This is how WhatsApp Business works, the instant messaging application for companies

We have been talking for many months about the intentions of reaching the companies that WhatsApp had, and just a few days ago it officially arrived at Google Play WhatsApp Business, the sister application of WhatsApp with functions focused on business management.

The deployment of WhatsApp Business in different countries is being carried out in stages and just a few hours ago it arrived in Spain. We have taken the opportunity to test it first hand and find the differences with the standard version of WhatsApp. We tell you below.

Same interface, different profile

Creating an account in WhatsApp Business is as simple as creating it in WhatsApp, that is, once we download the application we only have to verify our phone number, although, once we start working with it, it will depend on WhatsApp and your verification parameters whether or not you grant us a verified account badge.

Remember that WhatsApp does not allow us to keep two accounts on the same mobile phone ( although there are tricks to do so ) so if we register the same phone for WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business, we can only use one of the two applications with it.

Once registered we will enter the application, which as we can see in the sample screenshots, does not differ too much from the “normal” version. We have the same sections with the stories, the chats, and the adjustments, although this is where the substantial differences really come.

Automated responses

As we say, it is when entering the application settings where we come across the functions really focused on companies. We have an option literally called “Company Settings” from which we can access various options. The first of these is the profile, in which we can edit all the information of interest to our clients.

Here we can add our physical address and even locate it on the map, add the activity of the company (it offers us options to select) in addition to a small description written by us to better clarify to customers the objective of our business is.

It also allows us to indicate what our business hours are and the contact channels that we have available for our clients, such as the email address or our website (we can also apply our profiles on social networks). These options generate a hyperlink that automatically leads customers to them once they click.

But in addition to the options to configure the profile, WhatsApp Business provides specific business tools, which although quite basic for now, are very useful after all.

Welcome messages

The first of these options are welcome messages. With it, we can create a standardized message that will be sent automatically when a client writes to us for the first time, or when we have not had interaction with him for more than 14 days and he has written to us. The character limit is 200 and we can add emojis.

Absence message

This second option allows us to also create automated messages of up to 200 characters that will be sent when we receive a message and are not available (at the time that we select ourselves). It is important to note here that absence messages are only sent when the phone has an Internet connection, so do not trust that our customers will always receive them.

Quickly answers

The last option is quick responses, similar to keyboard shortcuts. These are phrases that we previously recorded and that after just writing a word or a character are automatically filled in so that we don’t have to be adding them over and over again. For example, we can add “/ thanks” so that it automatically responds a “Thank you very much for your query it has been a pleasure to help you”.

Statistics

Finally, we have the statistics that for the moment, are quite basic. It only shows us the number of messages sent, delivered, received, and read (by us, of course). We hope that in the future it will show data of conversions or clicks to our website such as Facebook.

WhatsApp Business, you still have a way to go

As we have seen during the tests and as we have shown you with the screenshots, the application, although it has useful functions, is still very green (never better said). When using it you have the feeling that you are on WhatsApp but with some additions and although the options to automate messages are very useful, some things like statistics are still somewhat scarce, but we do not doubt that WhatsApp will continue to add improvements in the form of new one’s functions as it does with its prime application.