WhatsApp for Manufacturing: Benefits, Use Cases & Setup Guide

Put a finger down if you’ve received a message on WhatsApp from a business. Put another one down if you’ve opened WhatsApp in the last hour. And one more if WhatsApp is the only instant messaging app you use.

It might seem like we’re trying to give you middle school flashbacks, but no. We’re actually highlighting an indisputable fact — WhatsApp is the instant messaging app of today, and it's getting leveraged by everyone. Not just individuals, but businesses as well—and quite successfully, we might add.

Not to mention — Mark Zuckerberg (no introduction required) says,

“The reality is that business messaging is probably going to be the next major pillar of our business as we work to monetize WhatsApp and Messenger more.”

SIC: Arab News

WhatsApp is making inroads everywhere, whether it's personal or professional interactions. And if you have a manufacturing business, boy, do we have good news for you! You don’t have to hunt for a platform to manage your professional communication anymore, the one you need is already loaded and ready on your device.

Not convinced if WhatsApp can do the job? Stick on and let us walk you through what WhatsApp for manufacturing is, its features, undeniable benefits, key use cases, brands already leveraging it, and more.

What is WhatsApp for Manufacturing?

Communication between stakeholders, and that too effectively and efficiently, is the hallmark of a smooth functioning pipeline. And this is especially important when it comes to the manufacturing industry, where stakeholders are numerous (manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, regulatory bodies, etc.) and disconnected.

WhatsApp for manufacturing helps streamline communication and collaboration with all stakeholders, giving your manufacturing team a hotline to sanity. No more confusing email chains or walkie-talkie drama — only effective, efficient, and recordable communication — instantly.

Key Features of WhatsApp for Manufacturing

When you think of WhatsApp, you likely associate it with the app you use for personal communication. But this instant messaging app has evolved to meet dynamic business needs in the manufacturing industry.

Whether it's instant updates or detailed insight into your WhatsApp presence and engagement, WhatsApp for manufacturing companies goes above and beyond. Here are some of its key features:

1. Instant Communication

The very first and foremost critical feature of WhatsApp for manufacturing is that this platform is specially designed for instant communication. You don’t have to wonder whether your supplier or team member received the update you shared, which is often the case with emails (the average WhatsApp user opens the app around 24 times a day, while email users check their inbox daily, with only 42% checking it three to four times a day).

With WhatsApp, you ensure quick, efficient, and real-time communication, minimizing the chances of errors, slowdowns, and bottlenecks.

2. Business Profiles

Next, WhatsApp gives manufacturing companies the ability to create a professional business profile on the platform that details their name, a short company description, address, and contact details. In other words, a WhatsApp Business profile allows you to showcase your organization and offer key information in a concise format right on the platform, which in turn facilitates seamless connection with potential customers, partners, and the like.

3. End-to-End Encryption

As a manufacturing company, you’ve got some trade secrets, confidential documents, or covert operations you’d rather not have fall into the wrong hands. With WhatsApp, you can communicate and collaborate with your team members, partners, and stakeholders with ease, knowing the media, text messages, voice notes, documents, and anything else you share on the platform will stay between you and the receiver.

4. Set an ‘Away Message’

You value your stakeholders, but responding to them after work hours — that’s difficult too. After all, your team needs its rest to bring their A-game every day. On the other hand, leaving them unanswered can send the wrong message. So, is there a middle ground?

Well yes! And that comes in the form of an ‘Away Message’ that you can send on WhatsApp to all chats that light up after you’ve closed shop. You can create this custom message and have it activated during your off-hours to ensure your stakeholders know they’re valued and that you’ve received their message and will get back to them first thing tomorrow.

5. Contact Labels

WhatsApp allows you to organize your business contacts into categories through labels. All you need to do is search out the label, and all your contacts tagged with that will pop up in seconds. No having to scroll past all your chats and waste time. Some labels you can create include ‘suppliers’, ‘manufacturing floor staff’, ‘distributors’, etc.

6. Message Analytics

Lastly, with WhatsApp, you’re not functioning in a black box. Instead, you have backstage passes to gain comprehensive and deep insight into your operations on the platform. As a result of this, you can track key metrics such as message delivery rate, engagement rate, session length, message open rate, etc., to make informed, data-backed budget and operation-related decisions.

