Jacob Morrow
2024-05-30 17:15:56
The generative AI boom has brought us many innovations, one of which is chatbots. Today, chatbots have become the key to increasing engagement, customer satisfaction, resolution time, and revenue growth. In fact, hundreds of thousands of businesses are now opting for WhatsApp bot solutions to engage with their customers.
A WhatsApp bot is offering customers a modernized communication experience. So, if you are also looking to learn how to create a WhatsApp chatbot, then you are reading the right article. In this guide, we will first clear your concepts about the WhatsApp bot and then discuss the three simple steps to create a bot on WhatsApp. Lastly, we will present a few real-world examples of WhatsApp bots. So, let's get started!
Part 1. What is a WhatsApp Bot?
A WhatsApp bot is an automated communication system that offers your customers real-time conversations directly in WhatsApp. It uses AI to generate responses from pre-trained data and answer customer questions. It can have back-and-forth human-like chats with customers using natural language processing.
A WhatsApp bot can answer customer queries about products/services, offer coupons to drive sales, handle bookings, process orders directly, and offer top-notch customer support. These automated customer interactions help businesses uplift customer support and engagement and increase customer satisfaction and sales.
The key aspects of a WhatsApp AI chatbot include:
- Instant communication with customers without delays.
- 24/7 availability.
- Handle multiple conversations simultaneously.
- Consistent and accurate responses.
- Personalized experience.
In short, a bot in WhatsApp is a perfect way to offer customers the modernized and instant responses they are looking for in today's fast-paced era.
Part 2. What Can Business Do with WhatsApp Bot?
WhatsApp bot is no longer considered a choice but a necessity for customer engagement and competitive edge. It brings many benefits to the table that businesses need to fulfill rapidly changing customer preferences.
Here's what business can do with WhatsApp chatbot:
1. Enhance Customer Support
Most of the time, customers have questions about the products/services, order status, returns, and other similar queries. A WhatsApp bot can provide instant and accurate responses to such queries. This means no wait time and improved customer satisfaction. In fact, a well-trained WhatsApp AI chatbot can resolve 95% of customer support inquiries without involving human agents.
2. Increase Leads and Sales
A WhatsApp bot can have interactive conversations with customers. You can use it to send personalized promotions or recommend products based on customer preferences. For instance, if the customer is asking for a discount, the bot can instantly offer a coupon code. Such practices increase leads and sales, as customers love getting personalized experiences. In fact, a WhatsApp chatbot can increase lead generation by 5x and a conversion rate of 45-60%.
3. Reduce Costs
WhatsApp bot is an excellent way to save costs for customer service activities. Since the bot on WhatsApp can handle most of the queries, it means you require fewer human agents. Secondly, it operates 24/7 without additional labor costs.
In addition, the WhatsApp AI chatbot can handle more queries as the business grows without requiring more resources. All these attributes help save significant costs. According to statistics, chatbots are going to help save $11 billion annually in support costs by 2025 for healthcare, banking, and retail sectors.
4. A 24/7 Communication Channel
Today's customers need abrupt answers to their queries. 53% of customers are very likely to abandon their cart if they aren't able to find fast answers to their queries. When it comes to customer support queries, many consumers will first explore the solution on the web, and if they don't find what they're looking for, they expect to reach out to businesses and get prompt responses.
With WhatsApp bot, you can offer customers a 24/7 communication channel. This way, you can resolve their issues promptly and capture leads autonomously.
5. Other Activities Possible with WhatsApp Bot
WhatsApp bot offers endless possibilities for interacting and engaging with customers. Some of the other activities you can do with WhatsApp AI chatbot include:
- Ramp up engagement by running daily quizzes and games over chat.
- Automate order processing.
- Order tracking and updates.
- Collect feedback.
- Automate reservations and bookings.
- Run marketing campaigns.
In short, a chatbot in WhatsApp is the perfect way to offer customers a modernized service experience and intelligently increase leads and conversions.
Part 3. How to Create a WhatsApp Chatbot in 3 Steps?
Now that we have cleared the basics of WhatsApp chatbot and its usefulness, let's get to the main discussion of this guide, i.e., how to create a WhatsApp bot.
You may think that creating a WhatsApp bot requires technical configurations and coding. However, the reality is that the entire process is click-based and requires no technical configurations or coding.
All you have to do is:
- Step 1. Get WhatsApp Business API
- Step 2. Choose a Bot Builder Tool
- Step 3. Launch and Promote WhatsApp Chatbot
Let's now uncover in detail the above three steps:
Step 1. Get WhatsApp Business API
The first step is to get the WhatsApp Business API. It is essential in order to enable the bot to interact with customers on WhatsApp.
