Category: Basics

When connecting the WhatsApp Business API, its price is one of the most complicated questions. We explain everything in detail.

We apologize in advance for such a long and tedious article) — but we didn’t come up with this pricing)

WhatsApp Business API Connection Scheme

Unlike fairly simple connection methods, the WhatsApp Business API is a complex topic.

For example, with a Telegram bot — you just create a bot, and essentially the bot token «is the bot», and having the token — you can already do «whatever you want», or in VK — you simply automate group replies — and that’s the bot.

WhatsApp has a two-step connection system (the official way):

Approved providers <- All other chatbot services

There are «approved WhatsApp providers» — there aren’t many of them in the world, just a few dozen. These are huge companies that essentially act as a «pipeline» to WhatsApp.

All other services, like ours, which provide systems for creating chatbots/broadcasts in WhatsApp, connect to them.

We work with two such providers — Gupshup.io and 360dialog. Why do we need two? Simply for reliability/redundancy, because in the current environment you never know who might disconnect what and when.

How WhatsApp Business API is Connected

First, you connect a number (usually a new SIM card) to WhatsApp — in the approved provider’s dashboard. This is simply so that «messages can be sent».

Once that’s ready, you connect your number to a bot builder/broadcast tool — like ours, and such systems provide all the bot logic, broadcast management, and so on.

WhatsApp Business API — Price

Because the connection in WhatsApp is two-step, the price also consists of two parts.

• You pay WhatsApp for conversations (through an «approved provider») — this is the official price set by WhatsApp, which they charge for each conversation (you may need a VPN to open this link). This is about 8 rubles per conversation. There may also be an additional monthly fee. Since these are Western services, payment must be made with a foreign (non-Russian) bank card, or — in some cases, through an intermediary service (we have one for Gupshup — for legal entities).
• You pay for the bot/broadcast service system — for a service like ours. And here the price depends purely on the market and how services value themselves — from several hundred to thousands of rubles per month. In our service — only 490 rubles per 1 WhatsApp number.

Some systems combine these two prices internally, and you may not even know what’s happening inside and how much things cost, but we adhere to the principles of transparency and tell it like it is.

Price per Conversation

Let’s take a closer look at what «price per conversation» means.

WhatsApp has a «24-hour rule». That is, the bot can only send arbitrary messages to a user within 24 hours of their last message to the bot.

After this window closes — or if a particular person has never messaged the bot before, the bot can only send a pre-approved message template to the person. And this — costs money)

More precisely — when you send such a message (paid), you «open a window» of communication with the user for 24 hours. If the user replies — you can continue messaging with them.

This is IMPORTANT: After «opening the window», within 24 hours you can SEND OTHER TEMPLATES of the same category FOR FREE (the next chapter will be about categories).

Price by Category and Category Features

Messages are charged in 4 categories:

• Marketing — essentially any promotional broadcasts like «we have a sale — come visit».
• Utility — broadcasts related to service — order confirmation, delivery status, payment reminders, feedback requests.
• Authentication — narrowly specific things for login confirmation (you most likely won’t need this).
• Service — a client’s request to you (incoming). Yes! WhatsApp charges for incoming messages too, but gives 1000 free INCOMING conversations per month.

Broadly speaking — everything related to your communication with EXISTING clients about their current or recently placed orders — is «Utility». Sometimes reminders about webinars can be classified as «utility» — even though they are not explicitly «orders».

Everything else — promotional broadcasts — «marketing».

Why are we talking about this in such detail — because the price for sending a «utility» template (from 4 rubles) is almost twice as low as «marketing» (from 8 rubles)

There is also another feature — different types of conversations!
For example, a user receives a «utility» broadcast from you — for example, an order reminder. But! If you also send them a promotional «marketing» broadcast, even within 24 hours, this is also charged — because these are DIFFERENT types of conversations.

This concludes our overview of this complex topic.

If you still have any questions — write to us in the support chat (chat icon at the bottom left) or call +7 913 463 51 58 — we will be happy to consult you, it’s free.

It is often thought that blocking WhatsApp is impossible on “white” bots, and only happens on “grey” ones, but this is not true. Let’s go over all the details.

How white and grey bots differ

White bot uses the official WhatsApp mailing mechanism — the so-called WhatsApp Business API or WABA for short. This is a legal way, provided by WhatsApp itself, to send mailings and connect a bot.

Grey bot connects to another computer or phone (as if you were connecting another device yourself) and uses automation tools to send messages from it.

It is important to understand that grey bots operate illegally and violate WhatsApp rules. We absolutely DO NOT support the use of grey bots, and do not use them in our work. This material is provided for informational purposes only.

