The hilzinger group of companies is one of the leading system suppliers of windows, doors and roller shutters. Headquartered in Hanauerland on the edge of the Black Forest in Baden, the company has been providing private customers, specialist dealers and customers from the construction and housing industries with high-quality products and expert advice since 1946. hilzinger employs around 1,450 people at 46 locations across Europe.
Harald Schmidt, Marketing Manager at hilzinger, noticed that more and more customers were contacting hilzinger via WhatsApp. In Superchat, he found the ideal partner to communicate with customers in a personal, efficient and GDPR-compliant way. An initial pilot project tested different approaches.
How hilzinger benefits from Superchat
- 100% GDPR compliant use of WhatsApp Business
- High-performance WhatsApp newsletter with open rates of over 90%
- Intuitive WhatsApp contact via QR code
- Easy sharing of images and documents via WhatsApp chat
- Team coordination in the universal inbox
What aspects of Superchat convinced hilzinger?
The sales force was already using WhatsApp to communicate with customers before Superchat was implemented. Harald Schmidt noticed the high volume of messages: Many would like to be able to contact hilzinger via WhatsApp.
However, this communication channel was initially discontinued, not least because of data protection concerns.
Harald Schmidt was looking for a tool that would allow him to communicate with his customers via WhatsApp in a GDPR-compliant way and on a central platform, when he saw a Facebook ad for Superchat.
Harald Schmidt and his team had previously tested an alternative solution. However, the provider was unable to deliver what the Hilzingen-based marketing team had hoped for. There were also concerns about data protection and complicated implementation processes.
In addition to the promise of data protection, Harald Schmidt was particularly impressed by Superchat's ease of implementation, fast and competent customer support and intuitive operation.
How Hilzinger uses Superchat
In the future, Hilzinger will primarily use Superchat for marketing purposes and will send a newsletter with information and news to its business partners. In an initial test phase, the newsletter was successfully tested with a first customer mailing list.
In the future, retail customers will be able to subscribe to the WhatsApp newsletter via QR codes and receive regular updates from hilzinger.
Superchat will also be integrated into customer service in collaboration with the sales force. The aim is to support customers with questions quickly and personally via WhatsApp - before, during and after order processing.
Sending company news with the WhatsApp newsletter
Harald Schmidt and his team use a variety of methods to draw customers' attention to the hilzinger WhatsApp newsletter.
In addition to advertisements in newspapers, hilzinger uses QR codes at events to make it easy for specialist customers and trade partners to subscribe to the service.
Harald Schmidt and his team are currently planning the Partner Day 2024 at the Europapark stadium in Freiburg. The WhatsApp newsletter feature will provide a service for the nearly 400 retailers from Germany and Switzerland who will be attending the event.
During the Partner Day, they will receive information about the event, reminders about presentations and personalised offers via WhatsApp. They will also receive information after the event.
Customer service via WhatsApp
When it comes to customer service and sales via WhatsApp, hilzinger is currently in a test phase.
Harald Schmidt has set up super chat access for two sales representatives to test how well communication via WhatsApp works.
Incoming enquiries from interested parties were forwarded to the sales team. All open questions could be clarified quickly and personally via chat, and documents and images could be exchanged. New orders were agreed in a customer-friendly and efficient manner. Due to its success, hilzinger would like to expand Superchat in the future and offer as many customers as possible the opportunity to contact the hilzinger sales force and customer service via chat.
With Superchat, hilzinger can easily route incoming enquiries to the right contact person, bundle all communication on one platform and ensure high quality customer service through appropriate governance.
Easy contact via WhatsApp
Once a month, hilzinger organises an online event for homeowners, which is attended by many homeowners. During the presentation, lay people learn everything they need to know about windows and doors.
QR codes are regularly used here, allowing participants to contact hilzinger via WhatsApp.
Many participants use this opportunity to ask open questions or request documents and further information.