**Who should own the customer relationship? The company or the salesperson?**
Last week I received an email from a company saying that their marketing manager had left, and because she owned the WhatsApp number customers had been using, they asked everyone to start using a new number instead.
It struck me that this is a much bigger issue than simply changing a contact number.
What happened to the conversation history?
What happened to the customer relationships?
How many customers will continue sending messages to the old number?
This is one of the biggest risks of using employees’ personal or individually managed WhatsApp accounts for business.
Customer conversations should belong to the company, not to an individual employee.
A company-owned WhatsApp number, accessed through a secure web interface or CRM, means:
* Every authorised staff member can see the conversation history.
* Customers continue speaking to the same business, even if staff change.
* No valuable information is lost when someone leaves.
* The business retains ownership of its customer relationships.
Has anyone else seen this happen in their organisation or with a supplier?
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