Looking for WATI alternatives that can manage complex business processes and support more messaging channels? You’ve come to the right place! In this blog post, we'll introduce you to respond.io, a powerful omnichannel WATI alternative built to enhance customer communication.

WATI Alternative: WATI vs respond.io

WATI and respond.io are platforms that facilitate customer conversations for business. They have similarities like providing businesses tools to automate conversations, send broadcasts and get conversation reports.

However, they were built with different purposes and businesses in mind. Respond.io was built for businesses looking to consolidate multiple messaging channels and accounts in one place. It provides tools for large businesses to manage and drive conversations from these channels.

WATI, conversely, is built specifically for the WhatsApp Business API, so businesses are only limited to one channel. If your business relies solely on WhatsApp to communicate with customers, you may assume that WATI is sufficient.

Unfortunately, this isn't true if you're in a region where WhatsApp is not the only popular messaging app as you won’t be maximizing your reach. Plus, you’ll be will be missing out on opportunities to reach existing and potential customers if your businesses will benefit from social media channels like Facebook and Instagram.

Now, let's explore how respond.io’s ability to support multiple channels and more can better suit your business needs.

WATI Alternative: Is respond.io a Better Choice for Your Business

Respond.io is a customer conversation management software designed to enhance the customer experience and build brand loyalty to increase business revenue. It has helped businesses globally gain more qualified leads, improve sales conversions and achieve a high degree of customer satisfaction.

In the upcoming sections, we'll look at some of the ways you can achieve success on respond.io.

Centralize All Messaging Channels for Seamless Customer Interactions

Relying on a single messaging channel comes with potential issues like losing the ability to communicate with customers if the channel goes down, limiting access to customers who are only active on that channel, and constraining customers to a single channel to reach you.

If managing multiple channels sounds daunting, centralize them on respond.io to receive all messages in a single omnichannel inbox.

Connect WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM and More

Respond.io allows you to connect all popular messaging channels that your customers prefer.

Because it is a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, you can get official WhatsApp API access and use it along with messaging channels like Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Viber, Google Business Messages and Instagram. It even supports traditional channels like email and SMS.

Additionally, you can manage multiple channel accounts like individual WhatsApp accounts or numbers for each branch or outlet. Respond.io supports native channel capabilities like sending emojis, voice messages and more to make conversations with customers more authentic and casual.

Integrate Custom Channels like In-app Chat, Chats from E-commerce Platforms and more

Another distinct advantage of respond.io is that if your company has its own messaging app or uses an e-commerce platform’s native inbox like Lazada chat inbox to communicate with customers frequently, you can integrate them on respond.io.

Respond.io’s custom channels integration lets you connect any channels with an open API to the platform. Centralizing both popular and business-specific messaging channels allows you to respond to messages from multiple touchpoints in one omnichannel inbox.

Merge Conversations from WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Other Channels in a Single Thread

Businesses that have a presence on multiple channels must provide an omnichannel experience. One way to do this is by recognizing returning customers on any channel.

With respond.io, businesses can unify customer profiles by merging conversations with the same customer from different channels into a single thread. If a customer messaged you previously on WhatsApp but decides to message you on Telegram next, merge the conversations to get context effortlessly.

While you can host multiple WhatsApp Business Accounts and phone numbers on WATI, it doesn’t have a tool to prevent siloed conversations across them. If a customer messages two different brand outlet WhatsApp accounts, WATI cannot recognize the customer as an existing contact.

Now that you understand how respond.io offers an omnichannel experience, let's look at how to handle inbound conversations.

Assign and Manage Agents Effectively with Automation

Automating conversations is crucial especially when businesses receive high volumes of messages from various messaging channels or accounts. However, customers still prefer human agents to handle complex issues.

As a solution, businesses can combine strategies such as automated messages and human agent support. By quickly auto-assigning customers to agents based on their needs identified, businesses can offer both the efficiency of automation and the personal touch of human interaction.

Because automation plays a huge role in ensuring these processes work smoothly, businesses need a platform with powerful automation capabilities. Let’s look at what respond.io has to offer.

Streamline Processes in One Visual Workflow Automation Builder

Unlike many other platforms including WATI which have confusing automation setup processes, respond.io’s Workflow automation builder gives you one visual Workflow to automate complex business processes.

