Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Using WhatsApp To Market Your Hotel ?

WhatsApp rules in South Africa, Malaysia, Argentina, Singapore, Hong Kong, Spain, India, Mexico, UAE, Italy, Netherlands and Germany as per a report by Statista. As a hotelier, if you have guests coming in from any of these regions, then WhatsApp is the best marketing tool to reach out to them conveniently. Big hotels like Sheraton Frankfurt Airport Hotel is one of the best example of using WhatsApp for marketing their hotel business.


How WhatsApp helps in marketing of hotel business?

1. Hotels can display their WhatsApp mobile number and logo on their website so visitors can know that you are available on WhatsApp for business. Share WhatsApp numbers on Facebook and other social media platforms recurringly for broader reach.

2. Share last minute offers to your list of customer telephone numbers, on the days when occupancy is low and the offer you are giving away.

3. Communicate directly with guests for hotel booking, sharing hotel photographs, pricing information, billing inquiries, other travel information and help them take quick decisions.

4. Use group chat for repeat customers who visit often by adding them to a special group and send them the offers, events designed exclusively for them, rewarding guest loyalty.

5. Respond quickly with a turn around time of 5 minutes. Training staff to handle inquiries on WhatsApp is crucial.

6. Cross-selling when the guest is on the stay, such as sightseeing, outdoor activities, etc.

7. Small hotels and restaurant owners can accept food orders from the local market.

Another best example is of Hotel Barcelo Illetas Albratros in Spain, that offers guest a free mobile number with a welcome card to allow them to communicate with the hotel 24 hours free of cost. However, there are certain limitations to WhatsApp. Everything isn’t possible under one roof.

Why you should also use Bag A Chat app with WhatsApp for hotel business?

1. Hotels can organize chat messages from particular guest under labels such as guest name, country, city, season, company, etc.

2. You can also selectively save chat messages those are important

3. Do a quick search of chat messages using multiple filters such as guest name, date, labels

4. Backup guest chat messages on cloud like Google Drive or DropBox or on mobile phone

5. Create labels and group chat messages logically for quick reference

6. Create analytical reports based on guest chat messages to get insights 

7. Set alerts or reminders to chat messages such as informing the guest about a site visit time, pick up or drop time, following up with regular guests for Christmas holiday season.

Hotels using WhatsApp for business can get a customized Bag A Chat app exclusively designed to suit their business operations including integration with their own hotel management systems (HMS). To know more, write to us at info@bagachat.com. 


Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Using WhatsApp for Business: Brazil Leads, SA, India, Ireland, Spain, Malaysia Next Best

WhatsApp was founded in the year 2009 and in just six years it has succeeded in acquiring 1 billion users worldwide. No other instant messenger has been able to achieve this phenomenal growth in such a short period of time. Moreover, about 1 million new users register everyday so you can assume the potential reach it will have in the coming few years.South Africa is the top country using WhatsApp with highest % of online adults in this market.


When it comes to business, Brazil leads the way. With 56% WhatsApp penetration among mobile internet users, Brazil still has 60% of mobile users who use pre-paid plans as per a report by Statista. WhatsApp is the single most used app in Brazil with over 95 million users and 93% of country’s population. The core reason being the cost-effectiveness and no obligatory monthly mobile bill contracts for those who cannot afford to spend on those expensive plans, especially the youth and the poor.

Large multi-national corporations and small businesses too have already started use of WhatsApp for business in Brazil. Telefonica, one the of largest telephone companies in Brazil uses WhatsApp for customer service. Real estate firms sell properties to middle class population using WhatsApp. Right from online shopping to flight booking, everything that people need has a source to get it done through WhatsApp.

Brazil is one of the best example of a country using WhatsApp for business. WhatsApp in Brazil is not just limited to customer service, Mitsubishi Motors used WhatsApp in 2014 for pre-sales tasks such as providing car color, models and other details to potential customers and if the customer liked it, they were then directed to a local dealer for the test drive or purchase.

Around 1 in every 5 companies in Brazil use WhatsApp for advertising and marketing. Itau Bank is one of the largest bank in Brazil that uses WhatsApp for communication with their customers. Many hotels and resorts accept bookings and orders using WhatsApp. There are many other functions that are carried out routinely on WhatsApp in Brazil.

