Tuesday 24 May 2016

Why Customer Service on WhatsApp is win-win for customers and companies?



Today, a business needs to be available on all communication channels with customers. Some customers like to use the sleek app, some are comfortable with the email & SMS and a few prefer calling. But a lot of customers are now finding it convenient to send their orders/requests on Whatsapp.
Let’s see why other channels are losing ground to WhatsApp?
Email – Once a very popular medium, email has been heavily abused now by spammers. Even fake customer queries are very common using Email, as real identity can be hidden. It’s also inconvenient to use on smartphone, which is a de-facto device for most customers today.
SMS & phone call– There is a cost to message or call. Also, you can’t send media files like photo of your shopping list. A call can be missed by company, if there is inadequate number of phones and operators are busy. Service on phone call, is restricted by working hours of company.
App – The cost of building and marketing a new app is huge and returns on investment take a long time! With more than 20 million apps available online, people have lost the craze of downloading new apps. By default, there are already 40-50 popular apps everyone has on their phone. So, new app download means slowing down the phone & learning another app UI. Also, if you are an emerging business, then people doubt if your app accesses personal data from the phone.

Why customers love WhatsApp?


  1. This amazingly simple app is free to use locally as well as internationally for the customers. Send as many messages to company at no cost!
  2.  It allows you to share your request as text as well as media files (e.g. photos of broken device to be repaired, medical report of blood test etc.).
  3.  I does not breach privacy. Companies can connect with customers only when customers start the communication.
  4. Customers can request round the clock. No need for the company representative to be present to take down the request.

Why businesses getting attracted to WhatsApp?

  • Customer service for all customers can be done virtually using one phone – with Whatsapp installed on it.
  • No investment on multiple phones and call centers, just to avoid a missed call or busy tone. Customer representatives can focus on working on requests instead of getting busy with phone.
  • A customer is authenticated naturally as Whatsapp is attached to a genuine phone number. Helps a lot to avoid fake requests/orders especially for COD mode of payment.  No need to spend on OTP authentication service.
  • Request details are very clear thanks to media files supported on WhatsApp.
  • Your company number is in the customer’s contact list!



To ensure the Customer service requests received on WhatsApp, Bag A Chat provides a helpdesk solution, which manages the messages just like any other helpdesk system on email/ SMS. And, if you already have your app or website, this solution helps connecting WhatsApp with your service dashboard. So now your existing system is also connected to WhatsApp to serve customers better! For more details, visit http://bagachat.com/customer_helpdesk.html or drop a mail to info@bagachat.com for a demo request.

Wednesday 18 May 2016

Still doing customer support, the old way using call, email or SMS? Shift to messengers like WhatsApp

Customer service is key function in every business. However, a conventional customer service comes at a significant cost. A typical customer helpdesk has one or many phones to attend the call. With every phone, there is a cost of attending it. You don’t want your customer to get an engage tone or a missed call. And still, many companies end up doing a restricted hours support (e.g. Monday-Friday 10am-6pm), based on the team’s availability. If you are looking for round the clock support, then the customer service cost multiplies.
This cost becomes a challenge for small and medium sector businesses like food ordering, real estate, consultants, hotels, e-commerce, startups, hospitals, service stations, customer care centers and many more.
Why WhatsApp?
Automated customer service using Email and SMS were good alternatives till recently, to reduce cost. However, thanks to advent of messengers like WhatsApp, telegram etc. customers are shying away from emails and SMS. WhatsApp which is a free messenger - has over 1 billon active users as of today.   An average user checks WhatsApp more than 23 times in a day. It supports text as well as media like images etc. and very quick and convenient to use. You can handle all your customers virtually on a single phone device using WhatsApp. No question of engaged or missed call!
With this, WhatsApp is too tempting to use with customers, right? However, it has some limitations that still discourage companies to use WhatsApp with customers:
  • It does not save history beyond a few days
  • Someone needs to continuously monitor the phone to take action.
  • Keeping track of which customer queries are answered and which are open is hard to track. Organizing hundreds of messages every day, involves significant manual efforts.
  • WhatsApp can’t be integrated with CRM or other customer dashboards used by business.
Bag A Chat has launched customer service helpdesk on WhatsApp – with an objective of eliminating the limitations of WhatsApp and similar messengers, in business use.
How ‘Bag A Chat’ works?
  • Helpdesk app and Whatsapp are installed on the company customer service phone. Customers continue to message on WhatsApp only- no other app needed.
  • WhatsApp messages from customers converted to ticket customer helpdesk system, on arrival.
  • Auto routing to appropriate customer service agent based on the message type.
  • Support agents can view these tickets, on any device like laptop, desktop, smartphone. There is no need to continuously check the phone for incoming messages.
  • Support team and management get the graphical dashboard to track customer tickets, service SLA, generate alerts on delayed unresolved tickets etc.
  • The solution is available on a monthly subscription. So no big upfront investment needed to try and establish customer service on WhatsApp.
Integration with business CRM:
If your business has a customer service system like CRM, app, website, helpdesk system etc. the Bag A Chat solution helps integrating WhatsApp with the same, using a simple API.
As you can see, Bag A Chat makes is hassle-free to run customer service on a single phone using WhatsApp – the next generation communication tool, popular with your customers. It offers all the features of a conventional ticketing system on WhatsApp without being heavy on pockets. More details about the solution are at http://bagachat.com/customer_helpdesk_usecase.html and to avail a free trial,  you can drop a mail to info@bagachat.com