WhatsApp Business: Features, Benefits and How to Register Your Company

Practically everything is similar or almost the same: you can have conversations with other people, send messages or photos or stickers, you can block or add new contacts, etc. Everything will seem quite simple to you, with the same menus at the bottom or in the settings, with chats and contacts to talk to. Although everything is similar, there are differences. In the following paragraphs we will clarify some different functions that should be taken into account and that are very useful for your business.

What is WhatsApp Business?

WhatsApp Business is designed for companies, as its name suggests. It allows us to use the same mobile phone that we normally have registered in the telephony application or even allows us to use it with a landline phone. What allows WhatsApp Business is that we have many more options and functions to understand our clients, with specific features such as company profiles, quick responses, labels to organize contacts or conversations or automated responses that indicate that you are not available or that they welcome to a person who has spoken to you for the first time.

It’s free?

Yes. It is a free service and has no additional cost. The operation is very similar to using WhatsApp as you have done so far.

Specific characteristics

Some of the most interesting features are:

• Company profile. You can have a company profile with useful information for your clients or users. For example, you can have the description of the company, the email address, the website to which they must go or even the physical address. All information will be available so they don’t even have to call to ask.
• Quickly answers. One of the most interesting options is that you can use quick and personalized responses according to the message. For example, you can record messages that you usually use frequently and thus you will save yourself writing them … Like the hours of the establishment, for example, or whether or not you have a product in stock. Once asked, you will have those quick answers on hand and can use them.
• Labels. You can have your clients or contacts organized in labels so you have exhaustive control of everything. For example, you can create labels for new orders, for pending orders, for paid orders …
• Automated messages. When you receive an exact message, WhatsApp will take care of responding for you. For example, you can create welcome messages or you can put a message indicating that your establishment or office is not open at the moment or that you cannot attend to it. It will automatically respond when they write to you.
• Statistics. You will be able to know how many messages have been received, how many have been read, etc. You will have access to the statistics of your company and your messages.
• Direct link. You can send a link to your contacts with whom they can contact you by WhatsApp without giving you a phone number. For example, you can link from a QR on your business card or in your own establishment and just scan it.
• Catalogue. You can create a catalog with all your products, etc.

How to set it up

The first thing you will have to do with WhatsApp Business is, of course, install it. You can download it from Google Play or App Store normally and it will be installed on your mobile phone so you can add your phone number, customize the options and start using it as soon as possible. It is free and is compatible with iOS and Android in current versions: compatible with iOS 9 and later or with Android with operating system 4.0.3 or later.

check

Once you have downloaded it, you will have to decide with which phone you want to associate WhatsApp Business: with your phone from which you are using it (you will receive an SMS to verify that it is you) with a phone said (you will receive a call with the verification code so you can keep going)

• Enter your phone number when you have installed it
• Tap on the “Next” section to receive the code
• You can receive an SMS or a call
• Enter the six-digit verification code

It is important that you keep in mind that you cannot have your personal WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business with the same mobile phone number unless you follow one of the tricks that allow you to have two WhatsApp accounts on the same mobile. If you have two cards in the phone, you can combine the two applications without problem using one for personal and one for business. If you only have a mobile number, you will have to choose between the company or personal messaging application. Also, as we have explained, you can use the landline of your work or company.

Company Profile

Once you have chosen the phone, you can fill in your profile:

• Name
• Company address
• Company Category
• Company description
• Business hours, if you have it
• Email
• Web address

It is important to keep in mind that company names, according to WhatsApp Business rules, cannot be formed only by the following criteria:

• A person’s full name is not the business name
• A generic term is not the company name
• A generic geographic location does not count as a business name
• It cannot have less than three characters in total

Absence messages

You can send messages if you can’t reply when a client writes to you. If you are not available, you can leave the absence message stating what your schedule is or when you will return. You can choose if it is sent whenever you are not available or at a specific time and on a few days. It is very useful because you can customize it to the fullest.

