Gone are those days when WhatsApp was only a messenger for personal chats. The tendency to use messaging applications for business purposes has made Facebook (now Meta - the owner of WhatsApp) and WhatsApp make good use of that trend. To meet the request, in 2018, the WhatsApp Business API was released.
"At Dreamforce 2022, Salesforce, the # 1 CRM provider worldwide, and WhatsApp, the most popular messaging service in the world, announced a new strategic partnership that will allow Salesforce customers to connect with their customers and build new messaging experiences on WhatsApp", - Salesforce.
Since then, Salesforce and WhatsApp have extended the partnership. In 2023, Salesforce launched WhatsApp for Service Cloud "to personalize customer conversations with AI, Data, and CRM".
What do businesses get from pairing WhatsApp with their customer support on the Salesforce CRM platform? How does WhatsApp influence conversational marketing campaigns? Is it possible to generate leads via WhatsApp and how does it work? And last but not least, how do you integrate WhatsApp with Salesforce? Dive into the article and find the answers.
Salesforce and WhatsApp integration Use Cases for Marketing, Sales and Service Cloud
Salesforce and WhatsApp integration for Marketing Cloud
Conversational marketing is an approach to interaction with customers or leads through dialogue on multiple channels. Conversational marketing involves two-way communication in real time. Such a method of customer engagement strengthens the relationship with the brand and increases the passing customer journey. Instead of relying solely on traditional marketing tactics like email blasts or advertisements, conversational marketing involves using channels such as live chat, messaging apps, chatbots, and social media. Choosing a conversational marketing business allows clients to select the communication channel that makes the dialogue with the company more effective.
As the most popular messenger in the world, WhatsApp can become a valuable addition to any conversational marketing strategy. When WhatsApp is integrated with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, businesses can effectively manage, analyze, and enhance every customer conversation. This fosters brand loyalty, boosts revenue, and cultivates lasting customer relationships.
With WhatsApp for Marketing Cloud, businesses can create tailored experiences at every touchpoint with the client. With the Marketing Cloud Customer Data Platform, enhanced by Salesforce Genie, enterprises gain the ability to customize interactions on WhatsApp, drawing from reliable customer data. Leveraging AI insights from Salesforce and beyond, WhatsApp-based messaging adapts to each customer's needs, seamlessly offering personalized promotions and recommendations.
What you get:
Targeted Messaging: Segment contacts in Salesforce based on preferences or past interactions and send targeted marketing messages through WhatsApp.
Promotions and Offers: Send exclusive promotions, discounts, or product updates to customers via WhatsApp, driving engagement and sales.
Invitations: Invite contacts to visit the website or some events using WhatsApp. Sync it to Salesforce to track attendance and follow-ups.
Salesforce and WhatsApp integration for Sales Cloud
Using WhatsApp for sales offers businesses a friendly and effective way to connect with potential customers. With over 2 billion users worldwide, WhatsApp provides a familiar and accessible platform for real-time communication. Its popularity ensures that businesses can reach a vast audience, making it an ideal channel for lead generation.
Pairing with Salesforce lead management through WhatsApp becomes even more efficient, as each interaction is automatically recorded in CRM.
What you get:
Lead Generation: Utilize WhatsApp to capture leads through various channels such as social media, websites, or events. Leads can be automatically entered into Salesforce, enabling sales teams to follow up promptly.
Lead Nurturing: Engage with leads in real time through personalized messaging, providing product information, answering queries, and guiding them through the sales funnel.
Salesforce and WhatsApp integration for Service Cloud
Nearly 50 million smartphone users in Germany use WhatsApp to communicate with others. There are nearly 80 million WhatsApp users in the USA and nearly 490 million in India. To keep business closer to customers, there is a tendency to move customer service to popular messengers.
To prevent CRM from being separated from external communication and make the shift to messengers even more beneficial to businesses, Salesforce made WhatsApp available for Service Cloud. Salesforce integration with WhatsApp made it an element of Salesforce Customer 360.
What you get:
Personalize approach: With the data synced on all the platforms, businesses can now personalize conversations on WhatsApp Business using AI-driven insights and recommendations.
Issue Resolution: Allow customers to raise support tickets or report issues through WhatsApp, with cases automatically created in Salesforce Service Cloud.
Round-the-clock availability: With the fusion of AI-driven chatbots and WhatsApp, businesses can boost self-service capabilities 24/7. For example, provide order status updates and shipping notifications to customers via WhatsApp, with order data synced between integrated WhatsApp and Salesforce. Also, AI can easily be responsible for answering reputable routine questions.
What is more, in WhatsApp for Service Cloud, is that Salesforce promises to add Einstein-GPT replies. Having access to the data from Data Cloud, generative AI can create even more personalized responses to customer requests.
Do you want to know how Salesforce addresses the security challenges of Generative AI? Read here about Einstein Trust Layer.
How to integrate WhatsApp with Salesforce: Standard and Enhanced Message Channels
There is a function in Salesforce called Messaging. Messaging enables businesses to communicate with their customers on the platform chosen by the customers. The term "Message Channel" describes channels where companies can interact with their customers via various communication methods, such as email, phone, chat, and social media. Message Channels provide the ability to integrate diverse communication channels directly into Salesforce, allowing businesses to manage and track all customer interactions in one system effectively.
Integrating with WhatsApp, Message Channel enables connecting the messenger as a communication channel for business. This allows businesses to interact with customers through WhatsApp directly from Salesforce.
You have the option to create both standard and enhanced WhatsApp channels. Both types of channels provide the ability to interact with customers via WhatsApp, but they have their own characteristics. Let's explore them.
Standard Message Channel
The standard WhatsApp channel is a simple way to start using WhatsApp in your business. To activate the standard channel, you need to contact the WhatsApp enablement team at Salesforce via email at whatsappenablement@salesforce.com.
Functionality: The standard channel provides basic functionality for messaging with customers.
Improvement: There's an option to upgrade a standard channel to enhance and access more features.
Content: Text up to 1,600 characters, images up to 5 MB, PDFs up to 5 MB.
Enhanced Message Channel
Enhanced WhatsApp channels are built on Salesforce's new communication platform and offer more functional capabilities compared to standard channels. Setting up an enhanced channel requires a few steps in Setup. This type of channel is more flexible and powerful.
Simple channel setup: Enhanced channels can be set up directly within Salesforce Setup.
Advanced functionality: Enhanced channels offer a wide range of advanced features, including an audio message recorder, Einstein-recommended replies, video or document sharing, agent-to-agent transfer, and more.
Improvement: New features are available exclusively for enhanced channels.
Both message channels have their advantages. The choice depends on the needs of your business.
Learn how to integrate Salesforce with WhatsApp from our next article.
Conclusion
WhatsApp has evolved from a personal messaging app to a vital tool for businesses, thanks to a strategic partnership between Salesforce and WhatsApp. This collaboration, initiated with the WhatsApp Business API in 2018 and further strengthened with the introduction of WhatsApp for Service Cloud in 2023, revolutionizes customer engagement. By integrating WhatsApp with Salesforce CRM, businesses can unlock many benefits, including personalized marketing, efficient lead generation, and streamlined customer support. Integration ensures a 360-degree view of customers, so, interactions with customers are consolidated from WhatsApp alongside other channels within Salesforce. With features like AI-driven chatbots and generative AI replies, this integration offers solutions to enhance customer interactions across Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, and Service Cloud. The Salesforce-WhatsApp integration empowers businesses to deliver better customer experiences in the channel, comfortable for the customers.
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