Why WhatsApp Makes Sense for Manufacturing

We’ve discussed the key features of WhatsApp automation for manufacturing. Now, let’s take a look at what it brings to the table and why it's non-negotiable for the modern manufacturing business looking to stay ahead of the curve:

1. Gain Manufacturing Updates in Real Time

As mentioned in the previous section, one of the standout features of WhatsApp is instant communication. And so, the first benefit of WhatsApp for manufacturing companies is that the platform facilitates real-time manufacturing and production updates.

In other words, your stakeholders within and outside your organization always operate on the latest information, minimizing the chances of errors and potential slowdowns while ensuring quick issue resolution whenever required.

2. Gain Instant Inventory Alerts

Try as we might, inventory shortages do take place. And if you’re informed about this too late, it can cause a domino effect of delayed shipments, furious customers, and lost revenue. But with WhatsApp offering instant communication, you’re ensuring communication lines stay open to inform relevant stakeholders of shortages in inventory.

And when this happens, you’re well-positioned to quickly place fresh orders and manage delivery schedules to ensure customer expectations are met.

Watch how uses Gallabox to increase their connect ratio by 25%

3. Set Reminders for Maintenance

WhatsApp also allows businesses to set reminders. Think of it as your own personal assistant, ensuring you stay on schedule to meet your monthly goals. You can leverage the app to set reminders for maintenance checks, weekly audits, etc. No more missed deadlines or costly repairs due to forgotten maintenance checks.

4. Streamline Coordination with Suppliers

Coordination and collaboration with your suppliers is the foundation of an efficient manufacturing pipeline. With WhatsApp, manufacturers can stay connected with suppliers and gain quick updates on schedules, delivery volume, delivery timeline, etc., ensuring they stay on top of everything.

Not only that, but in case of any supply-related issues, manufacturers can quickly gain clarity on the problem and take steps to resolve the issue immediately.

5. Facilitate Quick Customer Support

Customers today have a plethora of choices. And what usually makes the cut for them is personalized and attentive service. WhatsApp helps you execute this by helping you respond to customer queries, doubts, and order update requests instantly.

Not only that, but it also adds a more personal touch to your interaction, helping you nurture your professional relationship with customers more effectively.

6. Get Notification for Delivery Tracking

Did you know that a whopping 90% of customers want to track their orders? Not only that, but real-time order tracking has also been seen to reduce delays by 58% and customer claims by 25%. Customer want regular updates on their orders. WhatsApp can help you share live delivery tracking links with customers to meet this increasingly important customer expectation.

7.  Share Personalized Order Confirmation Messages

McKinsey & Company reports that 71% of customers expect personalization, and 76% get frustrated if they don’t get it. Today, your brand communication must be personal, relevant, and speak directly to the customer. If not, you run the risk of losing them.

WhatsApp helps you prevent this by facilitating easy, instant, and personal communication on a platform that your customers use. Share order updates, personalized offers, product launches, and more.

Segment Your Customers for Smarter Messaging in Gallabox

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8. Manage Crises Effectively

Unforeseen interruptions and disruptions such as bottlenecks, slowdowns, and delays in the supply chain have far-reaching effects if not addressed promptly.

With WhatsApp, manufacturers can stay updated on these disruptions, take adequate steps, and inform customers in time to manage expectations and ensure a positive customer experience.

9.  Share Training Resources with Your Team

WhatsApp facilitates seamless communication and coordination for external as well as internal stakeholders. Manufacturing companies can leverage the platform to share training materials and resources with their internal teams in the form of videos, documents, images, and other media to keep them updated on maintenance needs, safety protocols, new tools in the tech stack, etc.

10. Gain Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is a treasure chest of valuable information that can help you improve products, processes, and customer experience, ultimately setting the stage to drive growth and revenue. 

Manufacturing companies can leverage WhatsApp to collect customer feedback right from the horse’s mouth. You can consider sharing feedback links or creating a quick WhatsApp poll, depending on what you want to gain feedback on.

11. Announce Events

WhatsApp can also help you hit the loudspeaker to announce industry events, trade shows, webinars, and more. Hosting and participating in such events can help you establish your business as a leading name in the industry, and with WhatsApp, you can broadcast it to ensure your partners and customers are kept informed.

