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> Users increasingly want to talk to businesses the same way they talk with their friends and family. Citation needed, IMO. I hardly speak for most users, but

> Users increasingly want to talk to businesses the same way they talk with their friends and family. Citation needed, IMO. I hardly speak for most users, but if I had to guess, it's far more that businesses want to speak to users the same way that users talk to their friends and family, rather than the other way around. Not that this doesn't sound pretty neat, but I'm super curious where the demand from users to connect with businesses via WhatsApp is.

EwanToo 8y ago
If I want to get a problem sorted with my home ISP I need to call them and spend ages on hold, or use their poor online chat service and have much less disruption to my time. Using WhatsApp rather than a browser based system for the chat would be a much slicker client experience.
- dbspin 8y ago
  That's actually a good use case. User initiated chat with business certainly has its uses. Business instigated conversations with users however...
  - StudentStuff 8y ago
    Appointment reminders can be useful though!
mbesto 8y ago
> I'm super curious where the demand from users to connect with businesses via WhatsApp is. Simple -> WeChat and the Chinese market is the only citation you need. Your argument is probably then "but that's China" and I think that's basically the point of offering this...to test it in WhatsApp's markets where WeChat doesn't have dominance.
- simaracode 8y ago
  Whatsapp is massive outside the US and China, the rest of the world communicates with it. No other competitor comes nearly close.
  - MatthewWilkes 8y ago
    It's amazing how true that is. The last time I received an SMS from a person rather than a business was over a month ago.
AmericanChopper 8y ago
I used to do a lot of work in Asia, and it was pretty common there to see businesses have the option to use whatsapp to contact them. It was very common place to be able to contact customer care via whatsapp, or to do things like book a haircut, or restaurant etc... It also drove a lot of B2B communication.
- pmontra 8y ago
  That's inbound communication. This is outbound, with the risk it's only spam.
  - untog 8y ago
    > This is outbound, with the risk it's only spam No, the WhatsApp Business API is both in and outbound.
  - AmericanChopper 8y ago
    It was both really. I’d have customer care reps reach out to me via whatsapp in some situations.
    - pmontra 8y ago
      Do they use their own number or a company account common to every rep? In the first case it's not different from you and me messaging about business. It doesn't require anything more than the standard WhatsApp app. If they were using a common account then yes, WhatsApp would have done something new for businesses as they did with the APIs they let Twilio use.
      - AmericanChopper 8y ago
        I honestly don’t remember. My point was more that it was a pretty good customer experience that’s used quite extensively in some markets.
edgarvaldes 8y ago
I want to be able to talk to a real person when dealing with some business, in case of a problem with the service, or in case a have a doubt or question. WhatsApp comes in handy in that situation for me. But on the other hand, I dont want that business to talk to me when unsolicited.
ucaetano 8y ago
> but I'm super curious where the demand from users to connect with businesses via WhatsApp is. <insert "I think the world is like the US" meme here> Almost everywhere in the world. In the German elections, you can message local candidates directly via WhatsApp. In Brazil, you book your doctor, dentist, plumber, restaurant, get a pizza delivered, etc. over WhatsApp. In Spain you get customer support from your airline over WhatsApp. And all of this was before WhatsApp launched its business service. So this isn't just demand. This is how business is done, today, in a large number of countries around the world.
gregorymichael 8y ago
Greg from Twilio here. Living in America and not being a regular WhatsApp user, I had a similar reaction when I first heard about this. It wasn’t until I started talking to developers outside America -- especially in Brazil and India, areas where SMS is unreliable and expensive, and where WhatsApp is ubiquitous -- that I realized how powerful this product could actually be.
- yumaikas 8y ago
  Thanks for explaining that.
TYPE_FASTER 8y ago
If you are a large enterprise organization, and your customers are other companies, not everybody will have a company e-mail (especially for smaller independent shops), but everybody will have a cell phone. My dentist texts me appointment confirmations these days. I like that. Also, I've been seeing more and more people texting/messaging in a professional role as that is what they are used to (as opposed to calling, or checking e-mail).
- oarsinsync 8y ago
  > If you are a large enterprise organization, and your customers are other companies, not everybody will have a company e-mail (especially for smaller independent shops), but everybody will have a cell phone. Conversely, email is cheaper than cell phones. Few of my staff have company provided phones, but they all have company provided email addresses.
xkjkls 8y ago
I think it depends on the business. I can see myself wanting to talk to my local pub and gyro shop down the street from it similarly to how I might talk to family and friends. Do I want to talk to GEICO the same way? No.
GFischer 8y ago
"demand from users to connect with businesses via WhatsApp" In South America it's HUGE. The insurance company I used to work for even started underwriting over WhatsApp, and it was all user-driven. In countries like Brazil or my own Uruguay, there's no SMS, only WhatsApp (carrier's faults that were greedy and wanted to keep charging per SMS).
bigiain 8y ago
I kinda see this happen around me - it's pretty well known that one of the best ways of getting customer service these days is to have a million twitter followers then at-message your complaint to a brand account. The rise of that, in my opinion, is exactly mapped onto my growing disenchantment with Twitter and while not the only driver, is a big part of why I left. It seems to me, businesses have made intentional changes to ensure all other forms of contact with them are so poor and ineffectual, that you'll move those discussions into your family/friends public chat spaces because none of the private alternatives work at all. </end grumpy old man rant>