Key differences:

White bot connects via Facebook business manager — the procedure is quite complicated (if you’ve never done it before), while the grey bot connects via QR code as another device (this is simple).

White bots can have buttons, but grey bots cannot — so they usually use “reply 1 for this, and reply 2 for that”.

With a white bot, you can only send pre-approved templates first (this takes up to 24 hours and may be rejected). With a grey bot, you can send anything you want (anything WhatsApp allows).

When using a white bot, you have to pay for outgoing messages (8-9 rubles per message). For many users, this is expensive. With a grey bot, you only pay for the connected service — usually about 1000-2000 rubles per month.

With a white bot, you can have a limit of up to 10,000 messages per day (for large companies). With a grey bot, you are unlikely to send more than 100-150 messages per day — otherwise you will be blocked.

Overall, blocking is much more likely with a grey bot, but a white bot is not guaranteed against it either.

If you need a white bot for WhatsApp — use the Chotam service — a simple visual builder, extensive help section, and fast support that you don’t have to wait hours for.

WhatsApp blocking — reasons

There are two reasons for blocking:

• Violation of WhatsApp rules — and here not only the bot can be blocked, but also an ordinary person.
• Frequent user clicks on “this is spam”.
• WhatsApp suspects you have connected a grey bot.

There is often an opinion that a white bot is a guarantee against blocking. NO, this is not true! Even a white bot or even a regular user can be blocked if you simply send spam to people.

Nevertheless, a white bot is indeed blocked much less often.

A grey bot is most often blocked because too many messages are sent too quickly — for the system, this is a clear sign that it’s a bot.

Another reason for blocking a grey bot is identical messages in large quantities. For this, grey bots use a message randomization mechanism — that is, replacing individual words or phrases with synonyms or similar ones.

Both of these reasons DO NOT APPLY to the white bot, because it is made for this purpose and uses it legally!

A white bot can only be blocked if, during a mailing, too high a percentage of people (somewhere over 5%) clicked “this is spam”.

WhatsApp blocking — consequences

With a grey bot — you simply can no longer use WhatsApp — so a separate number is always used for the bot. These are often lost. At the same time, you still have the option to file an appeal — explain the situation, and in some cases, your WhatsApp is restored.

With a white bot — blocking is two-stage. First, you will be prohibited from sending a specific template — the one people complain about. And if the complaint rate does not decrease, you will also be prohibited from sending mailings. And you also have a mechanism to file an appeal — explain something, etc. — as a rule, this works, unless you were sending blatant spam.

WhatsApp blocking — what to do?

If you are blocked — both with a white and grey bot, you still have the opportunity to appeal. Just write some explanation in the window, what you were doing, why it’s not spam, and that you should be unblocked.

With a grey bot — this is done directly in the app on your phone.

With a white bot — this is done in a special window inside the FB business manager.

Chat bot on Facebook — a convenient way to communicate with your clients, which saves time and speeds up the sales process.

Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. It provides unique opportunities for creating and using chat bots in various fields.

In the modern world, social networks have become an integral part of our daily lives. Thus, chat bots on Facebook are at the forefront of providing convenient and effective communication.

What is a chat bot on Facebook

A chat bot is a program designed to automate communication with users through a chat interface.

A distinctive feature is that here the bot responds on behalf of the Facebook page. It is not a separate “entity” as, for example, in Telegram, where there can be a channel or group separately, and the bot separately.

In the context of Facebook, chat bots are usually integrated into the platform’s messenger, allowing users to interact with the bot as if it were a real interlocutor.

Chat bots on Facebook can be used for various purposes. They provide more direct and instant interaction with users, which can be useful for business and improving user experience.

Applications of chat bots on Facebook

• Customer service. Chat bots help companies improve customer service by providing quick and accurate answers to frequently asked questions.

• Online sales. Bots are also actively used for conducting online sales, providing users with convenient tools to explore products and make purchases.

• Information search. Bots help users find up-to-date news and information based on their requests.

• Study assistance. Chat bots can be used for educational purposes, providing students with additional materials, answers to questions, and feedback.

Advantages of chat bots on Facebook

• 24/7 availability: Chat bots are available around the clock, ensuring instant interaction with users at any time of day.
• Service efficiency: Automated responses and request processing reduce waiting times and increase the efficiency of customer service.
• Personalization: you can insert the person’s name or other variables into the message, providing a personalized experience.
• Business expansion: Implementing chat bots into business processes can help companies expand their audience reach and improve conversion.

Platforms for creating chat bots

There are many platforms and tools that make it easier to create chat bots on Facebook.

