When discussing customer service, we find that commercial companies, social institutions, governmental entities, and any entity dealing with customers strive and spare no effort to ensure their satisfaction. Improving customer service has become essential in today's business world for several reasons, most notably:

• Neglecting customer experience and focusing solely on marketing products or services can lead to negative customer experiences, resulting in severe consequences for your business. These customers may not return for further transactions, refuse your products or services, leading to the loss of a current customer interested in your business. Moreover, this could escalate to them sharing their negative experience with others, resulting not only in significant losses in sales but also potentially damaging your brand reputation.
• Marketers and business owners often seek to acquire new customers, spending substantial amounts of money instead of focusing on nurturing existing ones. However, building long-term relationships with customers is fundamental to the success and stability of your business. You might find that acquiring a new customer could cost you five times more than retaining an existing one, and retaining even 5% of your current customers can double your sales by 25:95%.
• In the crowded and fiercely competitive market, where products and services often seem similar, customer experience makes the difference. Those who prioritize the quality of customer service gain an edge, making the customer experience a competitive advantage that distinguishes the brand. 

Providing distinguished customer service around the clock, along with offering products or services that simplify your customers' lives, coupled with personalized interaction and quick responsiveness, undoubtedly makes your brand shine among competitors and establishes it as a trusted source for your current customers and an attraction for new ones.

In this article, you'll discover the role that the WhatsApp application plays in enhancing customer service and elevating your institution's CRM system, along with the most important tips to help you acquire loyal customers who become ambassadors for your brand.

What is the importance of using WhatsApp to provide satisfactory and efficient customer service?

In a world that has become characterized by speed and development around the clock, customers also expect their needs to be addressed and their problems solved quickly. Evaluating the quality of services and products provided by companies today is no longer limited to raw materials or utilized resources alone; it's also measured by time. Time has become the primary gauge for some services, particularly in sectors like healthcare. Hence, the importance of incorporating messaging applications into marketing strategies of institutions to achieve rapid and constant customer response has emerged. One of the most prominent and significant of these applications is WhatsApp, which is now used daily by more than a quarter of the global population.

WhatsApp provides companies with the advantage of direct communication with their customers, offering immediate answers to all inquiries, precise guidance, and detailed problem-solving through advanced communication technologies and WhatsApp Business platform tools like automated responses, messages, and the use of chatbots or live chat. All of this enhances the customer experience, giving you the green light in terms of reliability and professionalism, prompting customers to complete additional purchases and potentially recommend your brand to their friends and family.

The importance of WhatsApp application and the necessity of its use to enhance customer service can be further elucidated through the following points:

• Swift Handling of Customer Inquiries:

Customers prefer to deal with companies that are there for them, interact with them, do not ignore their requests, and do not make them wait for hours without a response. Recent studies have shown that the human attention span has decreased to 8 seconds. If you fail to capture your customer's attention and respond to them within this timeframe, they may not return to engage in conversation again. 

Utilizing WhatsApp for managing customer relations allows you to easily follow up and respond to them from anywhere, giving your customers a seamless communication experience that encourages them to stay engaged until the end without losing their attention.

• Time-saving for Employees and Customers:

WhatsApp API platform offers additional features beyond regular messaging apps, such as creating automated chatbots that can answer common customer questions, interact with them, store their data, and provide basic information about the products or services offered by the institution. This helps reduce customer waiting times, allowing your team to focus on more complex responsibilities and address customer issues requiring specialized attention promptly.

• Easily Collecting Customer Feedback:

Gathering customer opinions and feedback has become essential to face strong competition in the business market. WhatsApp provides a free and easy means to obtain customer opinions and collect valuable data about their ideas, aspirations, and suggestions for improving your product or service. By sending surveys and encouraging them to respond to specific questions, you can strategically excel over your competitors and lead the market.

• Follow up on Customer Requests in Real-Time:

In order to achieve the fullest satisfaction of your customers, they must feel your care and attention. By using WhatsApp, you can send notifications with updates on your customers' order status and provide them with all the information they need. If there's any delay or issue with the order, you can notify them immediately, avoiding misunderstandings and nurturing their sense of loyalty and responsibility towards your brand over time.

How can you enhance customer service using WhatsApp?

Managing your customer relationships effectively with WhatsApp Business is a great step for small and medium-sized enterprises. However, as your business grows and expands, you need to broaden your communication scope and rely on more flexible tools to elevate your customer service. This is precisely what WhatsApp Business Platform (WhatsApp API) offers.

WhatsApp Business Platform provides advanced features that enhance the quality of your communication with your customer base, no matter how extensive it is. It helps you design messaging campaigns targeting your wide audience or specific customer segments. Additionally, the platform allows integration with other business software you use, such as CRM systems, sales systems, ERP systems, payment systems, and more. All these tools aid in organizing your internal operations, give your customers an integrated user experience, and contribute to building long-term relationships with them.

To learn how to leverage the WhatsApp Business Platform for professional customer relationship management, keep reading.

1)Integration of team members within the inbox

WhatsApp Business Platform stands out with its ability to add an unlimited number of agents and customer service representatives using a unified number. This enables all employees to communicate with customers anytime, anywhere, simplifying communication between them. Employees can leave notes on customer inquiries or categorize conversations based on customer data and requirements. This, in turn, helps organizations with a large number of customer service staff coordinate within the platform's control panel and organize communication during different work hours.

2)Using the Advanced Broadcast Feature

Instead of spending a lot of time sending messages or responding to customer inquiries individually, the platform offers you a customized messaging feature using message broadcasting. You can segment your contacts and create multiple lists for them using conversation tagging, then send targeted messages tailored to each category based on their inquiries or needs. This personalizes your messages, encouraging customers to engage with you while reducing the likelihood of sending unwanted messages, unlike emails.

3) Using Message Templates for Further Customization

Imagine addressing each customer within your customer base by name, understanding their personal needs, and being keen to solve their problems. What impact would this have on your customer? Certainly, they will feel your genuine interest in them and your effort to satisfy them, thus reinforcing a positive image of your business and enhancing their trust in your brand. This is precisely what WhatsApp templates do. They are customizable templates for your messages sent to initiate conversations with your customers. These templates include variable elements that are automatically replaced with customer data within each conversation, notifying the customer that the message is specifically directed to them, not the rest of the customers. Using message templates ensures the delivery of clear and concise messages to your customers in a timely manner, adding more professionalism that enhances your positive reputation in their minds.

4) Automating Messages Using Chatbots

Chatbots are indispensable tools in interacting and communicating with customers. 74% of internet users prefer interacting with chatbots. The chatbot provides customer service around the clock and throughout the week, interacts with customers, provides them with basic information about your business, and answers common customer inquiries even outside official working hours, providing customers with a wonderful user experience.

In conclusion, WhatsApp is a channel where your target audience is constantly present. Therefore, if you aim to gain their loyalty and provide them with excellent customer service, you need to be where they are and interact with them continuously. This platform is characterized by a very high message open rate of up to 98%, confirming that customers will open your message, engage with you, and follow your conversation until the end.