WhatsApp becomes a strategic customer engagement channel for brands

Business messaging surges in France, says BCG

Meta unveiled in Paris a study by Boston Consulting Group on the rise of business messaging in France. The company argues the channel is becoming strategic for brands. Yet BCG points to a gap between consumer behaviour with 83% open to useful, relevant messages and corporate caution, where WhatsApp is often treated as a secondary option beside email or phone.

The event also showcased use cases from Air France and Club Med. The airline has used WhatsApp for customer service since 2022, initially to send practical information to travellers before boarding. It is now deployed with a 360-degree view before, during and after the flight, said Stéphanie Charlaix Meyer, SVP customer service at Air France. The channel supports secure authentication, for example when accessing personal data or Flying Blue loyalty information. For a little over a year, Air France has also been testing marketing use in France on an opt-in basis.

Messaging built for the rise of generative AI

One of WhatsApp’s main strengths, according to Meta, is flexible formats: carousel, video, voice note and form, with the interface adapting to different modes of expression. This flexibility, said Pierric Duthoit, “enables a far more customised customer relationship” through richer content.

Duthoit, Meta’s country director for France, also highlighted striking open rates for WhatsApp messages (98%), contrasting them with SMS or email (15%). That pattern was echoed by Charlaix Meyer, who cited a 62% open rate for Air France’s marketing campaigns on WhatsApp. For now, the channel appears to benefit from being perceived by users as a tool for communicating with close contacts — much as early email campaigns once enjoyed higher engagement before inbox habits shifted.

WhatsApp is also leaning into generative AI. Club Med sees the channel as a way to absorb a large share of queries that do not require a human agent. “Around 44% of our conversations are now completely automated, which has freed up significant time for our teams to handle other types of conversation and support customers with other requests,” said Caroline Launois-Beaurain, VP digital sales product & experience at Club Med, who added the company plans to enable booking via WhatsApp this year.

“We see WhatsApp as a genuine inspiration channel, where we can pinpoint a customer’s need and offer a personalised recommendation,” Launois-Beaurain continued. “Our entry rate into the booking funnel is 2.5 times higher than that of a website visitor. By going a step further with WhatsApp, we expect to turn it into a real lever for conversion and business for Club Med.”

BCG expects adoption to broaden, making WhatsApp “a smarter, always-on channel”. “Seventy-seven per cent of companies surveyed say they already use AI in one-to-one customer communications, and 88% plan to extend its use over the coming year,” the study found.

‘Be where our customers are’

Case studies from Air France, Club Med and fashion brand Maison123 suggest brands are adapting to customer behaviour and, in effect, rationalising an approach that has become hard to ignore. Launois-Beaurain cited Brazil — “Meta’s second-largest market by WhatsApp usage, and a very important market for Club Med” — as a bellwether.

“Beyond the three billion people on WhatsApp worldwide, one billion use the app to send messages to businesses,” Duthoit said. “The challenge,” concluded Sophie Lepeu, CMDO at Maison123, “is to be where our customers are, and where they spend their day.”