Merchant playbook

Get customers ordering on WhatsApp

Your Keychat ordering channel is live. Now let's fill it. Ten proven ways to move your customers onto the channel where ordering is easier for them and commission-free for you.

Why promote this channel?

Every customer you move onto your WhatsApp ordering channel is worth more to your business, on the first order and on every order after that.

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It costs you nothing

Promoting your own channel is free. Every order that moves off a delivery platform is commission you keep, whether it's a coffee or a R500 platter.

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You build a database

Every customer who orders becomes a contact you own. Promote specials, launch new menus and fill quiet nights, direct to their WhatsApp.

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You can reward loyalty

Recognise repeat customers and reward them automatically. Loyalty lives in the channel: no stamp cards, no separate app.

Customers will always prefer this channel. Ordering on WhatsApp is easier: no app to download, no account to create, just a chat they already use every day. And it's cheaper, with no platform mark-ups or service fees inflating their bill. Once a customer orders here, they rarely go back.

Ten ways to fill your channel

Roughly ordered by impact, so start at the top and work down. Most cost nothing but a few minutes; the in-store and packaging tactics just need artwork, which we can supply.

1

Start here

Broadcast the link to your existing customers

Send your Keychat channel link to your customer database from your current manual WhatsApp. These customers already know and trust you. They're the easiest wins, and most will switch on the first message.

✓ Do this on day one. It's the single highest-impact step on this list.

2

In your store

Table tents with your QR code

Print table tents with your channel's QR code so customers can scan and join on their own. While they wait for food, they're already saving your channel for next time.

✓ Self-service signup, no staff effort needed.

3

In your store

A magnet or pamphlet in the bill folder

Slip a fridge magnet or pamphlet into the bill folder with every cheque. A magnet ends up on the customer's fridge: your ordering channel, permanently in their kitchen.

✓ Reaches them at home, right when they're deciding what's for dinner.

4

In your store

A poster behind the bar or counter

Put a poster with your channel details and QR code behind the bar, at the till, or wherever customers queue and wait. Eye-level, well-lit, impossible to miss.

✓ Captures walk-ins and waiting customers with zero effort.

5

On your packaging

Stickers on collection packaging

Put a channel sticker on every collection order: bags, boxes, coffee cups. The customer already chose you; the sticker makes sure their next order starts in your WhatsApp channel instead of a phone call.

✓ Every order that leaves your store becomes an advert for the channel.

6

On your packaging

Stickers on Mr D and Uber Eats orders

Sticker the packaging that goes out through Mr D and Uber Eats too. These customers are paying platform mark-ups right now. Your sticker shows them a cheaper, more direct way to order from you next time.

✓ Converts your most expensive customers into your most profitable ones.

Worth knowing. Delivery platforms can take up to 30% of every order. A sticker costs cents. If one sticker moves one customer to your channel, it has paid for the whole roll, and that customer is now in your database for every future promotion.
7

Online

Post about it on social media

Announce the channel to your followers and keep posting it: pin it to your profile, add it to stories, mention it under food photos. One post isn't a campaign; a steady drumbeat is.

✓ Your followers already want to order. Give them the link every time.

8

Online

Link Instagram and Facebook to the channel

Set your new WhatsApp number as the contact / message button on your Instagram and Facebook profiles. Anyone who taps "Message" or "WhatsApp" lands straight in your ordering channel.

✓ Turns every profile visit into a potential order, automatically.

9

Online

List it on your Google Business Profile

Add the channel to your Google Business Profile, as an ordering link and as your shop's WhatsApp number. When people search for you, "Order on WhatsApp" is right there next to directions and hours.

✓ Captures high-intent customers at the exact moment they're searching.

10

Online

Put the link and QR code on your website

Add an "Order on WhatsApp" button and QR code to your website: header, footer, and menu page. Desktop visitors scan the QR with their phone; mobile visitors tap straight through.

✓ Your website's job is to start orders, so make the channel the obvious way.

One job, ten ways.

Every table tent, sticker and post is doing one thing: moving a customer you already paid to acquire onto a channel where you keep every cent, and where you can reach them again tomorrow.

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Need artwork?

Keychat can supply your QR code, channel link and print-ready artwork for table tents, stickers and posters. Just ask your Keychat representative.