You can plan, design, and implement your workflow from A to Z with any amount of complexity in one space. This includes automating FAQs, chat routing, case escalations, creating deals or tickets in CRMs and many more from scratch or via templates.

Managers can also streamline workflows for complicated tasks and allow agents to launch them with a click while talking to customers.

Now that you know how repond.io’s automation works, it's important to highlight one of the critical components of improving customer satisfaction: Auto assigning conversations to agents quickly.

Note that WATI’s auto-assignment logic limits businesses to round-robin assignment, which is not natively integrated and requires technical expertise to set up.

Assign New Conversations Equally Among Agents or to Agents with the Least Conversations Open

There are two ways for businesses to automatically assign new conversations on respond.io. They can assign round-robin for equal workload distribution or assign them to agents with the least conversations open.

Round-robin assignments ensure each sales agent has an equal opportunity to convert leads and earn their commissions.

Assigning agents with the least conversations lets businesses provide a better customer experience. This is because it connects customers with available agents quickly and reduces wait times and resolution times.

Assign Returning Customers to the Previous Agent in Charge of Their Case

With respond.io, businesses can assign new customers to a new agent and route returning customers with a history of interactions to the same agent who handled their case before.

This approach gives agents the context to address recurring or related issues and build long-term relationships with customers. Consequently, customers can receive a more personalized and efficient support experience.

Assign High-Value Leads and Customers to a Dedicated Agent

To prioritize high-value customers who contribute substantially to revenue, businesses usually provide them with a dedicated agent as a primary point of contact for all their needs.

These agents will work closely with the customer to understand their goals or desires. Then provide guidance and support to help them achieve their desired outcomes.

Since high-value customers are crucial to the success of any business, it is important that companies minimize any difficulties or inconveniences they may face while interacting with their brand.

For instance, respond.io instantly identifies and directs high-value customers to their dedicated agent without needing any keyword input. This eliminates the need for the customer to spend extra time typing out specific keywords, as they would have to when using WATI.

Next, we’ll cover how you can utilize respond.io to send promotional messages and initiate conversations with your customers.

Send Promotional Messages on Multiple Channels

Limiting your business to one marketing channel can result in missed opportunities to expand its reach and generate more sales and revenue.

This is especially true for businesses that generate customers mainly from websites, social media or other e-commerce platforms as customers may have varying preferences for messaging channels.

To overcome this, businesses must embrace a multi-channel marketing approach that allows them to interact with customers across different platforms.

Broadcast on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and More

With respond.io businesses can send broadcast messages on multiple channels including SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, LINE and Viber. They also have the option to send broadcast messages on the last channel a customer has interacted with them on.

Businesses can personalize, schedule and send broadcast messages to target audiences on the channels customers are most active, tailor messages to each channel's unique features and audience, and even confirm which channels their target audience is on.

Get Insights into your Marketing Performance with Broadcast Analytics

To measure your marketing campaign success, get insights and data to help improve your next campaign's strategy.

By analyzing the performance of previous campaigns, businesses can identify the best marketing approach for their business, understand their audience's behavior and preferences, and optimize their messaging, targeting, and channels accordingly.

Trigger Promotional Messages from Customer Actions on Platforms like Shopify

With respond.io, you can trigger promotional messages based on customer actions on external platforms like Shopify.

For example, if a customer adds items to their cart but doesn't complete the purchase, you can send an abandoned cart message on their preferred channel with a discount or other incentives.

Customers can select pre-determined reply buttons or send a response and be connected to an agent automatically. This way, customers can easily get what they want, enhancing the customer experience and satisfaction.

Now that we’ve shown how respond.io improves business communication, let's explore the benefits of using a reliable platform.

Achieve Great Success with a Reliable Platform and Customer Support

Companies rely on platforms such as WATI and respond.io to drive their business operations and customer communication. Hence, platform reliability and excellent customer support from these solution providers are crucial.

In this context, it is worth exploring how respond.io's dependable customer support and high uptime can benefit businesses.

Robust Platform Stability for Consistent Operations

Having a reliable platform is crucial for maintaining consistent operations especially when businesses depend heavily on a platform for customer communications.

Unlike WATI which famously tends to slow down when it receives high volumes of messages, respond.io can support them without downtime. This allows your operations to run smoothly, giving you time to promptly address customer queries and issues, increasing satisfaction.

Get Speedy Assistance with 24/5 Conversational Support

Respond.io provides customer support round-the-clock from Monday to Friday, so you can get help whenever you need it. Our support team offers assistance in various languages including English, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic.

