WhatsApp Chatbots in 2024: Use Cases & 4 Steps to Build One

For many businesses, engaging with clients on a messaging platform with ≈ 2 billion active users is a low-risk, high-reward  eCommerce strategy. 

As of May 2022, following WhatsApp Business API launched, businesses of any size can deploy chatbots on WhatsApp.  This has resulted in each type and size of businesses using WhatsApp as part of their conversational commerce strategy to communicate with clients and introduce them to their products to increase sales.

On the other hand, a lot of organizations are unaware of WhatsApp chatbots or continue to develop the chatbots on other platforms like websites and custom mobile apps only. 

In this article, we provide an in-depth guide to WhatsApp chatbots to help marketers reconsider  their technology investment choices. Regarding this, we cover:

• WhatsApp chatbot-related FAQs.
• Step by step guide for building a WhatsApp chatbot.
• Best practices you should consider to maximize bots’ benefits. 

Answers to top 4 FAQs regarding WhatsApp chatbots

4 Steps to build a WhatsApp chatbot 

If you meet WhatsApp’s requirements after looking through their restrictions and eligibility requirements, you can start creating your own WhatsApp chatbot by following these steps:

1. Download WhatsApp Business App from Google Play or Apple Store.
2. Register with a unique phone number.
3. To obtain an “Official Business Account” with a green check, you must gain access to the WhatsApp API. Businesses should now choose whether to collaborate with one of Meta’s/WhatsApp’s solution providers, or independently apply for access to the WhatsApp API. Since many of the solution providers WhatsApp collaborate with are chatbot companies and have expertise gaining access to the WhatsApp API, AIMultiple advises businesses to partner with them since they have know-how to create a WhatsApp chatbot for you. Nevertheless, if you prefer independent application then:
   • You can start with checking the website of WhatsApp Business.
   • You must create a “Meta App”. To do so:
     • Copy this URL: developers.facebook.com.
     • Go to my apps.
     • Go to create an app.
     • Answer your business related questions.
     • Pick WhatsApp and follow onboarding steps.

4. You can begin to create a chatbot on WhatsApp once you have an “Official Business Account”. If you lack the capabilities to deploy your own chatbot on WhatsApp (like most companies) you should collaborate with a chatbot company for this task. We recommend you to work with vendors that have experience on building WhatsApp chatbots to increase the chance of success of your digital transformation journey. 

If you want to learn more about the conversational commerce case studies you can read our Top 5 Conversational Commerce Examples & Success Stories article.

If you are searching for the best conversational commerce platforms to start your conversational commerce journey, you can read our Conversational Commerce Platforms: Data-driven Benchmarking article.

Top 5 Whatsapp chatbot best practices 

1. Let people your firm is available on the WhatsApp

Customers will not know that you created a WhatsApp chatbot if you do not notify them. They need to know that they can contact you over WhatsApp to get their questions answered and problems fixed.

You can share this development on your mobile app and website in this regard. It makes sense to direct customers to your WhatsApp bot using a button on your website and app. Your email and SMS signatures should include your WhatsApp number. To make it simpler for your costumes to find you, you could even go ahead and post QR codes on your physical and digital properties. 

2. Have live agents

AI-enabled chatbots  can automate a maximum of 70 to 80% of consumer inquiries. Therefore, to be able to handle almost all inquiries and maximize customer satisfaction, you need live representatives. 

The bright side is that you can maintain your chatbot up to date and teach it to respond to unusual, unexpected queries thanks to its human in the loop AI capabilities. 

With the aid of this potent mix of live chat and chatbots, you can augment your workforce, cut down on the time it takes to resolve issues, and enhance customer satisfaction by giving your clients immediate responses to all of their queries.

3. Integrate WhatsApp chatbot with your CRM system

Integrate your CRM with your WhatsApp chatbot and live chat platform to automate data flow between your customer support operations. Automated data flow makes WhatsApp chatbot retraining more efficient because data-driven insights can highlight your bot’s primary point of failure.

Additionally, system integration often creates a more productive working atmosphere.

4. Use buttons to navigate users

One of the objectives of WhatsApp chatbots is to reduce user effort. As a result, including interactive buttons in your chatbot messages would make interaction simpler and eliminate the need for the user to write text messages (see Figure 1).

Having buttons is also an effective best practice to eliminate chatbot failures. People sometimes use  unclear language or typos, which the chatbot can not understand. Using buttons ensures that your customers speak the language that your chatbot understands.

Figure 1: WhatsApp chatbot navigates user with buttons:

5. Support your text with images, gifs and videos

While text messaging is popular, you could express yourself better via the usage of images, videos, GIFs, and voice notes. Thus, we recommend companies to enrich their content with images and videos to improve customer engagement.

You can reach us if you have further questions concerning WhatsApp chatbots: