Just by reading the data produced by an Oberlo report, we can understand the impact of WhatsApp in recent years, which marks a clear trend:
- In 2016 there were 1 billion users; in 2018, 1.5 billion; by 2021 there were 2 million. The growth is an average of 500 million every two years.
- As of April 2021, WhatsApp Messenger app downloads totaled around 13 million.
- It was the fourth most installed non-game app worldwide.
- WhatsApp is currently available in more than 180 countries around the world and in 60 different languages.
- 56% of Americans use WhatsApp at least once a day to send messages.
- 100 billion messages are sent every day in the world.
On the other hand, in its latest presentation, Facebook showed that 7 out of 10 consumers feel more connected to the company if they can send messages; and 65% of users prefer messages over phone or email. The need to be in contact with customers led many companies to start using Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Wechat and SMS to send communications, receive queries, orders and complaints. Today we are witnessing a paradigm shift in customer service.
According to a Gartner study, by 2025 80% of customer services They will stop using their own messaging channels (chats in apps and web) to use the messaging services of the best-known applications on the market.
For a long time, companies worked to develop their own chat and communication channels. They have been provided with the latest technologies to create their care tools, adjusted to their needs. However, users did not massively adopt these channels, since in many cases the experience provided was not satisfactory. On the other hand, with massive platforms such as WhatsApp or social networks, the situation was different: they are channels that people are used to and feel comfortable using.
This paradigm shift has some related advantages, not only from an economic point of view but also from a technological point of view:
→ Less dependence on the development and maintenance of proprietary technologies.
→ Greater capacity for integration with other systems.
→ Easier to automate frequent responses.
→ Possibility of incorporating conversational Artificial Intelligence for more personalized experiences.
→ Security, since in general they are conversations that are protected from interference by the same basic technology.
Faced with this, some companies saw an opportunity in the new platforms and did not take long to add the benefits of the technologies, also, to the daily management of their collaborators in a context of social distancing. The well-being assistant that we developed at Apex contemplates the technical expertise linked to emotional intelligence enhanced by artificial intelligence. With a multidisciplinary team, we designed an innovative, flexible and practical learning tool that understands the management of the challenges that people face on a daily basis, as well as providing tools to overcome them and accompany the collaborator in their workday.
For its part, the opening of applications by the technological giants through integrations, especially through the opening of the WhatsApp Cloud API, allows many companies to connect the app to their CRM (Customer Relationship Management) or ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) in order to provide a multichannel experience, with significant benefits and new opportunities for interaction with customers. For exampleprovides an immediate connection without intermediaries 24/7, the possibility of keeping the client informed about the process through simple updates, receiving immediate feedback through simple surveys and in real time, and the possibility of sending and receiving different materials (photos, documents, pdf) to speed up different processes.
We are witnessing a transition towards consolidated and accepted channels for all users, reducing the dependence on native mobile application experiences, and the costs associated with their development and maintenance, to increase digital and self-service efficiency through the applications most used by people, achieving a better customer experience.
The commitment by companies to incorporate the technology of the big players to invest time and resources in other developments more linked to the design of the customer experience is a consolidated trend.
Source: Ambito
