Academy › Courses › WhatsApp and customers
Your customers' WhatsApp group: when to set one up and when not to
You'll know how to decide whether it makes sense to start a WhatsApp group for your customers or whether your existing broadcast list is enough, based on how many customers you have and why you want to bring them together. If you decide to start one, you'll walk away with the rules written down, a pinned welcome message, a single clear purpose for the group, and a plan for closing it or splitting it the day it gets too noisy.
You've got a broadcast list you already use to share updates, and someone told you that you should start a WhatsApp group for your customers too. You're not sure it's worth it: you can already picture messages popping up at odd hours, two customers arguing with each other, people leaving after three days, or the group filling up with "good morning" texts nobody reads. You also don't know how many customers it takes to make it worthwhile, or what to do the day it fills up with noise and you can't decide whether to shut it down.
This course starts with the question that decides everything: if all you need is to send announcements, your broadcast list already does the job, and here you'll find out if that's your case. If you really need customers talking to each other, you'll move on to the group's single purpose, who gets in and who stays out, the rules, and the pinned message you'll write to explain them without repeating yourself every week. You'll finish knowing how to spot the day the group stops working and what to do about it.
This is for business owners who already send news to their customers over WhatsApp and are wondering if a group is the next step. It's not for anyone who wants to build a community from scratch before having real customers to bring together.
- Decide whether your business needs a WhatsApp group or your existing broadcast list is enough.
- Choose the group's one reason for existing and strip out everything in the thread that doesn't serve it.
- Write the group rules and the pinned message so nobody has to ask you what the group is for.
- Read the group's noise signals and decide, that same day, whether to close it, split it, or leave it as is.
Have your current broadcast list on hand and know how many customers receive it.
The 6 lessons
In the order it makes the most sense to read them.
- 1
For announcements, use a broadcast list. For customers to talk to each other, use a group.
You'll walk away knowing whether your business needs a WhatsApp group or your existing broadcast list is enough, and why.
6 min - 2
One group, one reason to exist
Choose a single objective for the group, whether that's selling, announcing, giving support, or building community, and strip out everything in the thread that doesn't serve that objective.
7 min - 3
Let in whoever needs the group, not whoever spends the most with you
You'll walk away with your criteria for who joins the group written in one sentence, and a ready answer for the good customer who doesn't make the cut.
5 min - 4
The group rules, written before the noise sets them for you
You'll come away with the list of what can be posted and what gets deleted, a decision on who's allowed to post, and the exact text for the group description.
6 min - 5
The four lines that say what this group is, and what it isn't
You'll come away with the four lines that explain the group written into its description, which everyone who joins sees, and pinned at the top of the chat, so anyone who arrives knows what this is without having to ask you.
6 min - 6
The sign that this group isn't working anymore
You'll know how to read your group's noise signals and decide, that same day, whether to close it, split it in two, or leave it as is.
7 min