Most people thought Michael Wabiszczewicz and Sebastian Keller were crazy when they started their business in 2015.

“We were only 26, and we said we wanted to hide people in a room,” says Michael.

Their concept for an “escape room,” a type of interactive puzzle that locks a group of people in a physical room and makes them work together to break out, was originally developed for a university project, but Michael and Sebastian wanted to see it through. Today, Raum&Zeit is the biggest escape-room business in Bielefeld, Germany, with four different escape rooms, 14,000 annual customers, and a 50 percent market share.

“We always tried to look like a modern and cool company,” says Michael about how they used WhatsApp since the early days of Raum&Zeit. Michael and Sabastian upgraded to the WhatsApp Business app when it was launched in Germany in early 2018 to better run their business.

On average, they now receive five customer inquiries via the app every day. Michael says the service encourages customers who might be too shy or unmotivated to call or write an email to get in touch.

Michael believes that the WhatsApp Business app gives his company an edge and is helping it break away from the competition

Michael and Sebastian like the WhatsApp Business app’s away messages feature which helps them connect with customers instantly, and the business profile feature means basic questions, like business hours, can be answered without any interaction at all.

The process was “very easy and fast,” says a customer who purchased a gift certificate from Raum&Zeit via WhatsApp.

Michael believes that the WhatsApp Business app gives his company an edge and is helping it break away from the competition in Germany’s booming escape-room industry.

“In our city, we have an advantage,” he says. “There is no other escape-room company here that uses it.”