Viber
Guide to Viber for Business
Viber for Business: Accounts
The Viber Business section of the Viber website can be quite confusing, they show many different products for business. For Viber messaging customers, there are two types of accounts Viber Business Messages and Viber Business Accounts.
Viber Business Messages
Viber Business Messages allows businesses to message customers using their phone numbers. It is usually used by large companies to send a large number of transactional messages, like user authentications and status alerts.
The great thing about Viber Business Messages is they work without an internet connection, by using SMS as a fallback. The only drawback? It’s designed for large businesses and costs about €300 to start. For smaller businesses, we suggest using Viber Business Accounts.
Viber Business Accounts
Viber Business Accounts can be used as business accounts to allow customers to interact with your brand. As the name implies, Viber Business Accounts can use automated messaging, they can also connect to a customer support platform to message customers manually.
Viber Business Accounts are relatively similar to other messaging app business accounts, but have one feature we haven’t seen anywhere else – a customizable keyboard! You can customize the keyboard a user sees when they interact with your bot, how insane.
Unlike Viber Business Messages, creating a Viber Business Account is completely free and there are no limitations on messaging or amount of contacts. All you need to do to get started using Viber for companies is to create a Viber Business Account.
How To Create A Viber Business Account
You’re probably wondering how to make a Viber Business Account. The only thing you’ll need to create a Viber Business Account is a personal Viber account. To start the Viber Business Account creation process head to the Viber Admin Panel.
1. Login to the Viber Admin Panel: Enter the phone number registered to the personal Viber account here.
Once done, you’ll be prompted to enter the verification code sent to your Viber account.
2. Add Your Business Details: Add a picture and some basic information about your business. Don’t worry too much as this information can be changed later from the app.
A few things to keep in mind. There is a Map to select your business country, but the search bar does not work. Just move the pin on the map to the business location and the country will change accordingly.
In addition, there is an adult content checkbox, if you check this box your Viber Business Account cannot be accessed by users who are not adults.
3. Press Create: Hit Create at the bottom of the form. When your Viber Business Account is ready, you’ll get your token.
You’ll notice there is no place here to answer messages sent to the Viber Business Account, which is by design. Viber does not offer a platform for answering messages. To start answering messages right away, create a bonomi account, and connect your Viber Business Account.
Viber for Business: Best Practices
You’re probably used to communicating with customers using email, phone, or SMS. Chating over messages apps is a bit different. In this section, we’ll go over some best practices for finding your customers on Viber and messaging them.
Finding Your Customers on Viber
Although Viber uses phone numbers for User IDs, you can’t just import them into a CRM. To get your customers as Viber Contacts, you’ll need to get them to message you first. This is a limitation created by Viber to avoid spam marketing.Starting a Chat With Customers
There are a few helpful tools to get your customers to message you first. You can send chat links and QR codes to your existing customers so they send the first message. Or you can attract new customers with Viber advertising.
It used to be that Viber users could also search for your bot inside the Viber App, however, since Viber took away bot publishing. There’s no way to make a Viber Business Account searchable inside the app anymore.
Chat Links & QR Codes
In the Viber Admin Panel, there is a QR Code you can scan to start a conversation with your Viber Business Account. Keep in mind, you won’t be able to start chatting unless you actually connect your Viber Business Account to a CRM using the token.Scan This QR Code With The Viber App To Start a Chat
QR codes work like Messenger Codes, converting offline traffic like foot traffic in a store to Viber Contacts. You can also add the QR Code to your website or emails.
Keep in mind that the QR Code only works if users have the Viber app installed on their phones.
Although the Viber Admin Panel doesn’t provide chat links. They can be created in the Bonomi platform. They can be easier to add to a website, but just like QR Codes chat links will only work if the Viber app is installed.
Advertising
Another way to promote a Viber Business Account is through Viber advertising. There are several ad formats including desktop ads, post-call ads, ad banners, and promotional stickers. Each of these will take the user to the Viber Business Account Profile.
The most interesting advertising format is Viber stickers. When users download branded sticker packs, they’ll be subscribed to the Viber Business Account automatically. However, Viber advertising is intended for larger companies, to apply fill in this form.
Messaging Customers Using A Viber Business Account
Now that you know how to find your customers on Viber, time to start messaging them. Compared with other messaging apps, messaging customers on Viber is simple. In this section, we’ll discuss 1:1 messaging, broadcast messaging, and group messaging.
1-to-1 Messaging
Most messaging app business accounts block replies after some time using a messaging window and don’t provide read receipts.
In this way, Viber Business Accounts are more business-friendly. There is no messaging window and read receipts are provided for sent messages.
Messaging windows are becoming popular for messaging app business accounts, they block businesses from responding after 24 hours or so to reduce spammy marketing messages. Viber Business Accounts have no messaging window so you can message customers anytime, even after weeks.
When you do message your customers, you expect to know when they’ve read your message right? Unfortunately, many messaging app business accounts do not provide this data. So business users are left wondering about the status of their message.
Luckily, Viber sends the message status over the Viber API. This means whichever business messaging platform you connect your Viber Business Account to can show sent message status. Allowing you to see if a message has been delivered, read, or failed to send.
In addition, some messaging app business accounts will mark the messages sent by customers as read automatically. You can imagine, this will infuriate some customers. Thankfully messages send to your Viber Business Account will be marked as delivered but not seen.
Broadcast Messaging
Once you’ve got 1-1 messaging figured out, you can start exploring mass messaging with Viber. Remember that since Viber Contacts cannot be imported, you’ll need to get your customers to message your first before you can send them a broadcast.
Like 1:1 messaging, Viber doesn’t place limitations on the content or number of broadcasts you can send. However, you’ll need to make sure that the business messaging platform you connect your Viber Business Account to has broadcast functionality.
Although Viber doesn’t place any limitations of broadcasts you want to be careful with broadcasts as Viber Contacts can block you. If your Viber Business Account gets blocks you’ll see an error message like: failed to send the message the user is not subscribed anymore.
Group Messaging
Many companies are using messaging apps for sales by creating groups with salespeople and customers. Although effective, these chats pose a problem for companies as there is no record of them in company CRMs.
One way to deal with this would be to add a Viber Business Account into the group chat, so the conversation could be recorded in your messaging CRM. We’ve tested this out, but unfortunately, Viber Business Accounts cannot be added to group chats.
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