12. Issue Invoices Easily

WhatsApp also facilitates seamless issuance of invoices in digital formats. Thanks to its end-to-end encryption, manufacturers can leverage the instant communication platform to raise and confirm invoice delivery, while sharing payment links to help customers make payments without switching platforms.

Key Use Cases in the Manufacturing Sector

Here’s a look at some of the use cases of WhatsApp for manufacturing companies:

1. Order Tracking

As a manufacturing business, you can leverage WhatsApp to offer customers real-time updates on the status of their orders. Consider integrating automated messaging to share shipping details, updates on completion of shipping milestones and estimated delivery dates on WhatsApp—all without having to involve your team manually.

2. Marketing and Sales

You can also leverage WhatsApp to drive your marketing and sales efforts. WhatsApp’s automated messaging can be used to share promotional content, personalized offers, product updates and other materials to boost engagement and revenue.

3. Team Communication

WhatsApp automation for manufacturing businesses can enhance internal communication with the company as well. Broadcast can be used to share company wide announcements, while automated messages can be used to collect employee feedback, and understand how employee satisfaction can be improved.

4. Customer Support

WhatsApp is your customer’s preferred platform, making it the ideal place to address any queries, doubts or issues they might have. You can leverage WhatsApp automation to enhance your customer support initiatives with immediate and efficient communication. Think automated messages and chatbots.

Real-World Examples or Case Studies for Manufacturing Industry

Believe it or not, businesses in your industry haven’t been sleeping on WhatsApp’s undeniable benefits. In fact, companies around the world have been steadily leveraging this powerful communication platform to further their sales and marketing, internal communication, and customer support goals. Here’s a look at some of these:

1. Unilever

Unilever, the British multinational consumer goods company, leverages WhatsApp Business API to drive its sales and marketing goals. It utilizes the platform’s automated messages to share promotional content and product updates directly with customers to encourage repeat purchases, drive conversions, and increase brand awareness.

2. P&G

Procter & Gamble, the manufacturer behind many household names such as Dawn dishwashing liquid, Pampers, Tide detergent, etc., also leverages WhatsApp Business API to drive customer engagement and facilitate customer support. Like Unilever, it too uses WhatsApp’s automated messages to offer real-time customer support and resolve customer issues proactively.

3. Bosche

Bosche, a leading manufacturer of kitchen and household appliances leverages WhatsApp’s automated messaging and chatbots to offer robust and instant customer support.

How to Implement WhatsApp in a Manufacturing Environment

To implement WhatsApp in manufacturing, turn to Gallabox. We facilitate seamless communication over WhatsApp with our easy chatbot workflows. You can utilize our drag-and-drop builder to create responsive flows in just a few clicks. Not only that, but you can also make complete conversation flows with our Gen AI prompts and handoff rules. We’ll be walking you through our offerings ahead.

Best Practices for Implementing WhatsApp in Manufacturing

Integrating WhatsApp into your manufacturing business’s operation is nothing short of game-changing. That said, there are still ways you can drive its returns and reap the maximum benefit out of this platform. Wondering how? Here are some best practices to inculcate:

1. Ensure Compliance with Regulations

When using WhatsApp for business operations, it's important to ensure all operations on the platform are compliant with data protection laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

You see, while WhatsApp does promise end-to-end encryption and data privacy, businesses must still take adequate measures to ensure any information shared on the platform does not fall into the wrong hands.

For this, conduct regular privacy policy updates and confirm that customer data is stored and shared securely and only with authorized teams. Taking these steps will help safeguard your company against legal action and will nurture customer trust.

2. Train Employees to Ensure Maximum ROI

Plan and execute well-paced training sessions for your teams to help them understand and leverage WhatsApp for manufacturing activities adequately. Integrate resources such as video tutorials, interactive sessions, and manuals to help them gain the maximum benefit from the platform. Further, host regular calls and meetings to update them on new WhatsApp features and best practices as well.

Lastly, monitor your team’s performance and schedule additional training for employees who might be struggling with the platform. This will ensure you work with a well-trained and informed team that uses WhatsApp efficiently.

3. Leverage Chatbots for Efficiency

Chatbots help you respond to WhatsApp messages without any manual intervention. They can be trained to address frequently asked questions or straightforward queries end-to-end. Delegating the task of solving basic issues helps free up space on your team’s plate to address the problems that need their grey matter and expertise, while ensuring customer questions and doubts are satisfied promptly.