When choosing platforms, we recommend paying attention to the convenience of the interface and the availability of quality and fast support. It will be more convenient for you if one builder supports all the messengers and social networks you need.

Almost all such platforms and services have a free trial period — you can try several and choose the best option for you. With our service chotam.ru you can create and set up chat bots with various functional capabilities.

With chotam.ru, you can create a chat bot that will automatically communicate with your subscribers, provide information about products and services, and also collect contact data for further communication.

Try the chotam.ru service on a free trial period and see the convenience for yourself!

Legality of bots

When using chat bots on Facebook, it is necessary to consider legal issues. Different countries have laws and regulations governing the processing of personal data, privacy protection, and e-commerce. Chat bot developers must comply with these regulations to avoid legal problems.

It is also worth noting that Facebook has its own detailed rules and policies, which we recommend studying.

In particular:

• The bot cannot message a person first — the person must write to the bot first.
• The bot cannot message a person after 24 hours from their last interaction. Therefore, BROADCASTS in the usual sense are practically not applicable on Facebook. For this, you need to use WhatsApp.

Chat bots on Facebook are becoming an integral part of our digital society, providing convenient and effective means for communication, customer service, and business development. With their help, you will open new horizons for your business.

Companies often use bots on Facebook together with Instagram — if you are interested in a chat bot for Instagram — we have a separate article about this.

WhatsApp text formatting allows you to add emphasis to your message. There are several simple ways to format text in WhatsApp:

• Bold text:
  • To make text bold, place it between two asterisks (*).
  • Example: *This is bold text* will appear as This is bold text.
  • Italic text:
    • To make text italic, place it between two underscores (_).
    • Example: _This is italic text_ will appear as This is italic text.
    • Strikethrough text:
      • To strikethrough text, place it between two tildes (~).
      • Example: ~This is strikethrough text~ will appear as This is strikethrough text.
      • Monospaced text:
        • To create monospaced text, place it between triple backticks (`).
        • Example: This is monospaced text will appear as This is monospaced text.
        • Combining formats:
          • You can also combine different formats by placing the text between the corresponding symbols.
          • Example: *_~This is a combined format~_* will appear as This is a combined format.

These simple formatting methods will help make your message in WhatsApp more expressive and vivid.

Emojis

Also, don’t forget that you can use emojis in WhatsApp messages.

Emojis help to show an emotion, highlight an important point, or point with an arrow or “finger” to a link that needs to be clicked.

How to use WhatsApp formatting

It is important to use a reasonable amount of highlighted text through WhatsApp formatting, and not to make a real mess of text with different formatting.

If the user, as they say, gets “bleeding eyes” from your message, then of course the useful reactions to such a message will be much less.

Use text highlighting to mark the most important words or phrases — for example, with your latest offer, promotion, or update. Highlighting is also often used to indicate an address — of a store or, for example, a website.

Buttons in WhatsApp

In addition, you may have received WhatsApp mailings that had convenient buttons for reactions.

Many users would like to use buttons in their messages because they look attractive and help engage the user.

Unfortunately, only a bot can officially send buttons in WhatsApp, not a regular user.

Moreover, even if a user managed to send a button with some lifehack, they would not be able to program what happens next after pressing this button.

All such behavior is implemented through bots in WhatsApp; here, bots are very well developed and probably work even more efficiently than in Telegram.

We have a separate article, how to create a bot in WhatsApp, it’s actually not difficult.

Why do we need chatbots, which have become an integral part of the modern world? Why are they so important? Let’s dive into this exciting journey where machines and humans go hand in hand.

A tireless assistant around the clock

Imagine having an employee who never gets sick, never gets tired, and is ready to answer your questions 24/7. You don’t have to wait for a lunch break or working hours. Chatbots are exactly that—your personal assistant. For example, VTB Bank uses a chatbot to quickly assist clients, even when their employees are asleep.

Cost reduction

Traditional support services require significant investment: salaries, training, technical support. But a chatbot is created once and only occasionally needs updating. This saves money, and many companies value this. For example, Uber uses bots to handle standard requests for their services.

Fun fact — according to Chotam.ru — up to 10% of support operators’ working time (depending on activity) can be spent just typing greetings.

Even the simplest chatbot, which AT LEAST responds with different greetings to all sorts of “hello” and “good afternoon”, which takes literally minutes to create in Chotam.ru — saves your operators up to 10% of their time (and costs).

Personalized service

Modern chatbots can analyze user preferences and offer solutions based on individual needs. Think of a bot that knows you like coffee with milk and offers exactly that order at your favorite coffee shop.

