[PODCAST] Can WhatsApp be a sales channel for a business? Hubtype's experience
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 6:05 am
In this episode of Sage Advice Podcast, “Business management as the key to success” , Joan Boluda explains to us, with the help of Eric Marcos, co-founder of Hubtype, how to sell through WhatsApp and offer customers channels that allow us to better meet their needs.
WhatsApp gives potential customers the immediacy they need to clarify their doubts.
In Spain, you cannot pay via WhatsApp, but you can offer the sales experience.
How far can a business go in using WhatsApp? Are you making the most of this tool for the benefit of your business? Can you sell through WhatsApp ? We have conceptualized this application as a place to send messages, images, audios and create groups.
This messaging app par excellence has these as its main functions, but once bots arrived, the service itself responded automatically. Then WhatsApp Business czechia email list or the WhatsApp API appeared on the scene. Advances that have given rise to numerous new functions that you can take advantage of to optimize your sales and your relationship with customers .
Start of marked textTWEET IT! Can WhatsApp be a sales channel for your business? Find out how to sell on WhatsApp and offer personalized attention to your customers in the latest episode of the Sage Advice Podcast.End of marked text
From the application's own interface, you can manage some real wonders, as we discussed in our latest episode of the Sage Advice Podcast. You can view catalogues, answer frequently asked questions from potential customers and even act as a direct sales channel. To go into more depth on this, we spoke with Eric Marcos, the co-founder and CTO of Hubtype , a startup that provides WhatsApp business solutions.
Artificial intelligence has become the core of the chatbot industry, as Marcos points out. Introducing this innovation to virtual assistants has completely changed their use and functionality. But everything starts much earlier.
Creating a company focused on messaging features
Hubtype is the company that Eric created with his partner Marc Caballé seven years ago. The idea came about at a calçotada they were going to, but they got stranded with their car. To pick them up, they shared their location with the tow truck manager via WhatsApp and there they realized that this solution should be scalable to any type of company.
Therefore, they set out to create a tool that would help all companies , regardless of the sector, to have a presence on this channel. Specifically, their company seeks to make the relationship between company and customers better and more fluid. To do this, messaging applications, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, work as a solution to give the customer what they need.
Answering a customer's questions quickly and directly is the best way to build customer loyalty. That's why these tools are so effective.
The convenience that consumers have in contacting the person in charge or the company immediately and receiving an answer to their question is incomparable.
Added value of user experience
The “problem” with this comes when you have to respond to many clients, or when you have to book services or even pay for them. This is where companies like Eric’s come into play, offering added services. In fact, he won the award for best start-up company at the International Chatbot Summit.
To do this, it is necessary to automate this type of service as much as possible, for which artificial intelligence is often used. However, according to Marcos, it has limitations in dealing with certain situations.
For example, when changing a suitcase on a flight or a seat on an airline. For these types of services, small new interfaces (like new websites) are created to deal with these situations and then return to the normal WhatsApp conversation.
This is the added value that Marcos' company offers its clients. In the end, they have the advantages of WhatsApp and a website. But it is possible to have the full experience from the application itself . However, to do so, it must be adapted to each company and the services it offers or the products it sells so that the user experience is complete.
You can sell from the app, but without paying within WhatsApp.
That is to say, paying in the app itself as such in Spain (or in Europe) is not yet possible. But it is possible to offer an almost complete shopping experience.
For example, you can have a catalogue of products and services within the app itself and the user can add them to the cart and send the order to the website, from WhatsApp. Once the company receives it, it can close the sale. The user has done practically everything without leaving the app. In fact, there are some developing countries that do not have a website at all, and you can sell through WhatsApp in this way.
Another step in the process of digitalizing a business that may well begin with internal processes such as accounting and finance management using Sage.
Customize functionalities
It's about each company having the tools it needs to synchronize and manage its catalogs from the application. The audience is the most important thing to determine what type of tools are optimal for each business. Once the target is clear, companies like Hubtype take care of creating these customized tools.
