Getting WhatsApp service replies from marketing campaigns?

Customers keep WhatsApping you back just after you've sent a WhatsApp campaign? Here's how to handle unexpected service requests smoothly and quickly.

Marketers know by now that WhatsApp marketing is a fantastic way to boost revenue and retention by sending out short, sweet marketing campaigns.

But what happens if customers keep replying to your campaigns?

And (because you've done such a great job getting opt-ins) a lot of them reply to your campaigns at the same time.

Sometimes, customers reply to WhatsApp marketing campaigns, not knowing they're automated – and expect personal responses fast. But marketing teams may not be set up to handle this.

While customer engagement is a great thing, these messages from customers can cause a problem: WhatsApp marketing is usually handled by the marketing or CRM team. They don't usually have time to handle all the messages that come back from customers.

A flurry of customer replies doesn't always happen of course, but for brands with highly engaged, loyal customers, it may be an issue.

It's a nice problem to have, but at the same time it's all the more important not to let these loyal customers down.

And even if customers don't usually reply, you need to be ready for when they do. Some campaigns, like product launches, where customers are curious about your new products, can lead to more WhatsApp replies than others.

By ignoring customer WhatsApp requests, you can:

• Lose sales
• Annoy customers
• Potentially, lose customers
• Put stress on marketing teams 

Added to this, WhatsApp is a channel where people expect speedy, 2-way conversations – even more so than email. So here, in this channel, they may feel doubly let down.

The solution: integrate WhatsApp with your service platform

There's a simple answer to replying to customer WhatsApps that come in after WhatsApp campaign sendouts: send them to your customer service team.

Larger companies usually have several teams handling different aspects of the same channel. For example, email marketing is handled by one team and email service is handled by the support team.

WhatsApp should be no different.

charles integrates WhatsApp with Zendesk and Gorgias – improving the customer journey and easing the lives of marketing and CRM teams

WhatsApp service requests can be sent automatically to your service platform. To do this, you just need a WhatsApp service integration through a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider and Meta Partner like charles.

With charles, you can bring WhatsApp messages into your service platform as tickets, and agents can reply instantly through the platform they already use (in this case, Gorgias) 

When our customers get customer service requests after a WhatsApp campaign sendout, they can now send them automatically to the service team via our new WhatsApp service integrations.

Is it time to switch to charles?

Many brands are switching WhatsApp marketing platforms to charles because we offer:

• Excellent customer support: expertise that can lead to to success in this new marketing channel 
• Powerful WhatsApp automation: through our open canvas, Journeys, which integrates with service platforms like Zendesk and Gorgias to automatically send tickets
• Strong reputation: with ISO 27001 certification, as an Official Meta Partner and with excellent reviews in G2, OMR and Capterra
• Focus on revenue and retention: to create value in WhatsApp

WhatsApp service features offered by charles

Our WhatsApp service integrations offer a range of features to make the customer experience smooth and ease the lives of your customer service agents:

1. Create WhatsApp ticket automatically in your service desk

Add a "Create Ticket" node at any point in a WhatsApp marketing flow in Journeys. Once your customers reach that step of the flow, charles will open a ticket in your service platform. On the node you have the following configuration options:

• Ticket subject Each WhatsApp service ticket is created with a subject line. If you want to create rules or filters based on the subject line, here is the place to define it as you like
  ℹ️ Note that every ticket is also created with a charles tag. You can also use this to filter tickets and create rules.
• Number of messages this setting lets you define how many of the last messages with that customers should be attached to the ticket when creating it. Add up to 20 to give your agents enough context to close the ticket as fast as possible.
  
  

In charles, marketing teams can add a node that sends replies to campaigns to your service team – either for all requests or just in particular flows – like this one for a Zendesk integration

2. Remove customers with open tickets from WhatsApp campaigns

The ticket status check in the charles condition node in Journeys lets you filter out people that currently have an open service ticket – so you don't decrease satisfaction with your brand, particularly if they're sending a complaint.

3. Send WhatsApp replies in your service platform

With the WhatsApp integration, agents can easily use their familiar service interface to chat with your customers on WhatsApp. Just type your message and hit Send, it’s that easy.

All photos and videos from your customers will also be added to the ticket and your agents can also respond with attachments of any sort, e.g. photos, videos, or PDFs.

Brand example: Duschbrocken unites marketing and service thanks to charles