To access WhatsApp Business API, make sure you have a WhatsApp Business account with a phone number registered as your WhatsApp Business phone number.
Go to Meta Developer and follow the instructions given here to create a Meta app and get WhatsApp Business API. After completing these steps, you will have the "Phone Number ID", "WhatsApp Business ID", and "System Access Token". These IDs are required to link the bot to WhatsApp.
Step 2. Choose a Bot Builder Tool
Next, you have to pick a WhatsApp bot builder tool to create the bot. There are plenty of bot builder tools available today to choose from. However, the one that dominates with intuitive interface, intelligent capabilities, and seamless integration is GPTBots.
GPTBots is a powerful AI bot builder tool that provides a no-code platform to create chatbots. It provides a click-based interface to easily build and train AI bots.
The key benefits of using GPTBots include:
- No-code bot building.
- Pre-designed templates to use in one click, such as customer service, lead generator, and more.
- Train the bot easily using your own business knowledge base, including websites, files, spreadsheets, online text, Google Drive, Q&A, etc.
- Construct a bot using visual flows.
- Debug mode to fine-tune bot parameters/answers.
- Assigned a company API.
- Seamless bot integration with WhatsApp, Zapier, Discord, and Slack.
In short, GPTBots offers a one-stop, complete platform to build a simple to complex AI chatbot for your business.
So, head to the GPTBots website and create an account to get started. Once you are in the main dashboard, click "New bot" and begin creating the bot.
Step 3. Launch and Promote the WhatsApp Chatbot
Once you have created the bot with GPTBots, the next step is to integrate it into WhatsApp. For that, click "Integrations" from the left sidebar and select "WhatsApp by Meta".
Enter the "Phone Number ID", "WhatsApp Business ID", and "System Access Token" you noted in the first step. Click "Submit" and note down the "Callback URL" and "Verification Code".
Go to Meta App > WhatsApp > Configuration. Click "Edit" and enter the "Callback URL" and "Verification Code".
Now, click the "Manage" button. Tick the "messages" column and click "Done".
That's it! You have now successfully created and launched the WhatsApp bot. Now, you can test it out by sending the message to your WhatsApp Business number.
Part 4. Best Examples of WhatsApp Chatbot
Many businesses are now using WhatsApp chatbots to interact with customers. Let's take a look at a few of the best examples of WhatsApp chatbots:
1. E-Commerce
WhatsApp bots have been really helpful for e-commerce businesses. They can provide customers with product catalogs and product suggestions or address their answers about products.
The Barbary's Bakery WhatsApp chatbot is a perfect example. When the customer asked about sourdough, it provided the image, price, and button to add it to the cart.
2. Insurance
WhatsApp bot is helpful for insurance companies in handling insurance claims or general queries about insurance. LAQO Insurance built a generative AI chatbot for WhatsApp to handle customer queries. According to the company, the chatbot was able to take care of 30% of queries.
3. Customer Service
WhatsApp chatbot can handle plenty of customer service activities. It can confirm order placements/cancellations, provide shipping updates, send appointment reminders, answer FAQs, and much more. Below is an example of the Uptown Cosmetics WhatsApp bot that is proficiently handling customer queries about the order status.
Similarly, Plantix is an app that can detect plant pathogens via its image recognition technology. For people who quickly want the answer or want to test it out before downloading the app, Plantix created a WhatsApp bot. The bot allows users to describe the issue by text or upload the image to get the crop disease analysis.
Another example is ABC agency, which sends customers an appointment reminder to get final confirmation or reschedule it for later.
4. Leads Generation
When it comes to lead generation, the chatbot in WhatsApp can contribute a lot. The best example here is the Nivea Cocoa Shades campaign. In this campaign, Nivea built a WhatsApp chatbot where people can share their photos and get a stylized image version of their own personal skin tone. The campaign was a massive success, as it led Nivea to achieve 207% of its reach target.
5. E-commerce Automation and Digital Sales
Chat robot in WhatsApp can offer complete e-commerce automation. It can ask customers a series of questions and then offer personalized product recommendations and instant purchase through the chat. H&M Kik Bot is a perfect example here. It offers an automated shopping experience where customers can browser the latest collections, receive personalized style recommendations, and finalize purchases.
Conclusion
The expanding capabilities and features of WhatsApp Business API Platforms have made it possible to leverage generative AI and offer customers a modernized experience. Today, 80% of businesses utilize chatbots, while AI handles 85% of consumer interactions.
Therefore, it's time for you to uplift your game with a WhatsApp bot. The above steps have shown how easy it is to create a bot in WhatsApp with GPTBots. So, get right to it! Get GPTBots and follow the above three simple steps to create your first WhatsApp chatbot right now.
Get Started For FreeLearn more GPTBots and make it easier for your users to start conversations today.
