The COVID-19 outbreak has altered most of our typical 9-to-6 jobs. Last year, we saw companies worldwide encouraging employees to abandon traditional office spaces in favour of socialising at home.

With the onset of the global pandemic, the work-from-home model has grown in popularity. Yet, according to a recent survey, most of the workforce is no longer mentally prepared to return to the office.

One thing is sure: the remote work culture is here to stay!

So, are businesses genuinely ready for this?
While most larger tech companies were prepared for this abrupt transition, some (and by that, we mean a significant number) of smaller businesses struggled to build smooth workflows and collaborate remotely.

Remote work apps have been on the rise

The daily challenges of connecting with teams remotely paved the way for a slew of project management solutions and apps. Each company had its remote work toolkit to help them survive the new normal.

It is unquestionably critical for teams in startups and small businesses to communicate and collaborate more cohesively, especially when working remotely. But, of course, we’re talking about customer service, sales, and other client-facing teams.

It may be necessary to reach out across functions to resolve customer queries; in such cases, keeping the customer waiting for a response is detrimental. This is where WhatsApp comes in.

WhatsApp has emerged as a sought-after channel for many fast-growing businesses in the country, particularly those just getting started. Consider India Gold. According to Growthbug, they recently revealed their product-growth stack, and WhatsApp is one of their critical channels for engagement.

This is unsurprising given WhatsApp’s status as an instant messaging app, which is known for its quick response and query resolution rates. However, with an increasing number of businesses using WhatsApp to connect with their customers, you’re missing out in more ways than one!
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Why is it necessary to use WhatsApp for business communications nowadays?

Though WhatsApp was initially used for personal chat, the possibilities for brands to engage and connect with customers are endless with the rollout of business solutions such as WhatsApp Business APIs.
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This means it’s time to:

• Be where your customers are: Connect with them on the most popular app in the world and delight your customers with engaging conversations.
• Give your customer support a boost: Compared to traditional channels such as phone calls and email, WhatsApp allows you to respond instantly and resolve complex customer queries much faster.
• Improve brand recall: Be one of the few brands that care about engaging with customers via their preferred channel. Send highly personalised WhatsApp notifications to stay on their radar.

With all those customer messages arriving on your WhatsApp business number, keeping track of conversations can be tricky – primarily if you work remotely.

You end up wasting time communicating with the team by forwarding customer chats. Worst of all? You might even miss responding to a few messages.

So, how do you grow your startup or a small business using WhatsApp without overwhelming your team?
This is taken care of by us!‍

The need of the hour: Surepass’s shared team inbox for WhatsApp

We saw a growing need for teams to respond to, track, and manage WhatsApp chats in a more organized fashion. In other words, a feature that consolidates all of your company’s WhatsApp chats into a single location, allowing multiple teammates to respond instantly and eliminate customer wait time.

Another issue that most startups face is using a single device for one WhatsApp business number, which ends up being shared by not just one or two, but sometimes even an entire office team of customer support agents. During the day, they may be passing on the phone, forwarding messages, or accessing WhatsApp web one at a time. This is nearly impossible to manage while working remotely because there is no option for multi-login!

This is one of the many issues that Surepass addresses. Remote teams can now easily manage all conversations on one dashboard thanks to WhatsApp’s shared team inbox, which allows multi-logins from any location.

Here are a few ways that the shared team inbox can boost the productivity of your remote teams:

1. All your WhatsApp chats will be in one place with this multi-login support tool, making tracking and closing conversation threads much more accessible.

2. Reaching out to your teams to respond to or handle specific queries can be difficult when they are dispersed. You can easily add multiple teammates, assign chats to them, and resolve customer queries much faster with the shared team inbox.

3. But what about sharing customer information or providing context for a specific customer request? We’ve also taken care of that. The shared team inbox includes features such as tags, notes, conversation threads, order history, and more to give every teammate a complete picture of the customer they are speaking with.

4. Not only that, but with this intuitive inbox, you can instantly engage and respond to customers by utilizing rich media capabilities such as quick replies and WhatsApp templates.

5. This WhatsApp team inbox is also a massive help for sales teams struggling to stay on top of leads while working remotely. With Surepass, you can easily track and follow up on every lead.
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The all-in-one WhatsApp business tool for remote teams
You can use Surepass’s functionalities to communicate with remote teams and track their productivity.

Here’s how you can use Surepass to overcome the challenges of managing a remote team:

Automated WhatsApp notifications:

In situations like this, it is critical to keep your team informed and involved. As bulk automated notifications on WhatsApp, send out timely company updates, internal communications, alerts about new product releases, or even employee engagement messages.

Contacts Management:

Instead of manually adding each WhatsApp contact, upload contacts in bulk. Have all your customers, vendors, and teammates in one place, access relevant user details, add tags, and manage them easily.
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It’s time to make the switch

WhatsApp as a business tool can be a game-changer for small businesses and startups in their early stages when managing workflows remotely (or not) and building enriching customer interactions.
From reducing customer wait times to having multiple messaging options, it’s time to use WhatsApp for business growth. Sign up with Surepass today to power your remote team, improve productivity, and engage with customers on a new level!