Coffee is everything for Luis Miguel Coutiño.

“[It] is life, love. It is passion, and it is energy,” he says.

It is also his business.

In 2013, Luis launched MyCoffeeBox.com, a coffee beans and grinds delivery service in Tuxtla, Mexico. In addition to sharing coffee from his home state of Chiapas with the world, he empowers more than 9,000 local coffee farmers by sourcing beans from them at a fair price, benefitting their communities.

With his customer base expanding across Mexico, the United States, Russia and Spain, Luis needed a one-stop service to more efficiently communicate with all of them. So, in January 2018, he downloaded the WhatsApp Business app.

Today, 85 percent of MyCoffeeBox.com’s 1,000 monthly clients connect with Luis via the app

Today, 85 percent of MyCoffeeBox.com’s 1,000 monthly clients connect with Luis via the app, and he says it accounts for 25 percent of the business’s sales.

The labels feature helps Luis organize clients by location, as a result of which, he says, “Sharing region-specific prices is much faster.” Also, the quick replies feature means queries are speedily addressed, leading to more happy customers, satisfied by the immediate attention.

“They send me a message when coffee is available; it makes things easier,” says one customer who always orders the same blend. Another customer adds that he likes receiving all of his MyCoffeeBox.com order details, including shipping codes, via WhatsApp. “Connecting with them via WhatsApp helps me maintain a faster and closer connection,” he says.

MyCoffeeBox.com is growing and the WhatsApp Business app is helping Luis to better coordinate its expansion. Supported by a reliable communication system, more people can wake up to Chiapas coffee and Luis can fulfill a mission close to his heart: helping local coffee farmers earn a fair wage and, in doing so, better provide for their communities.