A guide for implementing WhatsApp’s business API for the BFSI sector

After countries across the globe were locked down due to Covid, banking was one of those essential businesses that was allowed to have their employees continue working in their offices. For most clients tucked safely in their homes, remote access to banking services has become a priority. Those organizations that were able to predict this and provide the same, were able to smoothly sail through the early storms of Covid. PNC Bank which rapidly condensed their 10 year 10 tech transformation plan to 2 months, saw a 75% increase in sales.

Digital transformation not only improves your sales pipelines, but also helps you retain your existing clients. According to research conducted by Digital Banking Report, a lost client costs a bank upto $400 in new acquisition costs. So, how do you offer the best remote customer experience?

Clients primarily want 2 things: A simple and easy to use UI, while businesses want Transparency and Security. The obvious choice that ticks these boxes – WhatsApp Business API for financial services. ✔️

Why WhatsApp for financial services?

WhatsApp has a user base of more than 2.1 billion users in the world. This technically makes it the most populous nation in the world. WhatsApp is one of the most used apps by people across the globe, with a 148% increase in the number of WhatsApp messages between April – June.

From a BFSI organization’s PoV, WhatsApp offers a simple pathway to connect with their clients remotely due to

1. High adoption rates, something that a lot of apps don’t really offer.

2. Secure end-to-end conversations considering the nature of transactions happening between the clients and the business.

Getting started:

Now that you know, WhatsApp is your go-to solution, the obvious first step is to get your official WhatsApp Business API account. If you don’t know how to do it, here’s a detailed step by step guide for you to get started on the WhatsApp Business API with Freshchat. 

A. On-boarding clients to your organization’s WhatsApp:

Here’s a list of methods you can use to onboard your existing clients, other than your website to inform your clients about the WhatsApp phone number.

1. E-mails:

E-mails are still a go-to platform for many companies when it comes to building awareness. In times like these, where everyone’s working remotely, the importance of e-mails is never talked about enough. For financial organizations, emails are still an important method to update clients about transactions related to their account.

With no restrictions, you can go all out by using captivating GIFs, designs, images that are hyperlinked to WhatsApp, so that whenever someone clicks on the images, they are redirected to WhatsApp.

Pro tip:hyperlinked email signatures of your support teams can also be used to redirect folks to your organization’s WhatsApp.

2. Offline advertising:

With a part of your company’s marketing budget going to PR and offline advertising, you can run ads on newspapers showcasing your WhatsApp number or attach a QR code that when scanned leads directly to WhatsApp.

3. Paid marketing:

With Digital marketing, the way forward for B2C growth, WhatsApp wanted a chunk of it too. Paid marketing activities like Facebook, Instagram ads or SERP ads when clicked can now directly open WhatsApp. 

4. OTP based login:

WhatsApp messages have an astounding 70% open rate. That’s 2x that of email and much greater than what’s achieved by using SMS. So, using WhatsApp for OTP based authentication, is a no-brainer. To help your leads sign in, you can authenticate them using a proactive message that contains a One Time Password (OTP). That message can be something like this.

Hi {{1}}, your OTP for login is {{2}}. Please note that this is valid only for the next 5 minutes.

The client automatically receives the OTP in the same conversation and pastes it to the. This OTP can also be masked using regex masking so that this input is not recorded into the system. In order to send these templates to your client and prospects, you should first get them approved by WhatsApp. Here’s a handy guide to help you do the same.

Now, that your client has logged in and is ready to go, it’s time to serve their requirements

B. Service discovery and transaction:

When it comes to financial transactions, there are two types. One where the client would prefer human interaction vs one where the client would like complete autonomy.

You can create a virtual IVR type service menu using our no-code bot builder. Your clients can use this to choose their services. Based on the input, you can route your bot or officer to help them with the completion of the task. 

Usually bot transactions can be one of the following

1. Information retrieval – Account info or Credit card info or finding the nearest ATM

2. FAQs about Savings accounts, Fixed Deposit services

3. Actions related to credit cards – application, blocking

And humans can be looped in for these type of transactions, after bots have helped answer FAQs

1. Opening and closing accounts

2. Loan applications

3. Other services and products the org might offer

You can use our multilingual bots to achieve the best possible results for regions with multiple languages. For direct transactions like loans, savings account/deposit based transactions, officers can use Freshchat’s Live Translate feature to chat with clients.

1. Information retrieval:

A lot of times, existing clients want to know their account statement, or they want to know credit card information. Most of these are Level 1 actions that don’t need human assistance. A bot connected to the organization’s CRM database is good enough to retrieve such information from the customer’s account.

This can be achieved through a custom app in Freshchat’s marketplace or using APIs.

Based on this information, the customer might want to withdraw some money from the nearest ATM. Your bots can be configured such that it gives them a list of nearby ATMs based on keyword input.

2. Frequently asked questions (FAQs):

Questions like changing the registered address, changing net banking password, or around credit card payment, loan repayment, getting a locker for deposit can be answered by our bots powered by Freddy AI.

3. Credit card related actions:

Credit Card fraud amounted up to around $24.26 bn in the USA in 2018. Missing credit cards or credit card fraud is a huge problem and usually people want to block credit cards immediately. This can be done using WhatsApp as well.

4. Opening of accounts:

Prospective clients can be helped with opening new accounts in WhatsApp directly or orgs can use Freshchat’s co-browsing feature to interact with the customer by getting permission to access their screen and help them in the opening of the accounts

5. Loan application:

Sometimes clients would want to know the documents required to apply for a loan, and usually they prefer talking to a loan officer to understand the same. Officers can directly chat with the customer and use the client’s transaction history to provide them with the best possible loan options.

6. Offers and other services:

Clients might want to know what other non-mainstream services that your organization might offer. You can either provide them with a full blown sales concierge, where the customer can receive offer details and catalogs using Freddy AI’s intent driven conversation bots and drive conversations to closures by itself or you can set it such that the bot loops in your sales team to close the deal in a matter of seconds.

C. Post transaction:

1. Transactional notifications:

Now that the client has purchased a product, your business can automatically trigger the Account_Update template and send a notification to the client that has information related to the purchase like the delivery and the invoice.

Hi {{1}}, your account has been updated with {{2}}.To check your balance, please visit {{3}}

2. Customer advocacy (Feedback and loyalty programs):

Finally ,at the end of the conversation, you can ask for feedback from your customer on WhatsApp via a bot based survey or a third party marketplace app. Based on this feedback, you can drive personal bot flows to understand the negative intent and help improve your services.

Also, for heavy credit card users, you can send a proactive message updating them with their loyalty points. Once the client replies back you can run games using bots on WhatsApp to help them redeem the loyalty points.

We made a chatbot so that you can test it out yourself by using this link.

Join organizations like Discover, Klarna, Emirates NBD, United Bank of Africa in using Freshchat for improving your customer engagement and experience.