Speaking about other countries, US is bit slow to adapt to WhatsApp as of now. Germany, UK, Italy, Ireland, Argentina, Spain, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia are showing signs of quick adaptation. 83% of teens in Germany use WhatsApp, India has more than 70 million users and Italy, Argentina has more than 83% of mobile users using WhatsApp. UAE too has 77% social media users that use WhatsApp for communication.

To sum it up all, using WhatsApp for business seems to offer numerous opportunities to businesses all over the world. A business can absolutely not afford to neglect using WhatsApp for advertising, marketing, sales, project management or customer service. Bag A Chat provides a seamless way of using WhatsApp for business with an integration of customized application that suits every business need. Find out more here how you can use Bag A Chat app with WhatsApp for business.

Tuesday, 9 February 2016

Using WhatsApp for Business: 6 Core Functions You Can Manage Effectively

WhatsApp, the world’s fastest-growing communication platform surpassed 1 billion users recently. Over 42 billion messages are sent every day while 1.6 billion pictures & 250 million videos are shared daily. These stats are clearly tempting for every business owner to use WhatsApp.



Here are 6 core functions that companies are managing effectively using WhatsApp for business

1. Using WhatsApp for Marketing & Advertising


The best example of creative use of WhatsApp is of Colgate, where they invited people to send their selfies of smile using WhatsApp to a number printed on the toothpaste pack.

2. Using WhatsApp for Customer Support


According to techinbrazil.com, one in every five companies in Brazil uses WhatsApp for customer service and communication with customers. See here the examples..

3. Using WhatsApp to Conduct Research


WhatsApp serves as the best tool to do qualitative research. Encouraging participants to use emoticons is one of the great way to know their opinion. There are around 58 yellow face emoticons in WhatsApp portraying different emotions.


4. WhatsApp for Sales Communication


The data shows that a sales follow up done on WhatsApp gets 40% more response than a direct call. People dislike receiving calls from unknown numbers. Chat proves to be better option.

5. Using WhatsApp for Team Communication


The best example is the Chennai corporation, using WhatsApp for staff reporting and timely attendance. They have formed a WhatsApp group to exclusively monitor UPHCs, garbage cleaning and road work.

6. WhatsApp for Recruitment


Our Pune-based company Bag A Chat app invited applications for the position of app development by sharing the job requirement on a WhatsApp group of software developers. The response was quick and sharing of resumes and references was easy.

Integrating customized Bag A Chat app can skyrocket your business when using WhatsApp for Business.

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Bag A Chat App: A Scalable Tool for Customer Support Via WhatsApp & Hike


Businesses are now switching to providing customer service using IMs such as WhatsApp and Hike. Users too these days value a relationship that is interactive, responsible and spontaneous. Customer service using WhatsApp or Hike has thus become the most preferred choice for any new or old business.

With 1 billion  users, WhatsApp has opened up a new channel of communication for businesses. From voice calling to sending images, videos and other media files to most of the mobile devices such as Android, iOS, Windows and Blackberry.

Organizing Chat Messages - The Biggest Business Challenge

Many businesses were initially reluctant to use instant messengers for customer service due to their inability to organize chat messages efficiently. However, a business cannot ignore the fact that WhatsApp allows speedy interaction required to solve queries and answer customer questions instantly.

While WhatsApp and Hike allows you to save, backup, email and favorite chat messages, businesses always looked for a way to organize chat messages using labels, filters and quick search. Analysing chat messages from team and customers and creating reports was always a dream of a team leader or manager.

Bag A Chat app overcomes this challenge by allowing you to organize chat messages by way of creating labels. You can name the labels as per your choice and save chat messages under them logically.

For example: If you want to group all the chat messages related to new orders. You can create a label named as New Orders and save chat messages under this label. So, later on, you can simply go to this folder and review all the new order enquiries without getting lost in all the chat messages together.

You can also forward/assign messages to team members along with all details of messages like the timestamp and sender of the message. So a complete track of information is available to team easily.

Other benefits that you can leverage are creating analytical reports based on WhatsApp chat messages, set reminders or alerts to chat messages and selectively save or cloud backup your customer service chat messages. With a easy to use interface and brilliant features of Bag A Chat app, the entire customer support team can provide long lasting and improved customer support to thousands of customers in real time.

Bag A Chat app can also be customized and integrated with your business CRMs and customer support helpdesk systems like freshdesk, zendesk for better management. See more details here - Bag A Chat app for Customer Service Using WhatsApp and Hike.