For Alper Icel, a rose is not a rose unless it lasts forever.

Determined to give his girlfriend a box of blooms that would last a lifetime, he found a way to preserve them himself. This special gift turned out so well, that in 2016, Alper used all of his savings to start Monde Des Fleurs, a preserved flowers company in Hannover, Germany.

As demand for his flowers — preserved with glycerin and sold in a variety of boxes and bell jars — grew, so too did the need to streamline customer inquiries. So, in early 2018, Monde Des Fleurs began using the WhatsApp Business app.

“We try to take all customers to WhatsApp. Time is money for us, and WhatsApp Business is the fastest way”

Alper estimates that because of the WhatsApp Business app, Monde Des Fleurs receives up to 60 more orders each month than it used to. Additionally, around 40 percent of all of its orders now entail some communication via WhatsApp.

“We try to take all customers to WhatsApp. Time is money for us, and WhatsApp Business is the fastest way,” Alper says. “Last year, in a week, we would get two or three messages on WhatsApp. Now, we have that every day.”

The WhatsApp Business app’s away messages feature means Monde Des Fleurs can actively engage with its customers, even when the whole team is busy working on orders. Also, the quick replies feature means they can swiftly respond to routine customer inquiries.

“WhatsApp is simply the best way to contact people. You write to them and quickly get an answer. Within two or three hours, I was able to pick up their very good work,” says a frequent customer who once asked Alper via WhatsApp if he could fill an order at short notice.

“I have free internet; calls cost money. I can send a message 24 hours a day without looking at their opening hours,” explains another.

Alper is set to open Monde Des Fleurs’s first brick-and-mortar store in Cologne and believes that with the WhatsApp Business app helping organize its workflow, his preserved flowers business will continue to blossom.

“Nothing is impossible with roses,” he says. “You can do everything.”