• Click on the menu button and go to settings
• Go to Company Settings
• Look for the Absence message option and activate it
• Tap on the message to edit it and write what you want
• Confirm with the OK button
• Choose the schedule you want
  • Always send
  • Custom schedule
  • Outside the business hours you have chosen
• Choose the recipient list
  • Everybody
  • Those who are not in the contact book
  • Everyone except …
  • Send only to …
• Tap on the “Save” option

Welcome messages

Welcome messages allow something to be sent to anyone who wrote to you the first time. If your clients write to you for the first time or after a period of 14 days of inactivity, they will receive this personalized message that you can configure from the settings.

• Go to the Menu button and Settings
• Choose the Company Settings option
• Check the option Welcome message
• Activate the corresponding button
• Tap on the message and edit it
• Choose from the recipient list who will be sent
  • Everybody
  • Those who are not in the contact book
  • Everyone except …
  • Send only to …
• All in SAVE

Quickly answers

As we have explained in previous paragraphs, you can configure quick responses that work as keyboard shortcuts for messages you send frequently. You can have a total of maximum 50 quick responses associated with your WhatsApp Business account and these can have text messages but also multimedia files (photos, video, GIF) To configure them follow these steps:

• Go to the menu button of the WhatsApp application
• Tap on Settings and Company Settings
• Go to the Quick answers option
• Press Add (+) to create the one you want
• Write the quick reply message you need
• Set the shortcut you are going to use on the keyboard
• Type in the keyword for the quick response, which you will then use to easily find it when you want to submit that response. You can add up to three keywords for each one you register
• Tap “Save” to confirm it

Differences and similarities with WhatsApp

If I take the step and install WhatsApp Business, what are the differences that I will find compared to a normal WhatsApp user? The similarities will be based on merely formal aspects, such as the appearance of the app, while the main differences that we will find is the addition of some functions that in the version for ordinary users do not exist and that in this application Business appear to facilitate the day to day in our company.

Similarities between applications

Interface

As we have said, the interface is one of the aspects in which we are not going to notice differences between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business. In the version dedicated to companies we are going to find the same interface, which will be comfortable for us so that we do not have to learn to use another application when we are already used to the usual use of WhatsApp.

It’s free

It is, like the version you have used so far, a free service, so you will not have to pay anything extra to start enjoying the Business version. It has no additional cost and is one of its strengths.

Maintains double check

As we have said, its interface does not change and neither does this aspect. It is very important to know that the client has received the message that we have sent you correctly and to avoid subsequent disputes, so this utility is still present in WhatsApp Business.

WhatsApp Web

Another of the WhatsApp utilities that you use the most at work is the possibility of using it on your computer, in the browser, without having to constantly look at your mobile to read and reply to messages. Obviously it is a tool that users of the Business version find very useful, so it is also kept here.

File sharing

Photos, videos, links, documents, addresses … File sharing will also be important for companies, so there is no sense that this utility is not present in WhatsApp Business. You can send your clients those contents that are necessary for the operation of your relationship.

Differences between applications

Labels

The Business version has some advantages implemented over its personal version to make the operation of the company more fluid. And one of the most interesting is this option of categorizing our contacts by labels, depending on their status with respect to our company, whether they are partners, suppliers, premium customers, new customers … A quick way to sort the company’s agenda and to Quickly identify those contacts that we need at all times.

Automatic messages

As if it were the company’s answering machine or the automatic email message, also from our mobile we can take advantage of this advantage thanks to WhatsApp Business. Thanks to this functionality we can program welcome or absence messages , something that in the normal version is not possible. If a client contacts us for the first time, they will automatically find this reply and we will speed up the conversation process with them. Also if we are out of office hours this tool will manage our responses.

Quickly answers

In a company there are many questions that are repeated, such as opening hours, a price, the address … With this utility we can have on hand the answers to these repetitive questions. When this message arrives at our WhatsApp Business number, the client will get their response automatically and quickly, without it being a hassle to have to repeat the same information over and over again.

Description of our business

In WhatsApp Business we can sell a little better than in WhatsApp , since to the company name we can add a description of our business, in addition to some formal aspects. Email address, web, other means of contact or the hours in which we are available.