Instant feedback

Live communication with a person can take time. A chatbot, however, responds instantly, which is especially important in an era of speed and continuous information flow.

It is especially important that communication automation is implemented not only in messages but also in comments. A chatbot built on a good platform, such as Chotam.ru, can not only create regular autofunnels, but also respond to comments, remove unwanted mentions, such as profanity or abuse from comments.

Practical examples

Tech company support service: The well-known IT company Slack uses a bot to train its users. This bot helps to understand the main functions and quickly get started.

Online shopping: Many companies, such as H&M, use chatbots to help choose clothes, providing recommendations based on your previous purchases or current trends.

In the end, you shouldn’t be asking whether chatbots are needed, or why we need chatbots. It’s not just a trendy novelty. They are the future of communication and business. They speed up processes, make them more economical and convenient for users. In a world where time is the most valuable resource, chatbots are a real gift!

In popular communities, it is often necessary to track the sentiment of comments in order to monitor the community’s progress, or even people’s attitudes towards individual posts.

Social networks provide a unique platform for interacting with clients and potential consumers. However, simply “being on social networks” is not enough. To use social platforms effectively, businesses need to understand how users react to their content, products, or services. One way to achieve this is by tracking the sentiment of comments.

Why is this necessary?

Understanding the Audience

Sentiment analysis helps you understand the mood of your audience. This can be useful for identifying problems or opportunities that require your business’s attention.

Reactive Marketing

Quickly identifying negative feedback allows your company to respond promptly, minimizing potential reputational damage.

Strategic Planning

Long-term sentiment analysis of comments can help in making strategic decisions, such as making changes to a product or adjusting a marketing campaign.

What tools are there to track comment sentiment?

Artificial Intelligence

Today, there are many AI-based tools that automatically analyze text sentiment. Examples of such tools: Google Natural Language, IBM Watson Tone Analyzer, and others.

Software Solutions

There are also many SaaS solutions specifically designed for social monitoring, such as Hootsuite, Mention, or Brandwatch.

However, a significant drawback is their price. Hootsuite, for example, costs from $100 per month. For large businesses, this may be acceptable, but for small businesses or running public pages, it is debatable whether this tool brings that much benefit.

In addition, many Western systems poorly process the Russian language and do not support such “exotic” social networks for them as, for example, Odnoklassniki.

Manual Analysis

In addition to automated systems, many companies still use manual analysis to assess the sentiment of comments on social networks.

The main factor here is how convenient it is for the operator performing the analysis to quickly tag comments, create new tags, and so on.

Operators process large volumes of comments, and for them, speed and ease of work, as well as minimizing effort, are important.

Comment sentiment is a complex task

Dependence on Context

Sentiment often depends on the context in which it is expressed. For example, the comment “interesting” can be either positive or negative in different circumstances, depending on what was said before.

Comments with swear words are even harder to process. I wouldn’t even want to mention this, but you can’t take words out of a song) Swear comments do occur, there are many of them, and their sentiment 100% depends on the context in which they are expressed, because the same word can mean both positive and negative things.

Limitations of Artificial Intelligence

Even the most advanced AI algorithms can make mistakes in determining sentiment due to irony, sarcasm, profanity, or complex sentence structures.

Tagging systems for comment sentiment

When you start working with comment sentiment, one of the main questions becomes — by what system to do it.

The most basic option is as follows:

• Positive,
• Neutral,
• Negative.

Sometimes “Undefined” is also added to distinguish it from “Neutral” when the neutrality of the comment is clearly understood.

However, you may also want to track the “strength” of the emotion — for example, how positive or negative the comment is, because, for example, between the phrases “useless feature” and “damn it, once again you introduced some useless crap” — there is a significant difference, and it would be good to take this into account for analysis.

Then your tagging system might look like this:

• +3
• +2
• +1
• 0
• -1
• -2
• -3

In general, you can come up with any system you like, the important thing is that you can offer reasonable rules for how to use it.

How to track comment sentiment

In the end, we come to the conclusion that for correct work with sentiment there is no better way than involving a human.

Thus, the task breaks down into two:

• Collect comments in the communities you are interested in
• Tag comments by their sentiment according to the division you have set.

In our opinion — the best tool for working with comment sentiment is the Chotam.ru service.

Firstly, the work with comment tags for operators is built in an ultra-convenient and simple way, you can simply click on tag buttons in the comment log to mark comments, and via the link the operator can easily open the comment and read the context if in doubt.

Secondly, there you can set up absolutely any tag or tagging system, and also partially automate the work (after all) — for example, automatically mark comments with profanity using a “bad words” dictionary or other unwanted mentions.

