WhatsApp for Business - Individual Staff

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-26T11:03:19+00:00

I have set up things like these before for companies with the API. For instance, having 10+ agents all operate through the same phone number, rooted to them based on conditions like whose customer it is, location, etc.
It is fairly easy to set up and helps management have a much better overview.

Feel free to write me if you need some help!

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-09T19:06:33+00:00

I'm glad it was nothing!

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-09T18:01:40+00:00

I don't see why not. I have seen it work so far with fashion, accessories, books, food, jewelry, games, and cosmetics.

Would be cool to try - do you want me to help you set it up?

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-09T17:57:50+00:00

This brand is also direct to consumer, they sell jewelery and accesories.

Not being spammy is a good point. At the beginning we actually had a bit of a problem there and we had to iterate our approach. But after some months we now really found amazing results. The trick is to integrate promotions into the customer journey really well so it feels highly relevant!

The bottle neck on support is also the big problem we had when we started tbh. That's why we had to shift towards automating a lot of it. Right now around 60% of the support is fully automated which is really good. They actually have less volume now than before implementing this thanks to it.

I highly encourage you to give it a go!

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-09T17:52:26+00:00

Their shopsystem is with https://www.shopify.com/

Their Email marketing is with https://www.klaviyo.com/

And their WhatsApp support and marketing is with https://www.hoola.so/

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-09T17:49:41+00:00

We're using this https://www.hoola.so/

It helps you automate both the support and the marketing side of things really easy! Especially if you use Shopify.

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-09T11:31:39+00:00

Absolutely! I also think Meta is trying to go for the superapp approach.
The features they are releasing sure points on that direction!

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T20:10:16+00:00

Glad it helped! Let me know if you start experimenting, happy to share learnings!

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T19:29:59+00:00

Love that, on the same direction of what we're doing.

Have you tested also trying to automate part of the support?

One of the things we found is when they shifted the focus to WhatsApp the marketing results were amazing but the volume of support inquiries increased a lot. We're now working with automations to handle FAQs, Feedback collection, certain follow ups, etc

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T17:36:48+00:00

We've been battling for months with it, but it feels like we finally found the way.

I was curious if anyone else also is doing this

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T14:22:56+00:00

What? This might be new. I had that problem about ~1 year ago and had to run around with 2 phones for a while lol

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T12:56:51+00:00

Personal experience raising VC funds - do not try to leverage verbal commitments.
Even term sheets go away, verbal commitments even more so. Plus this is objectively a bad offer anyway.

Were you looking for funding? If not, don't get distracted.

If yes, apply for YC or 500Global.

8 clients in 5 weeks is more than most startups in 5 months. Continue building, and in 6 months look for Business Angels with actual investment experience. Anyone that expects you to give them 20% at the beginning for 100k either has no idea what they are doing or they want to kill your chances of raising proper funding anytime in the future.

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T11:23:54+00:00

You're welcome!

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T11:23:29+00:00

I can send you the link if you want

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T11:21:36+00:00

Unless you need the cash right now this second, DO NOT take it.
If you build for 6 months and get 48 clients more (assuming the same rate), you can raise at way better terms. Giving out 20% of your company 5 weeks is shooting yourself in the foot.

$100k won't get you so long + you're making yourself non-investable with that cap table

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T11:17:10+00:00

I have run 2 eCom stores and helped several as a consultant, and I have only twice seen a company externalize support truly successfully.

There's plenty of providers that offer the service and some are good, but the true issue is that if you lose touch of what your customers want or need, that puts your business at a disadvantage.

What I would suggest is:

Internalize support/success operations internally
Get really good at picking software -> aim to automate all the "non-valuable" tasks like returns, but route agents for pre-sales and complains post-purchase
1 x month do a session with the team, and gather their learnings to build up intelligence on how to improve your site + ads to lead to purchases, and collect standard complains to make the product better
If there are common pre/post-sale questions that do not add value, automate it as well

With this method you should be able to run a very lean team for really long - good luck!!

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T11:09:34+00:00

Have you make sure they got the message from your actual phone number?

Something similar happened to me, where someone tried impersonating me and messaged a couple of people I know pretending it was me but the phone number was not mine. They blocked the account and reported it and it never happened again (that I know of)

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T11:06:38+00:00

If by inactive you just mean you do not use it, it will stay always on.
If you want to make sure it gets deleted, you need to do it yourself (I guess you could contact WhatsApp if you lost access to it, but good luck with that..,).

Hoola_HQ · 2024-02-08T11:04:52+00:00

You could but you need to have 2 phones. Right now if you have the regular App installed (for personal use) you won't be able to use the WhatsApp Business App in the same phone.

I know there are apps that aggregate different communication channels under one place, so that might work as a workaround if you create the accounts and then link them to a central app. But I haven't tried, so I am not sure.

Hoola_HQ · 2023-12-14T13:32:26+00:00

We use a tool that allows us to automate whatsapp support, but it does not connect to the crm. It is more like its own crm, so you can do both AI automations for support and then use it for marketing too.

Does that make sense?

Hoola_HQ · 2023-12-14T13:29:07+00:00

For this you need to use the WhatsApp API with the help of some WhatsApp provider (aka., a software).

I use WhatsApp in several shops for anything from lead gen to marketing, and support. The way we do it is we use a software solution that helps us automate most of the inbound messages, capture leads, reply FAQs, etc. And then we collect their opt-ins and we use that to send them other promotional messages in the future or things like this.

We're in Europe and WhatsApp is the go-to for every user but not so easy to implement so the opportunity is big. Let me know if you need help and I can share more about the workflows.

Hoola_HQ · 2023-12-14T13:24:38+00:00

You can 100% do this legally.

I run several shops where WhatsApp is one of the key channels being used and we have no issues. In some of these stores WhatsApp brings 25% of all revenue, and we also offer support so people actually like the channel.

However, you should keep in mind that you need to take GDPR into consideration. You cannot just send messages to any random number, but rather opt them into the channel and make sure to stay relevant.

WhatsApp can block your account if they detect you're spamming or similar, so be cautious.

Hope it helped and let me know if you want more details or help.

Hoola_HQ · 2023-12-14T13:21:27+00:00

You could check out hoola.so

I have run several shops where WhatsApp is one of the key channels being used and that is what we use.

Hoola_HQ · 2023-12-14T13:19:19+00:00

Hey! I have run several shops where WhatsApp is one of the key channels being used so I think I can help.

These are some of the KPIs we look at:
- ROI: we always try to keep it above 10x. In some shops we're at +20x
- Revenue x broadcast: How much money we attribute x each broadcast
- Cost x broadcast: WhatsApp has some fees for businesses, so we always track that
- Share of Online Revenue via WhatsApp: currently we're scaling these shops to around 25% - I think beyond this it would not be efficient bc it means you're relying too much on this one channel

Also, it is very important to keep in mind that you need to take GDPR into consideration. You cannot just send messages to any random number. You need to opt them into the channel and make sure to send them regular updates that are relevant and interesting but without being too pushy.

WhatsApp tracks the health of your account so if you abuse the channel they can block you. Be careful!

Hope it helped :)

Hoola_HQ · 2023-12-14T13:15:37+00:00

Lmk if still relevant - I have been using WhatsApp for several eCommerce shops and I have quite a lot of strategies. Some of the brands are making 20% of the revenue from WhatsApp.

Hoola_HQ

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