While email is often the perfect channel communicating with your site’s visitors, in some cases, it might be too slow, or inconvenience for your specific business. For these situations, you’ll want to add a WhatsApp chatbox to your site so the user can get in touch immediately.
For this post, we’re going to look at how to add a WhatsApp chatbox to your WordPress site. Before this, let’s talk more about what a chatbot is.
Also read: 10 Best Sticker Packs for WhatsApp
What Is a Chatbot?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a prevalent technology on the modern web. Many applications use AI to “humanize” otherwise robotic, machine-based actions.
A chatbot can be a complex program, but in essence, it takes user input and serves a result. The difference between this and any other program is how the chatbot gets and responds to those results.
It’s conversational, and the goal is to converse with the user as a human would. This is (of course) a complicated task to achieve, and developers are working around the clock to improve how chatbots interact.
Even so, the technology is good enough to deploy across the web, and there are solutions for most of the major communication platforms.
Also read: 13 of the Best WhatsApp Web Tips and Features
Why You’d Use a WhatsApp Chatbot for WordPress Over Other Platforms?
You’ll often find that you’ll use Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp when implementing a chatbot on WordPress. Of course, both of these solutions are under the same corporate umbrella, and neither is poor.
Though, WhatsApp has more than two billion users. That makes it one of the most popular chat apps on the planet. Also, it’s more direct than Messenger in that it doesn’t need Facebook to work. This means you have more potential customers, including those who use WhatsApp as their first-line messaging app.
On the whole, it’s a good idea to give your visitors an easy way to contact you, and WhatsApp ticks all the right boxes.
Also read: How to Create a WhatsApp Group Link on Mobile and PC
How to Add a WhatsApp Chatbox to Your WordPress Site
For this, we are using Social Chat. It’s free, has a five-star rating on the WordPress Plugin Directory, and gets regular updates.
1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard and find the “Plugins -> Add New” page on the left side.
2. On the “Add Plugins” screen, search for “Social Chat” in the dedicated search bar. When it appears, click the “Install Now” button. Once it changes to Activate, click that too.
3. At this point, WordPress will do its thing. When you see the success screen, you can begin to configure the plugin.
4. Your first task here is to get to the Settings screen – you can click the link next to the Social Chat plugin.
This will bring you to the “Social Chat -> Welcome” page.
5. You’re able to change all manner of options here, although it’s crucial to set the correct WhatsApp telephone number. Of course, this should be from your primary business phone number. You can find this option on the Button screen.
The number should be in international format as a string of numbers (“15551234567” over “+001-(555)1234567,” for example).
6. When you’re ready, click the Save button. The plugin is ready to use at this point!
We also encourage you to read through the documentation and experiment with the plugin’s options. There’s much you can do with the free version, and it’s a powerful way to add a WhatsApp chatbot to WordPress.
7. If you take a look at your site, you’ll see a floating button ready to interact.
When a user clicks this, it will expand into a fully-fledged chat window.
This is almost everything you need to know to use Social Chat. The user will click the dedicated “representative” to begin the chat. From there, it will transfer to WhatsApp.
If you’d like to set up your own chatbot representative, you can do this on the “Social Chat -> Contacts” page.
Also read: How to Export and Back Up Your WhatsApp Chat History
Other WhatsApp Chatbox WordPress Plugins
Of course, Social Chat isn’t the only solution available to you. WordPress has many WhatsApp chatbox plugins within the Plugin Directory. For example, Click to Chat is a no-fuss, straightforward solution.
WP Chat App is also great and looks similar to Social Chat.
Of course, there are even more plugins depending on your needs. Our advice is to look around the Plugin Directory and test a few out before choosing one.
Also read: How to Format Text in WhatsApp Chats
Wrapping Up
It is essential to provide the customers a speedy way to contact you. Email is good, but it can be slow. Instead, a WhatsApp chatbox on your WordPress website is a great solution. Meanwhile, you can check out how to send high quality videos on Whatsapp and fix your Whatsapp when it is not working.
Image credit: Yay Images
Also read: How to Create and Manage a WhatsApp Group
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Tom Rankin
Tom Rankin is a quality content writer for WordPress, tech, and small businesses. When he’s not putting fingers to keyboard, he can be found taking photographs, writing music, playing computer games, and talking in the third-person.
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