And finally, the service has a special staff of people who, according to your specified criteria, but with “human intelligence” and taking context into account — will tag your comments for you. To do this, you need to request an “individual rate” on the website.

Although modern technologies provide many tools for automatic sentiment analysis, this task remains complex and multifaceted. Due to dependence on context and the limited capabilities of artificial intelligence, the best approach may be a combined method, in which manual analysis complements automatic tools. An experienced specialist will be able to take into account the context and nuances of the language, making the analysis more accurate and useful for your business.

Often, businesses face the question — how to conduct an NPS survey. Indeed — probably any business is interested in tracking customer satisfaction. NPS is one of the popular metrics in this regard.

But the question is — how exactly, specifically, physically to conduct an NPS survey.

There are several obvious alternatives:

• widget on the website
• mailing (through one of the channels — we will consider the channels separately)
• filling out paper questionnaires — probably an extreme case when there are no other options.

NPS Survey via Website Widget

Although this seems like the simplest way, we need to remember that the NPS survey is conducted among those who have either made a purchase or tried the service/product in trial mode.

Conducting an NPS survey is completely pointless among just website visitors.

And in order to show your survey widget specifically to “clients” — you need to somehow pass information about whether this particular person is a client. This is not always easy and obvious to do.

Of course, you can show it only inside the personal account — but then it must be implemented on the website.

Storing information about whether a website visitor is a client — can also be done through cookies, but this requires programming work.

There is another point — clients visit the site with a certain purpose. Including to buy something. And “interrupting” them and distracting them from this with your survey — may not be the best solution.

NPS Survey via Mailing

This seems to be the most successful solution — after all, we have “some” contact details of the client. And we can write to them.

The following reasonable channels exist for doing this:

• SMS
• Email
• Messengers — Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.

However, SMS — is often used by some scammers for phishing purposes, so people do not often click on strange links in SMS messages.

In addition, the service of specifying the company name in mailings costs significant money from operators — according to the latest data — about 3000 rubles per month. And this is quite expensive for small businesses.

Email — here the problem is different — open rates. According to various sources, the standard open rate for email mailings is no more than 20% — and this actually reduces your effectiveness by 5 times. If you don’t have hundreds of clients, there will simply be too few responses for reasonable statistics.

Messengers — here is an important fact. Bots can only write to any messenger except WhatsApp if the person has first subscribed to the bot (or has written to it before). This, of course, concerns bots; you can manually write something in Telegram, but this is extremely unprofessional and very labor-intensive for staff.

WhatsApp, however, allows you to write to people if you only know their phone number.

In addition, official WhatsApp mailings allow you to insert personalization into each message — that is, the client’s name, for example, you can write “Good afternoon, Ivan…” — and the name “Ivan” will be unique for each client (you will upload a database for the mailing).

Also, other variables are possible, for example — the name of the service the person received. For example, “you visited us for a haircut, styling, coloring” — and so on, each client will get their own.

From this, we come to the conclusion that the most effective way to conduct an NPS survey is via WhatsApp mailing.

Yes, this is a paid solution and the cost will be about 6-8 rubles per message, but the open rate on WhatsApp is almost 100%, and almost everyone has it, unlike even Telegram.

And the additional personalization features of WhatsApp mailings greatly help recipient engagement.

We recommend using the Chotam.ru service — it literally costs “pennies” to use the mailing service and chatbot builder itself.

How to Conduct an NPS Survey in WhatsApp

Step 1 — connect WhatsApp Business API

This is quite a technical point — it is described in detail in this article. And why we recommend the Chotam.ru service again — because their support can do this with you, via Zoom, and does not charge ANYTHING for it. Many other services charge up to 5000 rubles just for connecting WhatsApp Business API, but at Chotam — connection is free, and the monthly cost for 1 number is only 490 rubles.

Step 2 — create a template for the initial mailing.

An NPS survey usually looks something like this (this is an example) — you can adapt it to your needs.

Good afternoon, {name — the client’s name from the database will be inserted here}. This is “your company name”. You visited us for {service name — inserted from the database}, thank you for choosing us.

Please rate how likely you are to recommend us to your friends. This will help us become better and delight you with higher quality services.

Button “Give feedback” (buttons in the mailing are inserted in the builder — this is a very simple action).

Step 3 — create a chatbot flow

In different builders this is called differently, but in fact it is a sequence of actions — what happens next when your mailing recipient clicks the “Give feedback” button.

Chotam.ru uses a visual builder, where this is done easily, at the level of “enter text” and “draw an arrow”.

Thus, your first message after clicking the “Give feedback” button can be the following:

Please mark from 1 to 10 — how likely you are to recommend us to your friends.

