Digital banking has changed the banking landscape, opening several opportunities to expand its customer base, reach, and operations into new markets. One of the most recent trends has been leveraging the popular messaging service WhatsApp. It has presented an opportunity for banks to leverage and improve the customer experience, which could have ripple effects in areas like profitability and brand reputation. But there's a question: how can banks harness this new opportunity safely and effectively?
This blog will discuss the WhatsApp banking solution, how it works, its benefit, and why it is a game changer. First, let's understand what WhatsApp banking APIs are.
What are WhatsApp banking APIs?
The combination of a banking chatbot and the WhatsApp Business API is called "WhatsApp Banking." WhatsApp banking APIs are a powerful tool that connects banking software with WhatsApp service; that is, it is an interface between internal bank tools and customers. It helps to scale customer communication on WhatsApp to bring new services and products to the market.
The WhatsApp Business API connects banks to their customers through an infrastructure that gives them the flexibility they need to use WhatsApp at scale. It also connects customers, vendors, and processes to make conversations more meaningful.
Banks can automate processes and make 1:1s more engaging by using the WhatsApp Business API. It allows customer service teams to interact in real-time with customers and ask questions that get answered at the right moment – increasing the number of "one-on-ones" each customer receives.
Let's Understand How WhatsApp business APIs Work for Banking
WhatsApp is one of the world's largest and most successful social platforms. It has led to many technology companies wanting to leverage WhatsApp as a channel to increase their growth - particularly regarding financial services. The WhatsApp Business API is a programming language interface that allows banks to connect with thousands of agents and bots to interact with customers programmatically and manually.
Banks usually work with WhatsApp's third-party business solution providers (BSPs) to access the WhatsApp Business API. These third-party providers host a set of WhatsApp tools and protocols on their servers so that banks don't have to. It provides an easy way for banks to integrate mobile payments and digital banking on WhatsApp, like what PayPal does today on its website and mobile apps. Therefore, using WhatsApp banking solutions from third-party solution providers helps solve operational challenges, speed up the development process and improve security.
Benefits of Using WhatsApp Banking Software Solution
Security
With WhatsApp banking APIs, businesses can send, receive, and securely store any information. WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption to ensure that only the bank and the customer can access the information.
In addition, banks can install security protocols directly into their apps, allowing them to authenticate customers after they've logged in. Authentication is done with a password, phone token, and biometric password or with a combination of all three. It is essential as regulatory requirements like Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) take hold globally.
Improves the Overall Costs
Most banking services have embraced the concept of open API development, which is considered a life-saver. Integrating them with various applications enables you to keep track of every crucial piece of information and makes it easy to deal with the bank's website
Better Customer Experience
Banks are waking up to the fact that customers expect the same seamless, convenient service from banks as they get from tech companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Uber. They expect high-quality customer service and personalized care — especially when their money is at stake. They want fast and personalized service from their bank, and even more so, they want it at a reasonable price and more importantly, they want it fast.
The first and arguably most crucial step in banking transformation is to improve customer experience. It's never been clearer that the attention of customers is now a key driver of growth. Retail banks that regularly practice customer experience optimization grow more than three times faster than competitors that don't.
The banking industry is set to revolutionize how customers access their accounts and make banking more convenient. WhatsApp banking is already helping banks meet these expectations in multiple ways. It is the key to assisting banks in meeting these growing expectations. It can offer the immediate, personalized service its customers want through automation, better data, and integrations.
Increases Efficiency
Customer support is a core priority. By working with a WhatsApp banking API, teams can dramatically increase efficiency by automating frequently asked questions and resolving customer queries faster than any other channel.
Conversational banking plays a vital role in resolving queries in less than 2 minutes, what is known to be the maximum amount of time a customer is willing to wait to have an issue resolved. It also decreases calls to contact centers by 50%, allowing you to free human resources.
Faster Innovation
The WhatsApp Business API makes it easier for financial institutions to innovate and stay ahead of the competition. Instead of building new products and services from scratch, banks can partner with third-party developers to create solutions that benefit customers.
It means that instead of going head-to-head against fintech companies (including companies like Apple and Google), they can adopt new ways to offer services.
To understand more about WhatsApp Banking Solution and how it is beneficial for customers, have a look at WhatsApp Banking Solution: Enabling a Seamless Customer Experience Infographic
What’s the Future of WhatsApp Banking APIs?
As we always say, “the future is what we want,” which holds for all aspects of life. The banking APIs connect with the e-commerce website to facilitate online shopping. On the other hand, customers can check their account balance before shopping. Sometimes, customers get support for lending payments while shopping through the lending API option at POS locations.
WhatsApp Banking Solution by Panamax
Conclusion:
WhatsApp banking APIs have risen to the forefront of connecting people in a truly personal way. With new features and business models, the power of WhatsApp is only growing. While there's no doubt WhatsApp has made users' lives easier, it can make customer support teams more efficient.
WhatsApp Business API has become an exciting development in the financial technology sector. The platform allows financial institutions to develop new, innovative financial products and services based on existing infrastructure.
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