WhatsApp Business API in the UK: how fintech services like WorldRemit use social messaging to meet customer needs

The key principles of top-notch customer service remain consistent regardless of the industry you’re in. When engaging with customers, promoting an approachable, helpful, and respectful environment makes it easier to pinpoint your customer’s needs and meet their demands efficiently. 35% of customers would be prepared to pay more to guarantee excellent service, according to July 2022 UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI). A happy customer is more likely to return to your business and develop brand loyalty.

As a $37.3 billion-worth industry in the UK where customer service is everything, more fintech companies are turning towards messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, to be instantly accessible 24/7 for their customers. In fact, only 35% of customers in the UK are willing to wait 30-60 seconds for a response on live chat before logging off. This is why understanding the strategies to maximise WhatsApp Business API’s features is vital to strengthening your customer service quality amidst tough market competition. 

What is WhatsApp Business API?  

More businesses are opting for WhatsApp Business API, the paid version of WhatsApp, as a way to leverage its advanced features and boost revenue.

Unlike the other two versions of WhatsApp, which are free-to-download apps, WhatsApp Business API is a developer tool that is hosted on Meta’s infrastructure. To use WhatsApp Business API, you must first register your business with WhatsApp, get “Green-Tick” verified, and then integrate the API with your chosen WhatsApp Business Solution Providers (BSPs) 

Key WhatsApp Business API features 

Upon approval of an Official WhatsApp Business account, businesses are granted access to advanced features such as: 

• Official “Green Tick” verified business account
• Multiple login access to manage contacts
• Send mass personalized messages to customers without the risk of being blocked
• Integration with other Chatbot, CRM systems 

SleekFlow is an official partner of 360dialog, a WhatsApp verified BSP. By connecting to SleekFlow, you can uncover the full potential of a truly all-in-one omnichannel solution with functions including: 

• Track and analyse conversation data, including delivery rate, read rate, and response rate on a unified dashboard through SleekFlow
• Develop an intelligent chatbot to set auto-reply and auto-assignment to users through SleekFlow
• In-chat payment links and product catalogue displays through SleekFlow 

How banking and financial services can use WhatsApp Business API

When it comes to asking others to handle their hard-earned money, consumers often have high expectations of customer service. Issues, like having extra charges on a credit card or being unable to transfer money to an intended recipient, can cause great inconveniences to customers that could potentially drive them away for good. In the fintech industry, the level of promptness, security, and personalisation significantly impact customer experiences. 

Let’s dive deeper to see how WhatsApp Business API fills the gaps in these decision-making factors. 

Data security and protection

As conversations between finance companies and their customers often pertain to confidential information, WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption (E2EE) ensures that the sender and receiver are the only ones who can read or listen or see what is sent. Even though WhatsApp is the intermediary server that passes the message along, the message’s encryption makes it indecipherable to WhatsApp itself. 

WhatsApp’s E2EE also prevents encrypted messages from data tampering, thus guaranteeing that any sensitive information is protected during transit. Furthermore, WhatsApp’s Business API is GDPR-compliant, the EU’s new data protection law. 

Highly personalised customer experience 

The quality of customer service is a make-or-break factor for financial products or services in the market. Google’s survey shows that 68% of respondents are more likely to buy from a business that offers convenient communications, implying that mobile-friendly, instant messaging could be the optimal way for businesses to reach their consumers. 

As customers increasingly rely on social messaging channels to transact and interact on a daily basis, businesses in the finance sector are taking advantage of platforms, such as WhatsApp Business API, Skype/Zoom, and voice assistants, to enhance customer experience. These channels allow financial services to engage with customers more intuitively, creating golden opportunities to transform digital touch points into revenue sources. 

Find out how Ola Tech, a refurbished electronics marketplace, built customer confidence and increased 20% of sales volume with SleekFlow.

Cost-efficient

Conversational banking, the omnichannel strategy to use social chats (i.e. WhatsApp Business API) to service customers, can accelerate revenue growth by 25% and reduce costs by up to 30%, according to research conducted by Accenture. With the help of automation rules and chatbots, businesses can save manpower and time, thus cost, of actively engaging with customers manually. 

Fast response time and reliable connection

The green tick next to your WhatsApp Business account ensures that your business phone number will never be blocked by your customers. Since the fintech industry When sending mass messages, many WhatsApp Business account users have experienced the issue of being blocked by the recipients.

Examples of businesses using WhatsApp Business API

If you want to learn more about the fintech companies that are taking advantage of WhatsApp Business API to engage customers, here are a few examples. 

