The most important and best messengers for your company

Quick and easy exchange: We’ll introduce you to the best messaging services you can use to communicate with your customers.

The best messengers at a glance

Nowadays, companies usually communicate with their customers via different channels. Messengers are becoming more and more popular. They are equally suitable for start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporations.

WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business

By far the most popular messenger in German-speaking countries is WhatsApp. According to the ARD / ZDF online study 2020, around 80% of Germans use the messaging app, almost 70% of them daily.

WhatsApp is also popular around the world: over 2 billion people worldwide use the free chat program, which has been part of Facebook since 2014. Trend: increasing.

WhatsApp is available in different versions. In addition to the “normal” version, Facebook has a version that was specially developed for small and medium-sized companies: WhatsApp Business . As the name suggests, WhatsApp Business is suitable for quick and smooth exchange between companies and customers.

WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business can be used as an app on your iPhone, Android smartphone, and tablet and as a web application on your PC. And it is possible to use the messenger in contact centers like the one from ChatWerk. In this case, the most secure variant of the instant messaging service is used: the WhatsApp Business API.

If you need more input on WhatsApp Business API and its advantages, we wrapped everything you need to know into this special Guide.

Telegram

Telegram is another instant messaging service that is growing rapidly. The messenger, which originally came from a Russian development team, has over 400 million users.

Telegram is considered very secure. With the chat application, no data is passed on to third parties such as advertising companies or authorities. You also have the option to hide your phone number and exchange it for an ID, which allows you to communicate anonymously.

Because of its many special functions, Telegram has developed from a pure messenger to a social network over the years. A network that you can use for free on iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android devices, macOS (Apple computers) and can be used on Windows PCs .

Facebook Messenger

Facebook is the most widely used social network in the world, so Facebook Messenger is also very popular. In autumn 2020, the communication channel had more than 1.3 billion users worldwide, 23 million of them in Germany.

This makes Facebook Messenger, together with WhatsApp, the undisputed one of the most frequently used chat messengers.

The free Facebook Messenger can be used in various ways: As an application that is directly integrated into Facebook, as an app for iOS and Android, and as part of ChatWerk.

Like all well-known instant messaging messengers, Facebook Messenger also offers the option of sending text messages, images, videos and voice messages. It also enables video conferences with other users.

Web chat / live chat

A web chat is a chat application that has been integrated directly into a website. Users can send messages via their browser without having to install a messaging app. If the exchange takes place in real time, this is called live chat.

Web chats and live chats are direct communication channels as they do not have a media break. For example, if a customer is in your online shop, they can immediately contact a customer service advisor.

Web and live chats increase customer satisfaction and reduce the abandonment rate, which results in a high ROI (return on investment).

Google Business Messages

With around 90% market share, Google is the most important search engine in the world. To keep it that way, new functions are constantly appearing. A fairly new one is called Google Business Messages. This is a direct communication channel that Google integrates into various of its services, for example in Google Maps.

Using Google Business Messages, Google users can chat directly with their pizzeria, holiday hotel or hairdresser in Google Maps. Questions about products can be answered quickly and orders can be placed easily.

Apple Business Chat

Apple Business Chat technology is based on iMessage, Apple’s own messenger. It is anchored in iOS, the operating system of the iPhone and iPad, as well as in macOS of the Mac computer. Like WhatsApp Business and Google Business Messages, Apple Business Chat has been optimized for communication between companies and end customers.

The Apple Business Chat has been around since 2018, and numerous well-known companies use this external communication channel. These include the hotel chains Hilton and Marriot, the fashion brand Burberry and the United Bank for Africa.

Other GDPR-Compliant Messengers for Businesses: Secure Alternatives to WhatsApp

Other external communication channels for companies

• SMS
  The short message service is becoming less important due to the spread of WhatsApp, Telegram and other messaging apps. Nevertheless, the SMS is still a very good messenger for companies to communicate quickly with customers.
• e-mail
  Email is not obsolete either. It is ideal for asynchronous, i.e. less urgent, communication. Another advantage: E-mail is the best way to send documents such as PDF and Word files, which the recipients can open, fill out and print out on their PC.

• phone
  Some questions are difficult to answer via messenger, SMS or email. When it comes to complicated matters, personal conversations over the phone (landline or cell phone) still score points.

Use all messengers via one interface

Would you like to use WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat and Facebook Messenger for your digital customer communication? Or do your customers prefer to use Telegram and web chat or live chat? No problem: ChatWerk bundles all external communication channels in one application!