Salesforce partners with WhatsApp for personalised business messaging

CRM specialist Salesforce has announced a new partnership with WhatsApp, which will enable businesses to sell, market and provide support via the messaging platform.

Available from December 2022, new WhatsApp-first business messaging has been designed to facilitate a convenient and personalised communication experience through customers’ preferred method of contact – messaging.

According to recent Salesforce data, 90% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products, with 66% of online adults around the world preferring messaging as a way to communicate with a business.

In response, the new Salesforce-WhatsApp integration will enable brands to customise this communication experience and answer questions directly, provide support, as well as promote and sell products.

“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,” commented Michael Affronti, General Manager of Messaging at Salesforce.

The partnership leverages Salesforce Genie, the company’s new data platform that powers the first real-time CRM, Customer 360, to offer seamless and personalised experiences across sales, service, marketing, and commerce.

Salesforce says this will enable companies to target certain audiences with real-time data and channel customers into a one-to-one chat through Click-to-WhatsApp ads on Facebook and Instagram.

Businesses will have the ability to craft an end-to-end customer journey and personalisation of marketing-driven interactions with the Genie-powered Marketing Cloud Customer Data Platform (CDP).

AI and automation also aim to improve conversation quality and reduce support time, as well as a host of additional features such as customisable message templates that include brand images and videos, and customisable buttons that allow users to respond with a single tap.

Additionally, all messages sent between businesses and customers are protected by Signal encryption protocol.

As part of the pilot for the integration, L’Oreal brands will use WhatsApp to reconnect with consumers who had previously left items in a shopping cart, sending them coupons and offers directly in the chat thread.

“As more customers use their mobile devices as their primary way to engage our brand, we need a single messaging solution that pulls in information across sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT, to help us deliver personalized customer service, deliver product recommendations, and increase sales,” explained Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer at L’Oréal.