“The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.”  

                                                                                                                                              ~Sam Walton 

Yes, in today’s world, customer service is one of the chief factors businesses focus on. As personalized user service is taking over online business interactions, it is pivotal for businesses to invest in the same to survive in this competitive era of businesses. Delivering a personalized and customized experience to customers is not only a sure-=shot winning strategy these days but is also seen as one of the most essential as well as robust business services.  

For such, businesses are impeccably turning towards social media platforms for establishing communication with customers. And believe it or not, Whatsapp is among one of the preferred ones.  

With over 2 billion users worldwide, Whatsapp is the most secured, feasible, and “Reach your customers anywhere” platform. But, things are not as easy as they seem!  

WhatsApp for Businesses 

If you are also one of the 2 billion Whatsapp users, you must be fond of your daily chatting sessions with friends, families, and close ones on WhatsApp. But, businesses cannot and don’t want to use Whatsapp in such a sense. That’s where Whatsapp business accounts or WhatsApp API comes into the picture! 

Though sounding similar at first go, Whatsapp business accounts and WhatsApp APIs are significantly different from our friendly Whatsapp private accounts. Let’s dig more! 

What is a Whatsapp business account and Whatsapp Business API? 

Whatsapp accounts equipped with features ideal for businesses are put in WhatsApp business account or API categories. These have features like bulk messaging, automated responses, and so forth! 

While both are associated with businesses of varied scales, these are considerably different. For businesses of small scale, where few customer representatives can handle the users’ queries on WhatsApp, WhatsApp business is preferred. However, for businesses of large scale, where there comes a load of customer inquiries on WhatsApp, the WhatsApp API account is leveraged.  

While these both provide a relay of features essential for business, WhatsApp API is ideal for medium to large scale businesses and is considered more secure, feasible, and preferable for businesses. Let’s understand the A to Z of WhatsApp business API.  

Merits of Getting a WhatsApp Business API account  

If you are a medium to large-scale business and experience more than 100 inquiries a day, you must have heard the suggestion of getting a WhatsApp API account. Here are some of the merits of getting an API account-  

• Contact Management 

Being a platform for customers as well as for businesses, WhatsApp follows a stringent set of rules and management strategies to leave no room for dubious activities on its platform. In order to keep the experience soothing and productive for both parties, WhatsApp doesn’t allow businesses to send random messages to users.  

For the same, WhatsApp API allows Contact opt-in service. To intercept spamming messages at users’ end, WhatsApp needs businesses to get opt-ins which allows them to send specific messages to users first.   

To obtain Whatsapp contact opt-ins, there are various ways available. Businesses can go for website forms, WhatsApp ads, links, QR codes, and whatnot! But, how businesses leverage this and get enough traction from customers, all depend on strategies, agendas, steps, and marketing tactics used by businesses. 

• Verifying and Importing contacts  

Checking if the user has a valid WhatsApp number or ID is pivotal. Luckily, WhatApp API has this feature.  

Though Whatsapp API does not store contacts, it can surely aid in verifying and importing contacts. With an API account, you can verify your numbers before importing them into CRM. This would decrease the chances of you sending messages to spam or invalid accounts, which in turn would stabilize your account ratings. After verifying and importing, you can then benefit from the other features of Whatsapp API for sending messages.  

• Message attributes 

Apart from benefits in terms of contact management and verifying, Whatsapp API also provides exciting and convenient features to provide affluent help in business. For instance, message tools like templates, promotional messages, broadcasts, session messages, etc. can help you interact and network with many customers together.  

This helps you win against common problems on customer experience, .i.e. dealing with queries, preventing delayed responses, etc. These problems can be easily escaped and managed optimally with a Whatsapp business API account.  

• End-to-end Encryption and data privacy 

When it comes to having a closed interaction with customers, data security and encryption become a scathing concern. For such concerns, Whatsapp API is best as it establishes a completely end-to-end encrypted and secure platform to build interactions, and relationships with customers. Furthermore, this privacy and encryption never get compromised with an increasing number of users, messages, data, and so forth.  

As you now are familiar with how getting a WhatsApp API account can fuel your customer service and communication, let’s move on to how to get a WhatsApp business API account. For this, we need to shake hands with BSPs or Business solution providers.  

