Rakuten Viber announces the expansion of Business Accounts, a suite of free tools for small businesses in the Philippines to enrich their online presence and interaction with customers. Business Accounts were launched in the country in October 2023, and have now been scaled to provide additional capabilities and new features. These include comprehensive messaging, analytics, and automation tools that help small businesses grow cost-efficiently. These tools also allow customers to find these businesses more quickly, and receive personalized communications and support within the app.
Rakuten Viber has seen a 65% increase in the number of newly created Business Accounts in the Philippines since the beginning of 2024. Interest has been particularly strong from technicians and consultants and from health and beauty as well as e-commerce businesses. Based on their feedback, Business Accounts have been enriched with enhanced messaging and analytics tools. These optimize communication between businesses and customers with seamless conversations like in any other chats on Viber, while enabling business owners to gain insights from their activity and audience.
Overall, 90% of consumers say they spend more money with brands that offer personalized experiences aligned with their preferences. 88% of consumers are more likely to return to a brand that offers good customer service. The expanded Business Accounts functionalities enable small businesses to meet these expectations by supporting all Viber chat capabilities, message types, and features including:
Building brand presence and showcasing portfolio
Public business profile: Businesses can create a detailed business page with helpful information for their customers, including name, company logo, category, description, hours of operation, website, and additional contact number. These business profiles are public, searchable, and seamlessly integrated into all 1:1 chats.
Catalog items: Business owners can showcase up to 50 products or services on Viber, including the item’s name, price, image, and description. They can share specific products directly within any Viber chat and promote items by offering discounts. Customers can explore and inquire about products by sending a product item message directly in the chat.
Growing sales through higher visibility and promotion
Visibility: As a new feature, all Viber users with Business Accounts are now highlighted with a label in their 1:1 chats, increasing visibility and recognition among their contacts and potential new customers. Business owners continue to appear in Viber search results based on their business name, description, location, and category.
Business profile, QR codes and links: Every Business Account has a profile that is visible outside of Viber and can be visited by anyone on the web. To promote their business, owners can share the link to their business profile and QR codes both inside and outside of Viber, such as on social platforms, in print media, or on the shopfront.
Marketing tools: Businesses can announce promotions, special offers, and new product launches to all customers who have previously subscribed to their accounts.
Seamless customer engagement through automation and analytics
Enhanced chat capabilities: Businesses can easily manage interactions by enabling tools that automate responses. If switched on, these tools reply to messages from contacts and customers received outside business hours, send automatic away messages, or greet new customers with a tailor-made welcome message.
Business analytics: New analytics functionalities provide insights with metrics including reach, subscriber growth, and average response time. This allows businesses to improve customer satisfaction and make informed decisions to drive more sales.
These free features are also available to small businesses in Viber’s key markets worldwide from today.
“Rakuten Viber continues to evolve and develop solutions for small business owners”, commented Ritesh Shah, GM of FinTech and VP of Business Solutions at Rakuten Viber. “The Philippines is a key market for us, and the great take-up we have seen here since we first introduced Business Accounts has spurred our commitment to give small businesses access to digital tools that meet their unique needs via our user-friendly and efficient self-service platform. We are always looking to add value to our customers and local communities, and we are excited to not just expand Business Accounts, but also introduce them in more countries.”
Business Accounts are available to Viber users in the Philippines for free. Tailored pricing plans for additional features will be offered soon. Learn more about Business Accounts here: https://lp.viber.com/smbl
