Zoko Review: should D2C brands pick Zoko for WhatsApp marketing?

Sourabh Upreti
Sourabh Upreti
November 14, 2022

What do tools like Zoko, WATI, BiteSpeed & Interakt have in common?

They allow e-commerce businesses to leverage WhatsApp as a marketing & customer support channel because WhatsApp marketing has a higher ROI compared to SMS & email.

But all these tools will not give you the same ROI. Each platform differs in use cases & features.

So, how do you pick the best tool suited to your requirements?

Well, in this review series, we're digging deep into each tool's pros & cons to make you aware before picking the right WhatsApp marketing tool for your e-commerce business.

This time let's learn more about Zoko in this Zoko review. 

In case you're interested, we've already covered- 

WATI's Review

LimeChat's Review 

Zoko Review 2023:

So, what is Zoko?

Zoko is a shared team inbox for WhatsApp. It facilitates businesses to set up their WhatsApp account & communication over WhatsApp for either marketing or customer support goals. 

It offers features like WhatsApp notifications & broadcasts, multi-agent login on a single WhatsApp number, and shopping on WhatsApp.

What features does Zoko offer?

(rating 2/5)

WhatsApp Business API access on Zoko allows businesses to set up multiple logins on a single WhatsApp number. This allows brands like yours to provide customer support and manual shopping assistance on WhatsApp.

It also offers features like quick replies, a chatbot & automated notifications.

WhatsApp marketing features review

Pros

Support ticket assignment: support tickets can be assigned inside the team inbox making support operations more efficient.

Shopping assistance: agents can send catalogues to customers and help them choose products for shopping. 

WhatsApp chatbot: keyword-based chatbot helps businesses set up 24*7 support on FAQ-based queries.

chatbot & customer support features review

Cons

Basic functionalities: team inbox lacks analytics, contact management, personalisation & pre-made templates for broadcasts. Lacking these features makes Zoko fall behind as a complete WhatsApp marketing channel.

Available only for WhatsApp: many customers explore products & shops across channels including WhatsApp, Instagram & Messenger, hence customer journeys are essential. Offering services only for WhatsApp leaves these customer segments unexplored. That may result in inefficient marketing campaigns.

Manual shopping assistance: only live agents can assist customers with shopping on WhatsApp. There's no way to push an automated flow or catalogue in a chat. 

Chatbot functionalities are limited: it only allows specific keyword-based chatbot flows for cart recovery, review collection & COD confirmation. These flows may not answer customers' queries during marketing campaigns which may result in a lower customer satisfaction score.

BiteSpeed offers a complete team inbox, personalised broadcasts and an advanced chatbot for omnichannel support and marketing.

Delight your customers across channels. Book A Demo now!

Customer support at Zoko 

(rating 2/5)

Zoko offers support to its customers over email & WhatsApp.

  • All Zoko plans offer customer support over email. That will take up to 2-3 days to get a reply from the Zoko team.
  • Support over WhatsApp is unavailable in the 'Starter' plan.
  • No mention of telephonic support & dedicated account manager in the 'Pro' & 'Business' plans. Large businesses usually look for that.

Zoko's Pricing Plans

(rating 2/5)
Zoko pricing plan review

Pros

The base plan starts at $34.99/month and offers unlimited agents.

Free pre-built workflows are available in each plan. 

Cons

While competitors like BiteSpeed offer free 1000 conversations/month in every plan, Zoko doesn't. 

No free trial or customised pricing for enterprises.

Zoko's dedicated features for e-commerce

(rating 2/5)

It has a dedicated Shopify plugin. This plugin comes with limited functionalities and allows the e-commerce store to launch WhatsApp marketing & cart recovery campaigns, and customer support.

While Zoko can be a good fit as a Support Inbox on WhatsApp, BiteSpeed, on the other hand, also offers other essential E-commerce-specific features such as

  • COD to prepaid notifications
  • cross-sell & up-sell campaigns
  • Spin the wheel & checkout exit pop-ups
  • assisted shopping with chatbots
  • Multi-channel shopping experience
  • Discount & live chat widgets 
  • Store’s revenue attribution for marketing campaigns

These features help not only in re-engaging, retaining and re-targeting customers but also generating more sales & revenue. 

Who are the ideal customers for Zoko?

Zoko is not a multi-channel solution and supports only WhatsApp. It can be a good choice for businesses willing to explore WhatsApp as their primary support channel. 

For the marketing use case on WhatsApp, Zoko still lags in terms of features such as personalisation, upselling, cross-selling, and tracking user journeys. 

Summary: should you consider Zoko?

(rating 2/5)

Zoko offers a very basic team inbox only for WhatsApp Business. It makes it harder to recommend for businesses that are looking for omnichannel communication platforms.

It can be a good tool for D2C brands that require only WhatsApp as a primary customer support tool.

On the WhatsApp marketing front, it still lacks essential features such as tracking user journeys using UTMs for retargeting, analytics & contact management. 

Integrations to third-party tools are limited or require technical expertise. Hence, businesses that want to integrate their apps with WhatsApp may require additional resources from Zoko.

If you're looking to overcome some of these drawbacks, checkout the comparison of BiteSpeed vs Zoko.

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