1 — definitely not, 10 — definitely will recommend.

And buttons from 1 to 10.

However, sending just one such message is not enough. After all, you still need to collect responses, tag them for statistics, and possibly — somehow respond to different ratings.

If we recall the NPS theory — there are three types of clients:

• Detractors — answer up to 5
• Neutrals — answers 6, 7, 8
• Promoters — answers 9, 10.

And accordingly, since we have entered into a dialogue with them, it would be good to find out, for example, what happened with the detractors — after all, they didn’t become that way for no reason. What negative experience did they have? At the very least, you can combine them with neutrals and ask what went wrong?

Thus, your next message for those who answered 1-8 could be the following:

Thank you for your response. Please tell us what we can do differently to improve your rating?

You can leave this question open, for the purity of the experiment, or you can offer the user buttons with the most common complaints you already know from other feedback.

Perhaps you would like to separate or write with different wording the messages for detractors or neutrals.

Perhaps, you would like to send messages about very low ratings, for example, to your service director, so that they might even call personally and somehow resolve the negative situation.

This, by the way, is a very important function that not all mailing services can do — forwarding messages “outside” — to a team member, if the flow reaches a certain event. In Chotam this is implemented very simply.

Now about what to do with those who gave ratings of 9-10.

You may know that collecting positive reviews (in any form) is a sore subject for any company. Therefore, you should ask such people, and your message to them might look like this:

Thank you for your high rating! We are happy to work for you. If it’s not too much trouble, please leave a review about us…

(and you give links to the review sites where you are represented).

Step 4 — preparing the database and sending the mailing

Now, to send the mailing, you need to collect a database, phone numbers, names (if you know them — not all businesses do) and the services or products mentioned in the mailing (also, if you use them).

As a result, your database may look like this (this is a CSV file):

79059599575;Evgeny;haircut (this is a substitution for “you visited us for…”)

79099099999;Ivan;manicure

You can usually export such a database from any CRM. Some manual operations in Excel may be required, but in any case, this is done in a couple of clicks and exported to a CSV file.

Then you simply upload this file to the mailing service, specify which template to use (you may have several different ones for different surveys), and send. This is a one-minute operation.

NPS Survey — Processing Results

Then, you regularly, for example once a month or a week (if you have a large flow), export information about client responses from the mailing service, and then in Excel you can do any analytics, calculate NPS, the percentage of different reasons for low ratings, etc.

Help and Consultation for Conducting an NPS Survey

If you still have any questions, need a consultation, help or setup of WhatsApp mailings, or an NPS survey — the Chotam support service will be happy to help you, and for free.

In the modern digital era, a WhatsApp chat bot is becoming an integral part of an effective communication strategy for business.

Chat bots provide a fast and automated way to interact with customers, handling inquiries, collecting information, and even conducting transactions.

In this article, we will look at how to create a WhatsApp chat bot.

Why do you need chat bots at all?

Chat bots allow you to automate most customer interactions. This means your team can focus on more complex and meaningful tasks. In addition, using chat bots can help with:

• Quick response to customer inquiries: Bots are available 24/7, which speeds up response times.
• Collecting feedback: Chat bots can gather information about user preferences and opinions.
• Lead generation: Chat bots can help attract and process potential clients (leads).

Advantages of chat bots in WhatsApp

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messengers in the world, and using it for business offers the following advantages:

• Huge audience: WhatsApp has over 2 billion active users worldwide, and in Russia it is still the most popular messenger.
• High level of engagement: Users often check WhatsApp and trust it, unlike, for example, Telegram — which is becoming an over-spammed platform with lots of channel-groups where spammers add people without their consent.
• The ability to MESSAGE FIRST: this is a key advantage, no other messenger allows a bot to message first. All other messengers require a person to first enter the bot and click the “Start” button or otherwise initiate interaction — write something. Only after that does the bot get the right to message the person.

What do you need to create a WhatsApp chat bot?

• WhatsApp Business account: To start, you need to register a business account on Facebook and connect your number for the WhatsApp Business API. Usually, this process is organized through some kind of bot builder (more on this below).
• Bot builder (for example, Chotam): This is a tool that helps you create and manage a chat bot without the need for programming knowledge. You can also write your bot’s logic yourself in some programming language, but this requires a lot of specialized knowledge, so 99% of bots are made on some platforms/builders, where you can set the logic without programming.
• Interaction scenario: Define how your bot will interact with users. First, just come up with it (draw it on paper) — what conditions, in what case, how to respond to what — and then transfer this to the bot builder.

How to connect everything correctly?

