SMS first, WhatsApp if they choose
Why Xcho opens every conversation with a text, and moves to WhatsApp only when a lead chooses to.
Most people will answer a short text from a business they recognise. Far fewer open an email from a firm they had forgotten about. So Xcho opens every conversation the same way: a short text, in your firm's name.
Why the first message is a text
A text is short. It arrives on the phone the lead carries, and replying takes a few seconds. Xcho sends the opener from a UK mobile number set up for your firm, a few a minute, and only inside your send window. Your firm confirms it has permission to text each lead. Xcho records that confirmation and holds back anyone on your do-not-contact list.
If a lead doesn't reply, Xcho sends nothing more. There are no chasers.
WhatsApp if they choose
Some people would rather carry on in WhatsApp. Once a lead has replied, the conversation can move there through your firm's own WhatsApp Business account, if the lead chooses to or your firm already holds their permission for WhatsApp. A reply by text isn't that permission on its own. It's the same persona in the same conversation, so nobody has to start again.
Xcho doesn't open with WhatsApp. It waits until the lead has replied by text.
What about email?
An earlier version of this post said email was coming as a third channel. It isn't, for now. Xcho talks to leads by text and WhatsApp only. We'd rather do two channels properly.
One thread, and a person on hand
Whichever channel a lead uses, every reply the persona drafts is checked before it sends. When a conversation needs a person, it goes to Needs you, and someone on your team picks it up. Each thread in the Inbox shows whether it's SMS or WhatsApp, so you always know where the lead is talking to you.
If you want to see it working on your own list, join the waitlist.