Marcos maintains that the goal is to eliminate limitations and provide the functionalities that each one needs , providing that extra added value. His company creates ad hoc tools . Therefore, all limitations are eliminated, and any business will be able to offer the WhatsApp channel the complete experience to the user.
WhatsApp gives potential customers the immediacy they need to clarify their doubts.
In Spain, you cannot pay via WhatsApp, but you can offer the sales experience.
How far can a business go in using WhatsApp? Are you making the most of this tool for the benefit of your business? Can you sell through WhatsApp ? We have conceptualized this application as a place to send messages, images, audios and create groups.
This messaging app par excellence has these as its main functions, but once bots arrived, the service itself responded automatically. Then WhatsApp Business czechia email list or the WhatsApp API appeared on the scene. Advances that have given rise to numerous new functions that you can take advantage of to optimize your sales and your relationship with customers .
Start of marked textTWEET IT! Can WhatsApp be a sales channel for your business? Find out how to sell on WhatsApp and offer personalized attention to your customers in the latest episode of the Sage Advice Podcast.End of marked text
From the application's own interface, you can manage some real wonders, as we discussed in our latest episode of the Sage Advice Podcast. You can view catalogues, answer frequently asked questions from potential customers and even act as a direct sales channel. To go into more depth on this, we spoke with Eric Marcos, the co-founder and CTO of Hubtype , a startup that provides WhatsApp business solutions.
Artificial intelligence has become the core of the chatbot industry, as Marcos points out. Introducing this innovation to virtual assistants has completely changed their use and functionality. But everything starts much earlier.
Creating a company focused on messaging features
Hubtype is the company that Eric created with his partner Marc Caballé seven years ago. The idea came about at a calçotada they were going to, but they got stranded with their car. To pick them up, they shared their location with the tow truck manager via WhatsApp and there they realized that this solution should be scalable to any type of company.
Therefore, they set out to create a tool that would help all companies , regardless of the sector, to have a presence on this channel. Specifically, their company seeks to make the relationship between company and customers better and more fluid. To do this, messaging applications, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, work as a solution to give the customer what they need.
Answering a customer's questions quickly and directly is the best way to build customer loyalty. That's why these tools are so effective.
The convenience that consumers have in contacting the person in charge or the company immediately and receiving an answer to their question is incomparable.
Added value of user experience
The “problem” with this comes when you have to respond to many clients, or when you have to book services or even pay for them. This is where companies like Eric’s come into play, offering added services. In fact, he won the award for best start-up company at the International Chatbot Summit.
To do this, it is necessary to automate this type of service as much as possible, for which artificial intelligence is often used. However, according to Marcos, it has limitations in dealing with certain situations.
For example, when changing a suitcase on a flight or a seat on an airline. For these types of services, small new interfaces (like new websites) are created to deal with these situations and then return to the normal WhatsApp conversation.
This is the added value that Marcos' company offers its clients. In the end, they have the advantages of WhatsApp and a website. But it is possible to have the full experience from the application itself . However, to do so, it must be adapted to each company and the services it offers or the products it sells so that the user experience is complete.
You can sell from the app, but without paying within WhatsApp.
That is to say, paying in the app itself as such in Spain (or in Europe) is not yet possible. But it is possible to offer an almost complete shopping experience.
For example, you can have a catalogue of products and services within the app itself and the user can add them to the cart and send the order to the website, from WhatsApp. Once the company receives it, it can close the sale. The user has done practically everything without leaving the app. In fact, there are some developing countries that do not have a website at all, and you can sell through WhatsApp in this way.
Another step in the process of digitalizing a business that may well begin with internal processes such as accounting and finance management using Sage.
Customize functionalities
It's about each company having the tools it needs to synchronize and manage its catalogs from the application. The audience is the most important thing to determine what type of tools are optimal for each business. Once the target is clear, companies like Hubtype take care of creating these customized tools.
Marcos maintains that the goal is to eliminate limitations and provide the functionalities that each one needs , providing that extra added value. His company creates ad hoc tools . Therefore, all limitations are eliminated, and any business will be able to offer the WhatsApp channel the complete experience to the user.