CRM solutions provider Salesforce has partnered with WhatsApp to enable Salesforce customers to communicate with consumers through the messaging platform.
The integration will enable businesses to sell, market, and offer support all in one conversation, increasing customer engagement and driving sales. Further, brands can seamlessly target specific audiences with real-time data available in the newly launched customer data platform – Salesforce Genie – and provide highly personalized experiences. By doing so, brands will be able to set Click-to-WhatsApp ads on Facebook and Instagram and guide customers to start a one-to-one conversation.
In addition, brands can include images, videos or other media in messages to improve engagement.
“Our customers are engaging audiences in the U.S. and globally, which requires them to constantly find ways to improve the customer experience by connecting every customer touchpoint into a source of truth to create truly personalized experiences, at scale. Whatsapp-first business messaging enables every Salesforce customer to provide personal and conversational experiences that increase sales, improve customer service, and engage customers wherever they are,”said Michael Affronti, General Manager of Messaging at Salesforce
As the importance of customer experience hits an “all-time high” according to recent Salesforce research, the integration with WhatsApp comes as no surprise. With more than 100 million messages sent by businesses on this platform daily, it appears to be that messaging is the go-to communication channel for a slew of consumers.
“Our expanded partnership with Salesforce is an exciting milestone, and it will significantly scale our ability to help brands offer even better customer experiences on WhatsApp. Between our two companies, we share the belief that messaging is the next era for businesses, and together we’ll help more brands get started with WhatsApp to increase customer engagement, accelerate sales, and drive better outcomes for their business and for their customers,” said Matt Idema, VP of Business Messaging at Meta.
Integrations across the Platform
Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud, and Commerce Cloud applications – three modules within the Salesforce CRM platform – will integrate with WhatsApp to enhance customer service messaging.
Salesforce customers can create, send, and manage customer conversations throughout the customer journey by using Journey Builder and WhatsApp.
When customers receive a notification with a reminder about an order in WhatsApp, brands can include discount deals or promo codes for a new or related product in the same conversation. Then, customers can choose whether or not they want to add a new product to their next order. By leveraging the integration with Marketing Cloud, marketers can personalize interactions on WhatsApp based on AI-fueled insights drawn from Salesforce or other data sources.
AI and automation capabilities enhance sales and support services through AI and automation, reducing support wait times. Organizations can deploy AI-powered chatbots to communicate with customers via WhatsApp which contributed to increased agent productivity.
Customers can expect the Salesforce Integration with WhatsApp Business Platform for Marketing Cloud to be generally available in December 2022 while additional integrations are planned to be generally available in the coming months.
