In this article:
- MissPompadour: from the WhatsApp Business app to a professional software
- Conversational Commerce? "WhatsApp is a sales tool for us!"
- How does MissPompadour manage 500 WhatsApp Business chats per day?
- Is it worth for MissPompadour to put this much effort into WhatsApp
- MissPompadour succeeds with Sinchdi Engage
The e-commerce DIY paint company MissPompadour has always used WhatsApp Business as part of its customer communication. Now, it's one of their most successful sales channels! We talked to CEO Erik Reintjes about how the company keeps up with 500 queries per day and turns nine out of ten WhatsApp chats into a purchase.
If you're curious to find out how you can use WhatsApp to grow your business, look no further than MissPompadour. They managed to turn the messaging app into a sales tool — with a 90% conversion rate!
We talked to Erik Reintjes, CEO of MissPompadour about how they got started with WhatsApp Business, how retailers can use messaging, and why the tool is such a success for them.
MissPompadour: from the WhatsApp Business app to a professional software
Can you sell something as personal and emotional as DIY paint online? For many years, the paint industry said: no way! Customers are very demanding when it comes to picking the perfect paint for their homes, and nobody thought that selling paint online would ever work. Until MissPompadour tried it!
The German company switched their business model from a brick-and-mortar store to an online-only shop, and has been incredibly successful with the move. Why? Because MissPompadour has always understood very well how to use social media to their advantage.
They promote their products on visual platforms, such as Pinterest and Instagram, and create YouTube tutorials for their customers. Chatting with their customers on digital channels has therefore always been part of their communication strategy, says Erik Reintjes, CEO of MissPompadour.
From the very beginning, the company saw WhatsApp as a direct and personal communication channel. Even in their brick-and-mortar days, co-founder Astrid Reintjes would always give customers her personal WhatsApp Business number in case they had questions. This worked very well, until the business started growing.
Once we had more than five agents dealing with WhatsApp consultation on one smartphone, we outgrew the WhatsApp Business app.
Erik Reintjes, MissPompadour
The problem: companies that use the free WhatsApp Business app have to manage all the incoming queries on one single smartphone. Having to pass around one device to all agents, is very inconvenient. There's also no way to automate the service or scale it, and data protection is also not guaranteed. That's why WhatsApp Business doesn't work for most businesses that have more than five employees. The solution? Switch to the WhatsApp Business Platform!
That's also what MissPompadour did. They partnered with Sinch Engage who set up a professional and ready-to-go messaging solution for WhatsApp Business for them.
This has taken their customer communication to the next level.
🚀 Download MissPompadour's success story for free!
Conversational Commerce? "WhatsApp is a sales tool for us!"
One of the reasons for MissPompadour's success with WhatsApp is that it's tied in with their entire digital communication strategy, as Erik Reintjes explains.
Social media is the customer catcher. WhatsApp is the conversion channel.
How does this work?
Because MissPompadour understands that DIY paint requires thorough consultation, they use WhatsApp to help their customers before they make a purchase. Typically, this is where most questions come up because customers want to be 100% sure they're buying the right paint.
That's why MissPompadour integrated the WhatsApp chat button directly into their product sites, so customers can start a chat as they're browsing paints. WhatsApp makes it easy for them to send pictures or videos of their homes and start a video chat with a customer agent. This makes the conversation simple and fast.
Images and videos are a great way to inspire and engage shoppers.
According to Erik Reintjes, it's also more convenient than e-mail or phone: "For any successful e-commerce business you can't only offer e-mail or phone, you have to be available on all channels. If you have a product that requires consultations, the next logical step is to offer WhatsApp as a communication channel." That's what made their move from an offline to an online business so successful, say Reintjes.
This shows in their 90% conversion rate. A chat that starts on WhatsApp typically ends in a sale.
How does MissPompadour manage 500 WhatsApp Business chats per day?
Given their high conversion rate, it's important for MissPompadour to guide as many customers as possible towards their most successful sales channel. The key to steering users towards the WhatsApp channel is to communicate it everywhere, says Reintjes. His tips for getting more users to talk to you on WhatsApp are:
- integrate WhatsApp at every touchpoint, and always include the call to action "write us on WhatsApp"
- every other sentence in marketing should be "get in touch with us via WhatsApp and ask us anything"
- communicate your WhatsApp service on every flyer and booklet, that's what we do
With their effort, MissPompadour now handles around 500 WhatsApp Business chats per day. In an unusual move, the e-commerce business decided not to use chatbots for their service. "Chatbots are important, and can be very helpful. For our business, however, the personal touch is crucial", says Erik Reintjes.
Currently, eleven agents handle the customer queries from Monday through Saturday. It's a lot of effort, but still ends up being cheaper than a call center solution. What comes in really handy is the messaging solution from Sinch Engage that allows the team to handle all customer queries on one platform.
Is it worth for MissPompadour to put this much effort into WhatsApp
Clearly, a personal WhatsApp consultation requires resources. You need agents that have the time to talk to customers, and answer all of their questions. Is it worth it? For MissPompadour, the clear answer is: absolutely!
Our business wouldn't work without WhatsApp!
Erik Reintjes
Especially if your product requires a lot of support, it's definitely worth it to move your digital customer service to the very personal and direct WhatsApp chats. Erij Reintjes thinks that it also sets them apart from their competitors: "If you want to grow your e-commerce business, there's no way around WhatsApp." In fact, MissPompadour is looking at expanding their WhatsApp service.
MissPompadour succeeds with Sinchdi Engage
When MissPompadour decided to switch their WhatsApp Business communication to the WhatsApp Business Platform, they chose the messaging solution from Sinch Engage.
It doesn't only get them access to the WhatsApp API, it also...
- 👨⚖️ … ensures 100% data protection.
- 🗞️ … lets you easily start campaigns to send messaging newsletters and marketing notifications to your subscribers.
- 🚀… allows you to get stared within a few days and without IT effort, even from a work-from-home setup!
- 💻… lets you edit and reply to all messages centrally, regardless what channel they’re coming from.
- ↔ … helps you assign customer inquiries as conversation tickets to your co-workers manually or automatically through auto-routing.
- 🤖 … enables you to easily set up automation with the drag-and-drop chatbot builder with AI capabilities, which is free of charge.
- 💰 … use WhatsApp and other messaging channels effectively, at fair price, and without a set-up fee for maximum personal digital consulting!
🚀 Get the most out of your customer communication. Check out our one-stop messaging solution Sinch Engage.