How To Switch From WhatsApp To A WhatsApp Business Account

Still using your personal WhatsApp account to engage your leads and customers? Find out how to easily transition to the WhatsApp Business app today!
Chee Yong Qing
Chee Yong Qing

Content Marketer

Reading time: 8 minutes

Are you still using your personal WhatsApp account for business communications? 😯

It’s about time to move over to and use the WhatsApp Business app instead!

Never heard about it? Was never convinced to adopt its use?

Fret not! We’re here to give a simple introduction to what makes WhatsApp Business so good and show you how simple it is to transition from WhatsApp to WhatsApp Business!

Contents

What is WhatsApp Business?

WhatsApp Business is WhatsApp’s official mobile application made to support smaller businesses in their business communications and sales. It is largely similar to regular WhatsApp, but has additional features to support business communication needs.

WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp

The WhatsApp Business app has everything that you’ll find on the regular WhatsApp app and more. Simply put, think of it as a duplicate WhatsApp app and account that’s dedicated for your business.

It has its own dedicated mobile app and has all the familiar features like text messaging, WhatsApp Groups, WhatsApp Broadcast, voice and video calling, and is accessible through WhatsApp Web.

The dedicated WhatsApp Business app is available on both iOS and Android stores.
The dedicated WhatsApp Business app is available on both iOS and Android stores.

However, the WhatsApp Business app has other features to boost business communications on the WhatsApp platform. Let’s take a look at some of these advanced business features! 👇

What makes WhatsApp Business good for businesses

Business Profile

WhatsApp Businesses’ business profile is similar to how a regular WhatsApp profile works — it shows your phone number, profile picture, and information about yourself. It’s like an ‘about us’ page, but on WhatsApp! 

As seen below, you’ll be able to include information such as your brand logo, business name, and your business catalog.

An example of a WhatsApp Business business catalog. Source: WhatsApp
An example of a WhatsApp Business business catalog. Source: WhatsApp
Notification to inform customers that they are chatting with a dedicated WhatsApp Business account.
Notification to inform customers that they are chatting with a dedicated WhatsApp Business account.

A special notification in-chat notifies your customers that they are chatting with a dedicated business account.

Up to 2 devices can be connected to the same WhatsApp Business account.

Semi-automation

Under the same ‘Business Tools’ tab, you will be able to set-up 3 kinds of semi-automated messaging to support your business communication.

1. Greeting Message: Set up this generic welcome message to auto-respond to new incoming chats or to conversations that have no activity after 14 days.

2. Away Message: Set a schedule, such as your working hours, to inform your leads or customers that you are currently unavailable but have received their message, and will respond to them as soon as possible.

3. Quick reply template: Customize several message templates to be easily inserted into your chat box by using the assigned keyword after ‘/’.

For example, you can set up the quick reply keyword ‘/thanks’ with the message template ‘Thank you for shopping with us! We hope to see you again soon!’, and use it at the end of every successful sale over a WhatsApp chat.

Quick replies are useful for such commonly used phrases, and for answering frequently asked questions.

An example of WhatsApp Business quick replies feature. Source: WhatsApp
An example of WhatsApp Business quick replies feature. Source: WhatsApp

Chat labels

Tag different conversations with different chat labels to easily identify the type of conversation and customer. 

For example, you can set up labels according to which stage of the sales cycle the contact is, or according to which industry the customer is from.

An example of WhatsApp Business chat labels. Source: WhatsApp
An example of WhatsApp Business chat labels. Source: WhatsApp

Do I need WhatsApp Business?

We think that businesses of all sizes should set up their dedicated WhatsApp Business account. 

However, here’s a few questions you can ask yourself to make a convincing choice to make the move over to WhatsApp Business.

1. Do my leads/customers reach out to me on WhatsApp?

If your leads and customers are contacting you often via WhatsApp, it is evident that the WhatsApp platform is becoming the preferred platform of your business target audience.

You don’t need to transition over to a WhatsApp Business account now if no one is texting about your business there.

But if you have a customer base whom you communicate regularly on WhatsApp, you need to transition over as soon as possible.

“I’ve been doing fine so far with my regular WhatsApp account! Why do I need to make the switch now?”

Because your business will grow, and with it, the volume of messages coming in.

You will receive more enquiries from customers on WhatsApp. You will find yourself repeatedly typing the same responses for frequently asked questions. 

That’s why you’ll need more advanced messaging features to support business communication on WhatsApp.

2. Are my work-life communications overlapping?

Are you receiving business-related messages on WhatsApp after office hours? Is it affecting your work-life balance?

WhatsApp Business is meant to help businesses have a dedicated account for business communication.

If you find yourself wondering if every new WhatsApp notification is personal or business, then it’s time to make the switch.

3. Do I want to scale up my business?

You can’t live with your regular WhatsApp account indefinitely if you see your sales volume increasing. 

If you foresee your business growing and you need to scale up its operations, then make the switch to WhatsApp Business in advance so that you can support that.

As your business grows, you’ll need semi-automation or completely automated solutions to boost your customer service. Notifying your customers when their shipment is on the way, informing them of successful transactions, or dropping them a thank you message once delivery is complete are all parts of a growing business’ essentials for messaging.

