These features included setting up quick replies, automatic greeting and away messages, adding product catalogues and Facebook shop integration, enabling WhatsApp payments, message statistics and even completing business directories. Now, they are looking to expand this setup to the next level with the addition of a special paid subscription called Whatsapp Premium.
Whatsapp Premium is currently in the beta testing stage and includes two unique features that aren't available to regular users. The first one is the ability to create custom business links (https://wa.me/businessname) for their businesses that they can share with customers. You can change the text in these URLs every 90 days, with the option to continue using them for an entire monthly cycle, even after you have unsubscribed from the premium plan.
These links can be used to redirect customers to your Whatsapp business profile, which can then, in turn, showcase other relevant information to the customers, including your contact information and product catalogue. Once you change the name in the URL or unsubscribe from the service, the links become invalid and can then be used by other businesses should they feel value in it.
The other feature is more relevant to business users who have a large sales team but only a single dedicated number for customer interactions. This feature lets them link up to 10 devices to the same Whatsapp account, so they can stay in touch with their customers while maintaining a central record of all the conversations and transaction history. Depending on their business requirements, the main admin can then easily add or remove different people from the account.
To get these special benefits, users have to install the latest beta version of the Whatsapp business account and subscribe to the premium plan through the settings menu. For now, this plan is only in the testing phase, so you will have to check if it is even available in your particular region. Chances are that the price of the plan will vary vastly depending on your location. We will have to wait and see if and when they roll it out to their entire customer base or add new features that make the proposition more worthwhile.