You can get comprehensive assistance that covers a range of issues, including platform navigation, billing queries, bug troubleshooting and more. With our efficient support, you can focus on growing your businesses with the confidence that any obstacles you face resolves quickly and competently.

It is important to mention that WATI is known for its below-average customer support with availability from Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm Indian Standard Time. It only provides support via email or WhatsApp.

Not just that, its WhatsApp support doesn’t let you connect to an agent easily, which is frustrating when dealing with complicated issues.

Get Dedicated Support from A Customer Success Manager

If your business has complex needs, getting the respond.io Enterprise plan automatically gives you a dedicated customer success manager to help you maximize the platform's potential.

These experts specialize in providing personalized support, including planning and setting up Workflows, integrating third-party tools through webhooks and APIs, and more.

With a dedicated customer success manager aboard, you can achieve success like many of our customers. Now that you're familiar with respond.io capabilities, let's explore how our pricing plans offer better value compared to WATI’s.

The Best Solution for Maximum Value

To assist you in determining which platform offers the greatest value, we will compare the most affordable plans by WATI and respond.io in this section.

Entry-Level Plan: Respond.io vs WATI

WATI’s $40 plan may seem cheaper compared to respond.io’s $79 Team plan at first glance. However, businesses can only use WhatsApp to chat with customers and only 5 user seats are provided on WATI. If you have 10 people on your team, you need to pay WATI an additional $30 per agent, totaling up to $190.

In comparison, respond.io lets you connect up to 11 messaging channels and equips businesses with 10 user seats. This means that with 10 users on WATI, you’re paying $111 more than the respond.io $79 plan to communicate with customers on a single channel.

As for automation, WATI and respond.io provide similar offerings. For instance, WATI gives you 10 flows and 50 automation steps per flow whereas respond.io’s Workflow automation builder gives 5 Workflows and 100 steps per Workflow.

However, WATI’s Standard plan only lets you use basic automation like sending automated messages, asking automated questions and setting conditions for the automated questions. With respond.io’s Team plan and the number of steps per Workflow, you can automate complex business processes.

Additionally, WATI imposes around a 20% markup on WhatsApp’s conversation-based pricing and businesses are limited to 5 broadcasts per month. Next, we’ll look at how friendly the plans are for fast-growing businesses.

Value-filled Plan for Fast-Growing Businesses

WATI’s plans are designed based on the number of agents. Both its $40 Standard and $80 Pro plans only give businesses access to a maximum of 5 seats with each additional user priced at $30.

The differences between both of their fixed plans are that, with the $80 Pro plan, you get advanced automation, more flows, Google Sheets integration and up to 10 webhooks.

Respond.io's $79 Team plan and the $249 Business plan give you access to 10 and 25 seats respectively. Additionally, we provide custom plans that can be tailored to your specific business requirements.

To summarize, respond.io offers more comprehensive plans for mid to large businesses and fast-growing enterprises with more channels, advanced automation and more at a competitive price.

Now that you know how WATI and respond.io pricing works, let's look at why you need respond.io.

WATI Alternative: Why respond.io

While WATI and respond.io have similar features at a glance, WATI’s capabilities revolve around one channel, WhatsApp. Respond.io, on the other hand, is one of the most versatile customer conversation management software in the market.

It supports the highest number of channels while preventing siloed conversations across channels. Its flexible Workflow automation and integrations enable businesses to streamline their business processes in one place.

Respond.io is particularly well-suited for large businesses or businesses that handle high volumes of messages, as it offers high uptime. It provides free high-quality support that is available 24/5, while Enterprise users have a dedicated customer success manager.

All these enable businesses to create better customer experiences, build customer loyalty and ultimately increase revenue.

If you are thinking about migrating from WATI to respond.io, simply contact our support team for guidance on the migration process. You can migrate your WhatsApp API while retaining the same WhatsApp API number.

Connect all your customers’ favorite channels and use powerful automation to drive conversations and improve business processes today. Ready to start with respond.io? Sign up for a 14-day free trial to test it out.

Further Reading

Want to learn more about respond.io? Here are some readings that might interest you.

• Inbound Conversation Workflows: A How-To Guide
• Chat Routing: Contact Routing with the respond.io
• Auto Assignment: Automatic Assignment with respond.io