We’ve written about chatbots and their surprisingly vast array of applications for small business in the past, but the process of coding and integrating one can be a colossal undertaking–one that Ken Yeung, CEO of Claire.ai, hopes to address with his team’s newest innovation, WATI.
Per the developer website, WATI is a customer relationship management (CRM) “solution” to the nasty problem of retaining site visitors. This solution takes the form of a bot fostered within WhatsApp, which is the CRM’s claim to uniqueness.
Yeung’s firm, according to his product website, has the distinct advantage of being Facebook’s official business partner in the WhatsApp department (what that actually entails is relatively unclear). This translates into WATI’s WhatsApp integration, a decision which allows WATI systems to “reach out to over 2 billion [WhatsApp] users”–something CRM enthusiasts will find appealing.
So what exactly does WATI do?
WATI, unlike other CRM options, requires little in the way of setup; in fact, you can have a rudimentary chatbot working for you within a few minutes.
With a little more effort, you can start taking advantage of WATI’s keyword matching for common questions, using both exact matching and something referred to as “fuzzy” matching–a type of keyword processing that allows for non-exact matching based on context.
And, since WATI runs on the Claire.ai infrastructure, it learns as it experiences new queries, thus making it a smart long-term investment.
This makes for a responsive, intelligent chatbot that can greet customers, put them in contact through an embedded WhatsApp client, schedule appointments, and so much more–and the best part is that the bot continues to adapt to your customer’s needs the longer you use it, all without much in the way of back-end work.
From a cursory look at the WATI product page, though, it seems like the largest pull to invest in their product stems from the WhatsApp Business API itself. Sure, WATI comes with a built-in inbox for your team to manage content, and your notifications, replies, and API integration can all be customized; however, the sheer usability, ubiquity, and overall familiarity the business world has with WhatsApp makes WATI a slam-dunk in the right environments.
As chatbots become more and more pervasive, WATI promises to deliver a different, more universal experience, and we’re excited to see where it goes.