Step 1: Register a WhatsApp Business account

Verify your phone number in your Facebook account, and follow the instructions to create a WhatsApp account. Here is a video tutorial

Step 2: Choose and set up a bot builder

We recommend using Chotam. Go to the platform’s website and register.

Step 3: Integrate the builder with your WhatsApp number

This process varies in different builders, but is usually quite simple. You need to link your WhatsApp number created in Step 1 with the builder. Follow the service’s instructions or write to the support chat.

Step 4: Create a scenario

In Chotam, you can create “chains” that determine how the bot will respond to various requests, keywords, or button presses.

Typical scenarios for a WhatsApp chat bot

• Customer service: automatic response to frequently asked questions, solving simple problems.
• Sales and marketing: product recommendations, mailing information about discounts and promotions.
• Lead generation: collecting contact information and interests of potential clients.

A WhatsApp chat bot provides a whole range of benefits for business, from improving customer service quality to effective lead generation. With builders like Chotam, creating a chat bot is easier than ever. They provide flexible tools for setting up scenarios and integrating with your WhatsApp Business account, allowing you to maximize your engagement with your audience.

Responses to customer reviews, examples of which we will analyze in this article, are not only a tool for monitoring the quality of your product or service, but also an opportunity to develop relationships with customers.

A proper response to a review can strengthen trust and attract new customers, while an ill-considered one can lead to loss of reputation. In this article, we will look at all aspects of responding to customer reviews.

Response Speed

Why it matters: In the internet age, people are used to instant responses. A long wait can intensify a customer’s negative experience or disappoint even after a positive review.

Recommendations:

• Use automatic notifications or monitoring tools to quickly identify new reviews so that nothing is missed.
• On social networks/messengers, you can also use bots (automatic replies) to at least give the person an initial reaction to their review
• Respond to reviews “as soon as possible,” even to positive ones.
• Respond personally, addressing by name if you know it and the name is not automatically inserted (depends on the platform).
• In all cases where possible — try to engage the person in a dialogue — public or not. Any feedback, especially detailed, is extremely important. You may not even realize how much your management struggles from not understanding what customers are dissatisfied with, and hearing the real “voice of the market” is extremely important.

From our own experience, there have been more than a few cases in our business when a client first leaves us a very angry, inappropriate review. We start to investigate what happened and why — and find out that they wanted to solve a certain problem with our service, couldn’t — and got angry. We help such a client, including via Zoom, to make the necessary settings — and the client is satisfied and uses the service for many years.

Tone and Politeness

Why it matters: The tone of your response can say as much about you as the review itself.

Recommendations:

• Always start by thanking for the review.
• Use a respectful and businesslike communication style, even despite a negative tone or bold attacks from the client.

Customer Review Response Examples

Why it matters: A response is not just a reaction, but also an opportunity for further dialogue and improving service quality.

Recommendations:

• Respond even to positive reviews.
• If a negative review is vague, try to clarify the details: what exactly, when did it happen, which employee, etc. — very often people who “vented” just “disappear” at this point, and all your followers will see: you responded, were polite, wanted to help, and they “disappeared” — so you shouldn’t pay attention to it.
• If a client has encountered a problem — offer a solution if possible.
• Do not close the door to further communication.

Examples of Responses to Customer Reviews

Positive Review

Be sure to respond even to positive reviews. It is a huge achievement that someone decided to publicly support you.

Review:
“Wonderful service! Fast, high quality, with a smile!”

Response:
“Thank you for your positive review! We are glad you enjoyed our work. Always happy to see you again!”

Negative Review

Review:
“Terrible experience, rude staff, will never come back!”

Response:
“We are sorry you had this impression. We value your feedback and would like to know more about the situation to improve the quality of our services.” — then you need to clarify the details. You can do this publicly — “Could you please tell us when you visited our cafe? Can you specify which staff member said something rude to you?” — or privately — “Our service manager will call you to clarify the details.” Or “please write to us in private messages so we can find out all the details of what happened and take action.”

Do not leave negative reviews “hanging in the air.” If you were NOT able to get any more specifics, write in response to this comment or post — “we requested details, we tried to contact by phone and messenger, but unfortunately received no response, so we consider this situation to be fabricated and will delete this review within 24 hours.”

Conflict Review

Review:
“Your prices are outrageous, you are just robbing people!”

Response:
“Thank you for your review. Can you tell us what you are comparing our prices to, why you consider them unreasonable?”

Responses to reviews are an opportunity not just to “put out a fire,” but also to build long-term relationships with customers. They are an indicator of your attitude to business and can significantly affect your business reputation. Therefore, it is important to approach this process with all seriousness and responsibility.