EwanToo 8y ago

If I want to get a problem sorted with my home ISP I need to call them and spend ages on hold, or use their poor online chat service and have much less disruption to my time. Using WhatsApp rather than a browser based system for the chat would be a much slicker client experience.

dbspin 8y ago
That's actually a good use case. User initiated chat with business certainly has its uses. Business instigated conversations with users however...
- StudentStuff 8y ago
  Appointment reminders can be useful though!

mbesto 8y ago

> I'm super curious where the demand from users to connect with businesses via WhatsApp is. Simple -> WeChat and the Chinese market is the only citation you need. Your argument is probably then "but that's China" and I think that's basically the point of offering this...to test it in WhatsApp's markets where WeChat doesn't have dominance.

simaracode 8y ago
Whatsapp is massive outside the US and China, the rest of the world communicates with it. No other competitor comes nearly close.
- MatthewWilkes 8y ago
  It's amazing how true that is. The last time I received an SMS from a person rather than a business was over a month ago.

AmericanChopper 8y ago

I used to do a lot of work in Asia, and it was pretty common there to see businesses have the option to use whatsapp to contact them. It was very common place to be able to contact customer care via whatsapp, or to do things like book a haircut, or restaurant etc... It also drove a lot of B2B communication.

pmontra 8y ago
That's inbound communication. This is outbound, with the risk it's only spam.
- untog 8y ago
  > This is outbound, with the risk it's only spam No, the WhatsApp Business API is both in and outbound.
- AmericanChopper 8y ago
  It was both really. I’d have customer care reps reach out to me via whatsapp in some situations.
  - pmontra 8y ago
    Do they use their own number or a company account common to every rep? In the first case it's not different from you and me messaging about business. It doesn't require anything more than the standard WhatsApp app. If they were using a common account then yes, WhatsApp would have done something new for businesses as they did with the APIs they let Twilio use.
    - AmericanChopper 8y ago
      I honestly don’t remember. My point was more that it was a pretty good customer experience that’s used quite extensively in some markets.

edgarvaldes 8y ago

I want to be able to talk to a real person when dealing with some business, in case of a problem with the service, or in case a have a doubt or question. WhatsApp comes in handy in that situation for me. But on the other hand, I dont want that business to talk to me when unsolicited.

ucaetano 8y ago

> but I'm super curious where the demand from users to connect with businesses via WhatsApp is. <insert "I think the world is like the US" meme here> Almost everywhere in the world. In the German elections, you can message local candidates directly via WhatsApp. In Brazil, you book your doctor, dentist, plumber, restaurant, get a pizza delivered, etc. over WhatsApp. In Spain you get customer support from your airline over WhatsApp. And all of this was before WhatsApp launched its business service. So this isn't just demand. This is how business is done, today, in a large number of countries around the world.

gregorymichael 8y ago

Greg from Twilio here. Living in America and not being a regular WhatsApp user, I had a similar reaction when I first heard about this. It wasn’t until I started talking to developers outside America -- especially in Brazil and India, areas where SMS is unreliable and expensive, and where WhatsApp is ubiquitous -- that I realized how powerful this product could actually be.

yumaikas 8y ago
Thanks for explaining that.

TYPE_FASTER 8y ago

If you are a large enterprise organization, and your customers are other companies, not everybody will have a company e-mail (especially for smaller independent shops), but everybody will have a cell phone. My dentist texts me appointment confirmations these days. I like that. Also, I've been seeing more and more people texting/messaging in a professional role as that is what they are used to (as opposed to calling, or checking e-mail).

oarsinsync 8y ago
> If you are a large enterprise organization, and your customers are other companies, not everybody will have a company e-mail (especially for smaller independent shops), but everybody will have a cell phone. Conversely, email is cheaper than cell phones. Few of my staff have company provided phones, but they all have company provided email addresses.

xkjkls 8y ago

I think it depends on the business. I can see myself wanting to talk to my local pub and gyro shop down the street from it similarly to how I might talk to family and friends. Do I want to talk to GEICO the same way? No.

GFischer 8y ago

"demand from users to connect with businesses via WhatsApp" In South America it's HUGE. The insurance company I used to work for even started underwriting over WhatsApp, and it was all user-driven. In countries like Brazil or my own Uruguay, there's no SMS, only WhatsApp (carrier's faults that were greedy and wanted to keep charging per SMS).

bigiain 8y ago

I kinda see this happen around me - it's pretty well known that one of the best ways of getting customer service these days is to have a million twitter followers then at-message your complaint to a brand account. The rise of that, in my opinion, is exactly mapped onto my growing disenchantment with Twitter and while not the only driver, is a big part of why I left. It seems to me, businesses have made intentional changes to ensure all other forms of contact with them are so poor and ineffectual, that you'll move those discussions into your family/friends public chat spaces because none of the private alternatives work at all. </end grumpy old man rant>