WhatsApp Business Vs WhatsApp Business API

WhatsApp Business Vs WhatsApp Business APIs

It’s easy to get confused between a WhatsApp Business API and a WhatsApp Business Account. Especially if you’re in the market for a WhatsApp Chatbot.

In this blog piece, we’ll do a deep dive into what both are, how they’re similar and why they’re different.

WhatsApp Business Account

An application built by the WhatsApp Team, WhatsApp Business is an app mainly aimed towards small and medium enterprises. Its main purpose was to facilitate better customer support and for an easier way for businesses to connect with the customers.

The WhatsApp Business App also allows you to generate leads, deliver important notifications and collect feedback from your customers.

Think of your WhatsApp Business Account like a livechat tool, with limited functionality.

You can set up away messages to communicate to your customers that you’re away and will get back to them shortly.

The Process to Get Your WhatsApp Business Account

1. First, download the WhatsApp Business application. It’s a different one from your usual WhatsApp application. The logo will have the letter “B” inscribed onto it.
2. After that, enter your verified business number. The one that you’ve communicated to your customers or that you’ve specified on your site or even your visiting card.
3. Next, enter your company’s name and set a profile picture that conveys what your business stands for.
4. Give your website address, email address and even the address of the office.

And you’re good to go! You can have your business account ready within just a few minutes.

Suggested Reading: WhatsApp Business Policy Change: All You Need to Know

WhatsApp Business API

For that, you can use WhatsApp’s Business API’s.

Talk to us. We’ll help you out.

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What is an API?

First, let’s understand what an API is.

API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface.

It basically allows two sets of software to form an integration, in simpler words, an API allows two or more software to connect with each other.

Let’s take an example. Imagine you’re planning a trip to the Mauritius islands and you want to book a reservation in a hotel, you will visit Trivago to book a room. The process which allows you to access Trivago’s site and make a reservation is possible because of API.

The connection between the platforms is made possible by an API.

WhatsApp Business API Account

Now, let’s understand what a WhatsApp Business API is.

WhatsApp’s Business API’s enables companies to converse with their large customer base. While a livechat-style solution is great if you have only a handful of customers who want to talk to you at a given point of time, you need something more robust as a large firm.

Since it’s impossible to manually answer and communicate with customers at scale, WhatsApp Business API’s allow you to automate your conversations and send bulk notifications.

A WhatsApp Chatbot makes this possible.

While WhatsApp’s Business App could only automate a single response for after your business hours, a Chatbot is a lot more powerful. A customer based in Australia operates in a different time zone than you are if you’re an US-based company.

But that shouldn’t mean that an Australian customer should be treated without the same passion and personalization as an American customer.

Using a WhatsApp Chatbot (powered by the APIs), you can automate your most frequently asked queries and answer your customers’ questions around the clock. This way, your business is truly international.

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If the bot is unable to answer a question, your agent can pick up the conversation seamlessly and answer any additional customer queries.

WhatsApp’s Business API’s are divided into Template API’s and Text API’s. Each other these APIs powers a specific campaign.

To dive deeper into this concept, let’s get to know what the different kinds of campaigns are. There are three kinds of campaigns a company can run on WhatsApp.

Types of WhatsApp Business API Campaigns:

1. Outbound campaigns- A company sends an outbound message to a customer. These messages could be notifications, reminders or payment confirmations.
2. Inbound campaigns- This is when a customer reaches out to the company. This could be in the form of feedback or a query.
3. Outbound + Inbound campaigns – This is when the company sends a template to the customer and the customer acknowledges it by sending a reply or asking a query.

Now that we know about the kinds of campaigns, we can get better clarity on Template API’s and Text API’s.

Template APIs power your outbound campaigns. You can send templates in the form of payment confirmation, notifications, etc. to the customers.

Text API’s power inbound campaigns. They allow you to reply back to your customer with ease.

WhatsApp is careful about not allowing companies to turn their platform into a wasteground of spam. Outbound campaigns cannot be used to send promotional content.

WhatsApp has been very careful about giving access to WhatsApp Business API’s. It has only given access to a selected few. Third-party platforms like Verloop make it possible for you to get access to WhatsApp API’s.

Read more about WhatsApp Chatbots here.

How Do You Build a WhatsApp Chatbot

1. First, you need to find a third party provider that will fulfill your business needs. You need to consider the cost, facilities, design, etc. There are many third-party providers such as Twillo, DialogFlow who will enable you to make WhatsApp chatbots.
2. After you reach out to the company, the process is simple. You will have to enter your necessary company details and the duration of your plan.
3. The plan can be renewed or changed as per the third-party companies policy.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WHATSAPP BUSINESS ACCOUNT AND WHATSAPP BUSINESS API’s :

It all depends on the number of customers you’re targetting and the nature of our business.

 Factors to Consider:

1. Nature of business– Small, medium, large enterprise. This can be decided on the basis of the products you’re offering, geographical location and the number of customers.
2.  Cost – Sending a message through WhatsApp is relatively cheaper than a regular text message. However, WhatsApp is a lot more effective than any other form of communication. Therefore, small businesses may not have the financial resources to afford WhatsApp’s APIs.
3. The number of customers– This will be a part of the nature of business. But, if you have a large consumer base then sending manual messages will be a headache for you. To be able to respond to all the queries will be very tedious.  Therefore, automation is encouraged if your customer base is huge.

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