 Unless your business remains as a small side hobby; you should transition from WhatsApp to WhatsApp Business.

Transitioning to WhatsApp Business

Before we run through the steps to transit from regular WhatsApp Messaging to WhatsApp Business, we must note this important point.

You can’t use the same phone number for both WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business accounts. Each phone number must be registered with a unique WhatsApp account.

As such, you can have the choice of either creating a new account with a new phone number, or convert your existing WhatsApp account that’s tied to your existing phone number into a WhatsApp Business account. 

But don’t worry — Regardless of which choice you make, the regular WhatsApp messaging app and the WhatsApp Business app will still be two distinct apps that are accessible from the same device. This is especially helpful for dual-SIM phone users.

Step 0: Backing up your account - converting existing WhatsApp account to WhatsApp Business

If you’re using your existing WhatsApp phone number for WhatsApp Business, you’ll want to back up your chat history and settings so that it can be easily ported over to the WhatsApp Business App.

If you’re not using your existing phone number, skip over this step to step 1.

To back up your account, simply head over to your settings tab on WhatsApp and click on “Chats”.

A screenshot of WhatsApp Settings tab.

Then, head over to “Chat backup”.

A screenshot of Chat backup.

And click on “Back up” and wait for the upload to complete! Then you’re all set with your WhatsApp chat history backed up.

Step 1: Setting up your account - new WhatsApp Business account

After you’ve downloaded WhatsApp Business, open up the app and agree to WhatsApp’s Business Terms of Service. Once you’ve read the document, click on “Agree and Continue”.

A screenshot of agreement to WhatsApp Business’ Terms of Service.

WhatsApp Business will automatically attempt to identify the phone number on your device. 

Select the phone number you wish to use for your business. After verification, give WhatsApp Business permission to access your device’s documents for local storage and backup. You can then begin setting up your WhatsApp Business profile.

Screenshot of verifying selected phone number for WhatsApp Business.

If you are using your old number from WhatsApp for WhatsApp Business, you’ll also be prompted to restore your saved chat history from Step 0.

Step 2: Creating a Business Profile

You will then be prompted to set up your WhatsApp Business business profile.

All relevant information that best represents your business and the description of your business must be included during setup.

A screenshot of Business Profile setup in WhatsApp Business app. Source: Stewart Gauld, YouTube

Once completed, you will be brought to the main chat page, which looks exactly just like the chat overview page in the regular WhatsApp app.

You can then head over to the ‘Business tools’ tab and add to your business profile your working hours, location, and business website URL.

A screenshot of the Business tools tab within WhatsApp Business. Source: Stewart Gauld, YouTube
 

Step 3: Setting up a Business Catalog

Under the same ‘Business tools’ tab, you’ll be able to add your products and services to your WhatsApp business catalog. 

For every item listed, input an image, name, and description of your product or service. You can also choose to add in additional details like its price, the product URL link to your business website, and its item code.

A screenshot of setting up catalog items in WhatsApp Business’ Business catalog feature. Source: Stewart Gauld, YouTube

Step 4: Setting up semi-automation and chat labels

The WhatsApp Business app offers 3 semi-automated messaging features, all found under the ‘Business tools’ tab.

Set up automated WhatsApp welcome messages when leads and customers reach out to you for the first time on a WhatsApp conversation.

The Away message is another automated reply sent to incoming messages from leads and customers when it’s after business working hours.

Quick replies can be customized with your preferred keyword, and some descriptive words can also be added to each template message for easy reference. Quick replies can be used directly within WhatsApp Business chat conversations, and are easily set up on the page seen below.

A screenshot of setting up Quick replies in the WhatsApp Business app. Source: Stewart Gauld, YouTube

WhatsApp Business will also come with some default chat labels for you to label each conversation. Freely customize chat labels to identify leads and customers according to your unique business communications needs.

A screenshot of customizable Chat labels in the WhatsApp Business app. Source: Stewart Gauld, YouTube

With that, you have now completed your transition over to WhatsApp Business! Hooray! 🥳

Doing more with WhatsApp Business

We hope that you’ll be most delighted with the switch over to WhatsApp Business. But maybe you’re thinking how you can do even more with your WhatsApp Business account?

Use NovoChat to seamlessly integrate your WhatsApp Business account and access even more powerful business communication features!

NovoChat is a chat marketing platform built for e-commerce businesses. 

Its broadcast feature bypasses all strict WhatsApp guidelines and restrictions, such as the 24-hour session window, 256 recipient limit, and template rules. You can even send personalized bulk WhatsApp messages to every recipient!

Also, NovoChat has a centralized inbox that enables businesses to conduct multi-agent customer support across WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, and LINE — accessible straight from your web browser.

Its website chat widget is an excellent tool to convert website visitors into potential leads and customers by directing them to a conversation with you at their preferred messaging platform!

So wait no longer — move your business communications from regular WhatsApp to WhatsApp Business today, and click the button below to give NovoChat a go with its 7-day free trial!

Try NovoChat for free! 🚀

An e-commerce chat marketing platform to grow your sales. 

© Novochat

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