Additionally, chatbots help you gather valuable data as well, which can then be leveraged to make informed process and product-related enhancements.

4. Create an Effective Messaging Strategy

Don’t go shooting in the dark. Instead, create a well-thought-out and well-researched messaging strategy that checks all the boxes—personalization, relevancy, engaging, valuable, etc. Consider automating your order confirmation, delivery tracking link sharing, FAQs, and shipping notifications to ensure customers are responded to immediately without delay.

That said, be sure to keep the human element alive, your customers don’t want to speak to bots. You can also segment your audience to share targeted messages based on customer preferences, trends, etc.

5. Ensure Integration with Existing Tech Stack

Your entire tech stack should be on the same page—always. This means your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool, and other solutions must work in tandem and ensure all departments across your company have suitable access to their data.

Seamless integration of company systems will facilitate streamlined and optimized communication over WhatsApp, while driving accurate reporting for informed decision-making.

6. Don’t Overdo It

WhatsApp, with its instantaneous and wide reach, can make it tempting for you to bombard your customers with texts, videos, and media to drive engagement.

But don’t fall for that trap. Pace your communication on the platform and share only personalized, relevant, and valuable content. Anything else and you’re staring down the barrel of getting reported and blocked.

Unlock the Full Potential of WhatsApp in Manufacturing with Gallabox

Gallabox is your one-stop shop when it comes to leveraging WhatsApp for the manufacturing industry. We offer a host of solutions and capabilities that help you truly wring out every last drop of benefit from this instant messaging app. Here’s a look at our offerings:

WhatsApp Business API: Streamline your WhatsApp business communication with Gallabox’s AI-Rewrite feature, send bulk messages at scale in seconds, leverage WhatsApp ads to nudge leads towards a conversion, integrate trained chatbots to manage personalized communication, and more.

WhatsApp Automation Tool: Drive sales and minimize your support tickets by automating your WhatsApp. Integrate Gallabox to create complex chatbot journeys that help you scale conversions without tedious coding, execute efficient drip campaigns, and send timely alerts, reminders, and announcements.

WhatsApp Marketing Software: Create personalized conversations, convert leads instantly—all while staying within budget. Our solution helps you create impactful WhatsApp marketing campaigns and facilitates one collaborative inbox for your entire team for quicker issue resolution, ensuring end-to-end funnel efficiency.

WhatsApp Business API Pricing Calculator: Use our pricing calculator to never have to second-guess your marketing budget again. Prioritize campaigns and find ways to work leaner without compromising on returns.

Gallabox is the answer for WhatsApp automation for manufacturing companies. If you’re ready to give a boost to your team, sign up for a free trial today!

Conclusion

WhatsApp for manufacturing business is a no-brainer today. This once personal messaging app has steadily evolved into an all-rounder communication platform, facilitating seamless professional interaction effectively.

And with Gallabox in your tech stack, you set the stage to ensure you get the maximum benefit from this instant messaging app. Ready to supercharge your manufacturing business’s communication? Sign up for a free trial today!

 FAQs on Whatsapp for Manufacturing

1. Can WhatsApp automation improve supplier communication in manufacturing?

Yes, WhatsApp automation can improve supplier communication in manufacturing. It achieves this by facilitating instant and secure communication with all stakeholders, whether it's sharing real-time updates about production schedules or enabling quick issue resolution in case of slowdowns and delays.

2. Is WhatsApp secure enough for handling sensitive manufacturing data?

Thanks to its end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp is secure enough to handle sensitive manufacturing data. This ensures your messages, photos, documents, videos, voice messages, location, status updates, etc, basically anything you share on WhatsApp, remain between you and the participants of the concerned chats.

3. Is it necessary to have a WhatsApp Business account for manufacturing operations?

No, while it is not absolutely necessary for you to have a WhatsApp Business account for manufacturing operations, creating a business account on the instant messaging app has its benefits, such as a professional profile, customer engagement tools, analytics, and more.

4. Can WhatsApp be used for internal communication among manufacturing teams?

Yes! WhatsApp can definitely be used for internal communication among manufacturing teams. Manufacturing businesses can use the platform to share company-wide broadcast messages, create focused groups for specific discussions and more.