WorldRemit

WorldRemit is the first UK fintech company to integrate with WhatsApp’s Business API. Its service aims to make international money transfers online quick, safe, and at a low cost for its 4 million customers. Here’s how: 

• WhatsApp’s automation feature enables the business to keep the service cost low for their target customers, mainly migrant or foreign workers who need to send money back home to their families. 
• WhatsApp’s secure end-to-end encryption builds customer’s trust for them to handle their money
• WhatsApp sends automatically triggered messages for payers and payees to get real-time updates on their money transferral status, guaranteeing a sense of security and accountability 

For a company that has been celebrated by the industry for its exceptional customer satisfaction rates, with award recognitions for Outstanding Value and accumulated over 125,000+ 5-star reviews online, WorldRemit must be doing something right. 

Worldline

Worldline, the leader in payments and transactional services in Europe, adopted WhatsApp Business API to reach their customers in a reliable and secure way. Their reason for choosing WhatsApp API is three-fold:  

• WhatsApp is the world’s most widely used messaging channel so it is naturally woven into its customers’ daily lives. Their presence and accessibility on WhatsApp allow their customers to be more inclined to engage with Worldline for assistance. 
• WhatsApp Business API is easily integrated into their native mobile messaging app so that their internal teams can manage a large volume of contacts with automation and integration. By building its own automation settings and chatbots, Worldline is able to provide updates such as invoice payments, travel updates, payment confirmations, shipping alerts, and more. 
• WhatsApp Business API offers reliable connectivity and security to enable 24/7 customer service, which complies with the company’s security regulations. Worldline integrates other secure solutions, such as pay-by-link solutions, digital verification, CRMs, ERPs, ticketing tools, etc., to protect its customers’ privacy. 

Since Facebook launched WhatsApp Business API in 2018, there are already many companies that have expanded their social presence, incorporating WhatsApp Business API services into their omnichannel strategy. As the way businesses and customers interactions are evolving to conversational messages, Worldline is committed to staying ahead of the game in order to provide enhanced customer experience to our solutions and to our clients. - ​​Santi Ristol, Director of the Mobile Competence Center and member of the Worldline Scientific Community

SumUp

Serving over 4 million businesses, SumUp is a UK-based fintech company that gives affordable, easy-to-use payment solutions to small businesses. Their products range from card readers to remote payment solutions including invoices, gift cards, payment links, and more. SumUp uses WhatsApp Business API to simplify the customer experience when paying small businesses:

• SumUp can send Payment Links in chat so that its customers can complete the payment only in a few clicks, without having to download an app or create an account. The status of payments will also be automatically tracked. If there’s an outstanding invoice, the payment reminder message can also be automatically triggered. 
• WhatsApp Business API’s encryption bolsters customers’ trust as SumUp integrates it with 3D Secure 2, a security measure that helps verify customer identities and prevent fraud. 

How SleekFlow can help businesses in the UK use WhatsApp Business API to enhance customer engagement 

We have now established the reasons why WhatsApp Business API’s advanced features appeal to the fintech industry, where customer service quality is crucial to a company’s success. 

A secure and reliable omnichannel solution like SleekFlow can complement WhatsApp Business API to further boost your customer’s experience, which can drive more sales and revenue within the fintech industry or beyond. 

Are you in the finance industry? If so, check out how SleekFlow’s omnichannel Finance solution can be tailored specifically to you and your clients’ needs. 

All-in-one omnichannel solution to manage customer conversations

In addition to WhatsApp, SleekFlow’s all-in-one omnichannel solution allows fintech or other e-commerce businesses to offer a comprehensive customer journey by integrating SMS, live chat, and popular social messaging platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram. Businesses can have multiple log-in access to a unified inbox, where sales, customer service, and marketing teams can organise and manage large volumes of contacts at once. 

Automation rules to service customers 24/7

Through SleekFlow, businesses can create automation rules, such as segmenting and assigning contacts to customer service representatives, routing incoming messages and sending auto-replies for urgent enquiries, and maintaining customer loyalty with personalised birthday wishes and welcome greetings, etc. Fintech businesses can also build intelligent chatbots to ask qualifying questions to identify customer intent, and then introduce relevant services or information across to convert leads into loyal customers.

Analytics dashboard for visibility on customer activity 

SleekFlow’s customisable dashboard gives businesses a holistic overview of their conversion rates, active conversation data, and average response times. Having access to unified data across all channels enables businesses to draw insights and implement new strategies to improve their customer service experience.