Source: Statista
WhatsApp is the number one messenger application in Malaysia (see the figure above). As customers prefer to use WhatsApp as a communication channel, it becomes a necessity for businesses in Malaysia to connect to them via this platform.
In this article, we explain how and where a WhatsApp chatbot can be used by businesses and provide 3 vendors that help businesses to get WhatsApp chatbot in Malaysia.
What is a WhatsApp chatbot?
A chatbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) software that can simulate a conversation (or a chat) via natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU) through :
- Messaging applications (such as Facebook Messenger)
- Websites
- Mobile apps (such as Whatsapp)
A chatbot interacts via text messages, rather than voice interaction.
More specifically, a WhatsApp chatbot is one that has been designed to integrate with the WhatsApp messaging platform. This means that it can communicate with users within the WhatsApp app, offering a convenient and efficient way for businesses to:
- Handle customer service inquiries
- Provide information
- Perform other business tasks
What are the use cases of WhatsApp chatbots in Malaysia?
1- Customer services
Businesses can use WhatsApp chatbots in various customer support operations, such as to:
This can help to reduce the workload for human customer support agents and increase customer satisfaction by providing quicker responses. Also, support teams can work on more complex service inquiries that require more human interaction.
Most customer service software integrates chatbots for omnichannel support. Learn more about this from our vendor selection guide on customer service software.
2- Retail and e-commerce
Many businesses in Malaysia are based online and could use WhatsApp chatbots to automate customer inquiries about orders, shipping, returns, etc. A company’s own chatbot could also be programmed to provide product recommendations based on customer preferences.
You can learn more about retail chatbots and conversational commerce from our articles.
3- Banking and finance
Banks and financial institutions can use WhatsApp chatbots to provide customers with information about their accounts, transaction history, etc. This could also include alert notifications for suspicious activity or updates on the stock market.
4- Marketing and advertising
Businesses can use WhatsApp chatbots to send promotional messages, offers, and discounts to customers. They can also use chatbots to collect customer data, which can be used to create more personalized marketing campaigns.
You can check our marketing chatbots and sales chatbots articles for more information.
5- Travel, restaurant & hospitality
Travel agencies, airlines, and hotels can use WhatsApp chatbots to handle bookings, provide check-in information, send flight updates, and answer common customer inquiries.
Pizza Hut Malaysia had already been taking orders via their website and third-party applications via chatbots.
You can check our travel chatbots, restaurant chatbots and hospitality chatbots articles for more information.
6- Healthcare
Hospitals and healthcare providers could use WhatsApp chatbots to schedule appointments, send reminders for medication, provide information about illnesses and treatments, etc.
7- Government services
Government agencies could use WhatsApp chatbots to provide citizens with information about various services, to process applications, or to send updates on issues like road conditions or emergency situations.
What should companies use Whatsapp chatbots?
WhatsApp chatbots offer several benefits for businesses. Here are a few of them:
- Reach: WhatsApp has over 2 billion users globally, so using a WhatsApp chatbot opens up a large potential audience for businesses. In certain markets, like India, Malaysia, and many other countries, WhatsApp is the leading messaging app, making it a particularly effective channel for customer interaction.
- Enhanced customer service: Chatbots can provide instant responses to common customer queries, reducing wait times and improving overall customer experience. They can also operate 24/7, ensuring constant customer support without a human agent.
- Increased efficiency: By automating routine tasks, task oriented chatbots can free up human resources to handle more complex issues. This improves overall business efficiency and can lead to cost savings.
- Scalability: A single WhatsApp bot can handle multiple conversations simultaneously. This means a business can scale up its customer service operations without a corresponding increase in human resources.
- Customer engagement: WhatsApp chatbots can be programmed to send personalized messages and offer tailored product recommendations. This can help to increase customer engagement and loyalty.
- Lead generation and conversion: WhatsApp chatbots can play a key role in the sales funnel. These predictive chatbots can qualify leads through initial interactions, follow up on potential customers, and even complete sales transactions.
- Feedback and data collection: Businesses can use chatbots to collect customer feedback and gain valuable insights. The data collected can be used to improve products and services, and to make more informed business decisions with advanced machine learning methods.
Top 3 Vendors of WhatsApp Chatbot in Malaysia
Below we gathered the top 3 chatbot companies that provide WhatsApp chatbot for businesses in the Malaysia market.
1- Haptik
Sponsored:
Haptik is a conversational commerce company with the capability to create WhatsApp business chatbots that can:
- Streamline customer communications
- Conduct sales
- Gather potential customer information
- Send custom notifications, which can include:
- Suggestions for products
- Details of transactions
- Information on shipping
It can assist businesses in quickly gaining access to the WhatsApp API and developing a ChatGPT-powered WhatsApp API chatbot that can understand user intent.
Pros
- Satisfactory customer support
- High ROI for long-term digital transformation strategies
- AI chatbot with satisfactory analytics and monthly reports (see Figure 2)
Figure 2
Source: Capterra
Cons
- The pricing can be a bit more expensive compared to other vendors
- Users state that there can be an integration problems occasionally
Figure 3. Pros and Cons of Haptik according to users
Source: Capterra
2- Yellow.ai
Pros
- Analytics insights for understanding user behavior
- Increases operational efficiency
- Ease of setup and use
Cons
- The ticket system can be problematic occasionally
- Hard to write custom scripts or integrate customized interfaces
Figure 4. Pros and Cons of Yellow.ai according to users
Source: Capterra
3- Verloop.io
Pros
- Chatbots are easy to integrate and deploy
- Solves various issues with multiple bot flows
- Improves customer satisfaction
Cons
- Analytics is not well developed
- Some processes are tedious or buggy
- Not deeply customizable (see Figure 5)
Figure 5. Customer review of Verloop.io
Source: G2
If you have questions or need help in finding vendors, don’t hesitate to contact us:
Cem has been the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per similarWeb) including 55% of Fortune 500 every month.
Cem’s work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE and NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and resources that referenced AIMultiple.
Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised enterprises on their technology decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.
He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem’s work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch like Business Insider.
Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.
