free experiences. Moreover, such functionality will make your services accessible to a wider audience, including users with disabilities.

• Integration with other emerging technologies. This can open absolutely new opportunities for businesses that rely on WhatsApp chatbots. For example, integration with IoT will make it possible to interact with a bot not only from computers or smartphones but also from other smart devices. The implementation of blockchain is also a promising idea. This can increase the security and transparency of conversations.

Summary

Automation of your interactions with customers using a ChatGPT WhatsApp Business bot sounds like a good idea. At least, it’s worth trying! And Chatfuel allows you to do it for free. Just sign up and enjoy the benefits of AI automation during a 7-day trial period.