With approximately two billion monthly active users around the world, it’s no wonder that businesses are turning to the WhatsApp Business Platform to connect with their customers. It’s possible to use this conversational messaging tool to reduce customer churn.
First, you need to understand your typical customer’s journey, from start to finish and all the wins, challenges and emotions they experience in between. This will help you determine where (and why) your customers leave.
Here are some of the main reasons for customer churn and how you can overcome them.
- Price – prioritise customer onboarding and education so they understand the value of your product/service and feel that it’s worth the cost
- Product or market fit – reduce the likelihood of customers realising they can’t achieve their goals using your product/service by establishing sales marketing alignment
- Customer experience – ensure customers feel valued by your brand and everything associated with it (marketing, social media, sales, customer service etc)
But of course, there’s more to it. Here’s how you can use the WhatsApp Business Platform to reduce customer churn.
- Gather customer feedback to understand expectations
- Provide omnichannel customer support
- Keep customers engaged
- Keep an eye on customer satisfaction
- Ensure customers have all the information they need when they need it
1. Gather customer feedback to understand expectations
Customer expectations are constantly changing and it’s the businesses who stay ahead that can ultimately leave their customers feeling delighted. Imagine how pleased you’d be if a business fulfilled an expectation you hadn’t voiced out loud or even realised you had.
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) and feedback surveys are some ways you can gather what people really think about your business and products/services. But getting feedback isn’t easy. Customers may intend to complete the survey but forget. Or they might not realise there was a survey to complete as the email was buried in their inbox.
Or, they may not want to do the survey because it requires too much effort from their end.
With WhatsApp Business Platform, you can send customers surveys via rich messaging. As it’s built into the messaging platform, they don’t need to click on a link and be taken out of the app. You can also design a workflow whereby responses are automated and depend on your customer’s answer. This makes the process of filling out a survey easier and more engaging.
2. Provide omnichannel customer support
According to PwC’s The Future of CX report, speed, convenience and service that’s friendly and knowledgeable are among the top factors valued by customers. In fact, nearly half of all customers around the world (42%) would pay more for greater convenience.
That means you must be able to offer round-the-clock support across a variety of channels. WhatsApp Business Platform can help, thanks to:
- Chatbot functionalities that can send automated responses
- Asynchronous communication so both your customer support agents and customers can respond when they’re available
- Chat history is automatically saved so the next agent can quickly pick up where the former left off. The customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves and the conversation can seamlessly continue
3. Keep customers engaged
Engaged customers are less likely to leave you because they’re interacting with your brand. From your marketing and sales content to emails and social media posts, your customers are engaging with your materials because they find it valuable.
A solution like WhatsApp Business Platform can integrate with your CRM system so your teams can easily access the information they need to create personalised, engaging content for customers on-demand. This integration also makes it easier to keep customer data up-to-date.
Additionally, you can facilitate richer interactions due to:
- WhatsApp naturally supporting conversational messaging
- Built-in functionality within WhatsApp that allows you to personalise messages beyond what SMS and email can allow
- Built-in user feedback controls that help you ensure engagement stays high over time
4. Keep an eye on customer satisfaction
Before leaving your brand, customers often make their way through a ‘dissatisfaction journey’, which could go as follows:
- Complaining about your business and its products/services more often than usual
- No longer responding to communications
- No longer engaging with communications, including promotions, discounts and upgrades
- Showing signs that indicate price sensitivity
- Not paying bills on time
- Threatening to leave
Prevent churn by keeping a close eye on the above. Seems simple, right? Of course, it’s not so easy in practice. It’s difficult to monitor all of this at scale, not just across your customer base but also across all of your channels.
WhatsApp Business Platform seamlessly integrates with your CRM system. So, all of the data gathered within your customers’ go-to communication channel can easily feed into your CRM, keeping it centralised. This makes it simpler to not only manage customer communications at scale but also monitor satisfaction levels.
5. Ensure customers have all the information they need when they need it
It frustrates customers if they can’t easily find the answers to their questions. They don’t want to have to reach out to a customer service or sales representative. But if they have to, this process should be straightforward.
With WhatsApp Business Platform, you can set up a chatbot that handles frequently asked questions. This automation means these kinds of queries can be quickly answered, giving customers the quick response they want, while freeing up your reps to handle more complex questions – such as personalised price quotes or packages.
Want to learn more about the possibilities of WhatsApp Business Platform and how it can reduce customer churn?
According to Bain & Company, a mere 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits from 25% to 95%. So, it’s no wonder businesses are looking to reduce customer churn. WhatsApp for Business Platform can play a key role in helping you craft an effective customer journey that ultimately reduces churn.
To learn more about this solution and the business benefits it can offer, download our guide below.