WhatsApp Business Solution Providers 

Yes, one cannot contact WhatsApp directly to get the Whatsapp API account and need to get the service from third-party providers called Business Solution Providers or BSPs. BSPs, also known as Whatsapp Partners, bridge the gap between you and WhatApp to get your business an API account. These providers ease the process of Whatsapp API approvals and mitigate the process’s complications.  

The features, amenities, and services you will get from your WhatsApp business API will depend on your BSP. To get the best, Choose VoxCPaaS to get the WhatsApp API to send messages with the best possible amenities and features for your business.   

Set up your WhatsApp API account for your business 

The first step in getting your API account is finalizing on BSP. While the process of finalizing BSP can seem simple, one needs to consider a few key points such as cost, features or services, customer support, etc.  

Businesses getting WhatsApp API, pay to their chosen BSPs, and BSPs pay to WhatsApp to get the Whatsapp API account for your business. As you cannot contact WhatsApp directly to get the API account, you need to pay the amount your BSPs have asked for, no matter if that is twice or thrice the actual price Whatsapp charges from BSPs. So, stay cautious while choosing your BSP so that you don’t end up paying hefty loads of money.  

Once you are finalized on which provider you’ll choose, the rest of the major tasks are done by your provider. Your BSP will then deliver you a Whatsapp business API account. While some providers provide accounts only with access to API, choosing the BSP which provides other associated features like messaging interface is advised. One such provider is VoxCPaas.  

For some businesses, getting an API account may seem a channel for traction, but anomalous or insufficient use of Whatsapp API accounts can also block the road for excellent customer service delivery. Therefore, to leave no room for any obvious or un-obvious mistakes, following best practices is recommended.  

Whatsapp API best practices 

If you are thinking that sending messages to your customers is an immediate step after getting a true API account, you are wrong! There are other steps, roadblocks, and monetization steps as well.  

The valid WhatsApp API account never allows you to send messages for almost 24 hours after getting an account. This is to prevent any spam. In addition, the templates used for session messages and other promotional messages need to be approved from WhatsApp first.  

And to make sure, all of your templates, contacts, and other features reimburse you well in business, one is advised to follow certain best practices for API accounts. Here are some of the best practices that would ensure performance from your WhatsApp account-  

• Maintain the quality ratings  

If you want to gain some valuable and profitable conversions from WhatsApp, you must keep the quality rating of your account in check. The Whatsapp Business API to send messages then comes into play. To get it right, the API account provides insight statistics, and details.  

To achieve and maintain the quality ratings for your account, avoid spams, bulk messages, and necessary promotional pushes. Try sending relevant messages to your customers and avoid flooding a range of promotions and other business messages to them in bulk. This can elevate the chances of your account getting blocked by customers, which in turn would hamper your quality rating.  

• Keep in mind the message limits and other caps 

Message limits are applied to the number of unique users you can message in a day. So, keep in mind the limits of your account and message wisely instead of jaywalking and hitting customers’ chat boxes. For Whatsapp API account, there can be three types of limits-  

• Tier 1: Allows 1K messages to unique users in a single day  
• Tier2:  Allows 10K messages to unique users in a single day  
• Tier3:  Allows 100K messages to unique users in a single day  

One can get their account updated at any point. Get the right plan for you and keep in mind that limit to leverage the most out of your Whatsapp business API account. 

Are you now ready to get your business a Whatsapp API account? We have got your back!   

Get Whatsapp API to send messages from VoxCPass? 

If you are ready or in the process of making a wise decision of getting a Whatsapp API account for your business, you happen to be at the right place. 

We, at Vox-CPaaS, powered by Voxvalley, are your ideal WhatsApp API account provider. We provide complete solutions for WhatsApp API accounts for sending messages. With complete security and safety, We can be your one-stop solution for getting Whatsapp business API.  

Wrapping it up! 

If you are a business with mid or large-scale operationality and want to optimize your customer interaction, WhatsApp API is for you. With the procreative world of digitalization, leveraging WhatsApp to connect and build relationships with your customers can bring revolutionary change to your business’s profits.  

This is secure, easy to use, has feasible and considerable features that give you the freedom to reach customers in their comfort zones. By getting this from VoxCPaaS, you can mitigate any risks associated and can invest for the good of your business.