Feedback is an important part of any successful business, and a feedback bot in Telegram is the simplest way to collect it.

To improve products, services, and customer relationships, companies need to know what their customers think.

With the Telegram messenger platform, you can create a feedback bot that will collect this data automatically.

In this article, we will discuss how to create a feedback bot in Telegram, and include an overview of feedback standards such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), as well as other best practices for collecting feedback.

Telegram Feedback Bot — Creation Process

• Bot creation: To start, you need to create a bot in Telegram. This can be done by contacting @BotFather in Telegram. Here you can register a new bot and get an API token, which will be used for programming the bot.
• Programming the bot or connecting it to a bot management platform (bot builder): The next step is to program the bot. The bot should be able to send questions to the user and collect their answers. The easiest way to do this is to use a bot builder or bot management platform — usually, no programming knowledge is required, and the bot logic is created in a simple builder. You can also use various programming languages, such as Python or JavaScript, and libraries like python-telegram-bot or node-telegram-bot-api.
• Choosing a feedback standard: Your bot can use various feedback metrics, including NPS, CSAT, or CSI.
  • NPS: Net Promoter Score measures how likely customers are to recommend your company to others. It is determined on an 11-point scale (from 0 to 10), where 0 means “definitely would not recommend,” and 10 — “would definitely recommend.” You can use this question as part of the survey conducted by your bot.
  • CSAT: Customer Satisfaction Score measures the level of customer satisfaction with a product or service. This is usually rated on a five-point scale, where 1 means “completely dissatisfied,” and 5 — “very satisfied.”
  • CSI: Customer Satisfaction Index is a more “detailed” version of customer satisfaction assessment.
  • Your custom option: you can also move away from well-known principles and collect feedback in any format, for example with three options — “good, average, bad” or however you like. What’s more important here is the next point ⬇️.
  • Data analysis: After collecting the data, you should analyze it to determine the level of customer satisfaction and their preferences. Otherwise — what was it all for?) You can use various tools for data analysis, such as Google Sheets or Excel.

Best Practices for Creating Bots and Collecting Feedback

• Transparency: Be transparent with customers about how and why you collect feedback. This will help build trust and increase the likelihood of receiving quality feedback.
• Short surveys: Long surveys can scare off customers. Aim for short and specific questions to make the process as simple as possible.
• Use of buttons: one of the important features of a Telegram bot is the ability to use buttons, which regular users do not have. Buttons fantastically increase user engagement — pressing a large, visible button on the screen is much easier for the user than hitting the tiny “5” button on the on-screen keyboard and pressing “Enter.”
• Improvement/correction questions: if you receive a negative rating from a customer, include clarification questions in the bot — what went wrong, offer the customer options, as well as the opportunity to write what they didn’t like themselves.
• Regular updates: Regularly update and adapt your feedback questions to reflect current conditions or needs.
• User engagement: Instead of waiting for users to come and leave feedback themselves, actively engage them. For example, the bot can offer the user to leave feedback after completing a certain action.
• Data analysis: Make sure you analyze the collected data and use it to improve your products or services.

Initiating Subscription to the Telegram Feedback Bot

A feedback bot in Telegram can message a user ONLY IF the user has already messaged it before (or at least — pressed the “Start” button). This is called “subscribing” — such a user becomes a “subscriber” of the bot.

To be able to message people, different tactics are used.

Using a bot with a lead magnet: there is a lead magnet on the website, to get which — you need to message the bot. Then, if the client buys something — the bot can send them a feedback question.

Offering to subscribe to the bot to receive benefits: these can be discounts, useful materials, or something else.

Participating in a webinar via the bot: you hold a webinar, but the link to it must be obtained from the bot — thus, everyone interested becomes a subscriber.

Offline promotion: don’t forget that you can also advertise your bot offline — via a QR code and placing it in a visible spot in your store or office.

Feedback Bots in Other Messengers

Although Telegram is a very popular messenger, not everyone likes it, and many users prefer to stay in other messengers.

It’s probably not worth ignoring your customers just because they don’t like Telegram. Therefore, when choosing a platform to manage your bot, you should consider being able to implement a similar bot in other messengers as well, so you don’t have to deal with a bunch of different platforms.

One of the best bot builders for different messengers is Chotam.io — it is a simple and reliable bot where you can easily implement feedback, and which supports all popular messengers — WhatsApp, Telegram, and even, for example, Odnoklassniki (which very few support).

A feedback bot in Telegram is a powerful tool for understanding the needs and desires of customers. Using NPS, CSI, and other feedback collection methods, you can get valuable data that will help you improve your product or service and increase customer satisfaction.