Retention | Customer Experience
Feat. Farida Chan, Associate Director of Partnerships & Innovation
If you want a snapshot of where customer engagement is heading in 2026, look at the first app most people open in the morning. For many across Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, it is not email. It is WhatsApp.
In this episode of the EBRS Show, Elly Chen sits down with Farida Chai from Wati to explore how conversational channels, especially WhatsApp, are reshaping loyalty, commerce, and retention across Asia. The discussion moves beyond simple messaging into what customers now expect, how brands should design automation, and why chat is becoming a full lifecycle engine rather than just a support channel.
Farida leads partnerships and innovation at Wati across Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. Wati is an AI native, omnichannel business messaging platform and Hong Kong’s only premium tier WhatsApp partner. Sitting at the intersection of messaging and commerce, Farida has a front row seat to how brands are shifting budgets and strategy toward chat.
She explains WhatsApp’s rise through two key forces: ubiquity and changing expectations. Customers are already on WhatsApp. It is embedded into daily life. But more importantly, the way people communicate has fundamentally shifted.
That expectation of immediacy changes how brands must behave. Customers now assume they will receive responses within minutes, not hours. Even an automated message acknowledging the request and setting expectations can satisfy the baseline. The shift is not just about channel preference. It is about speed, simplicity, and continuity.
Today’s customer does not want to jump between a chat app, an online store, a payment page, and a tracking site. The expectation is seamless.
In Asia especially, that behavior is becoming normalized. Younger consumers are comfortable asking for support, tracking orders, making complaints, and completing purchases through chat. Older generations, who once viewed WhatsApp as a purely personal space, are increasingly accepting business interactions there too. The result is a merged communication environment where personal and commercial conversations coexist, and brands must earn their place carefully.
WhatsApp’s business API has been around for about five years, and adoption has accelerated as brands realized it is not just a notification tool. It is a scalable two way engagement channel. But success on WhatsApp requires understanding what customers now expect inside chat.
Farida highlights five expectations defining the chat era. First is speed. Second is contextual personalization beyond just using a customer’s name. Customers expect brands to remember what they bought, what is in their cart, and what they asked last time. Third is frictionless action. Checking orders, rescheduling appointments, or making payments should not require leaving the chat. Fourth is visual, digestible content over long paragraphs. And finally, seamless bot to human transitions.
Automation is powerful, but full AI frontline support without proper escalation can frustrate customers. Farida stresses that automation and human agents should work as partners, not replacements. Predictable queries such as FAQs and order tracking can be automated. Complex or emotionally charged issues should escalate immediately with full context passed to the human agent. AI can draft responses and speed up resolution, but empathy must remain intact.
When it comes to industries, retail and e-commerce stand out. With direct integrations to platforms like Shopify, brands can run abandoned cart recovery, product launches, and post purchase updates directly through WhatsApp. Healthcare and beauty also see strong results because consultative journeys translate naturally into chat. Customers can ask questions, receive recommendations, book appointments, and get reminders all within one thread. F&B use cases are more selective but effective for seasonal campaigns, loyalty rewards, and timely promotions.
Retention is where WhatsApp becomes particularly powerful. Farida describes it as a closed loop marketing channel that spans onboarding, reminders, loyalty engagement, feedback collection, and reactivation. Every interaction generates data that improves future timing and messaging. When done correctly, chat becomes a continuously learning lifecycle engine.
One of the most compelling examples shared in the episode is abandoned checkout recovery. Customers often show strong purchase intent but hesitate at the final step. A well timed WhatsApp reminder can close that gap far more effectively than email.
That kind of delta fundamentally changes how brands think about reactivation. The open rates are high, messages are typically read within minutes, and action buttons reduce friction. For customers, it feels personal. For brands, it drives measurable ROI.
Of course, frequency must be managed carefully. WhatsApp is intimate. Over messaging can quickly lead to blocks or reports. Farida advises brands to align promotional intensity with expected high demand periods such as festive campaigns, while using quieter seasons for utility driven or educational content. Mature teams plan message cadence quarterly or even annually to balance promotions with value based communication.
Market nuances also matter. In Hong Kong, speed and fast resolution are critical. In Singapore, customers expect efficiency and integrated experiences where payments and scheduling happen seamlessly. In Malaysia, relationship driven engagement plays a larger role, particularly in industries like automotive and property, where trust and consultative communication matter deeply. Value driven offers also remain highly effective in the Malaysian market.
As the episode closes, Elly asks the signature question: “The best marketers of the chat era will be the ones who…”
Farida reflects on the idea that future marketers must balance empathy and intelligence. They must communicate like a friend while thinking strategically about data, automation, and lifecycle design. Chat is not about blasting messages. It is about turning every interaction into a meaningful moment of value.
In 2026, loyalty will not be built solely through points programs or email campaigns. It will be built through consistent, relevant, context aware conversations delivered in the channel customers already live in. And for much of Asia, that channel is WhatsApp.
See how Eber helps your business build loyalty, reduce churn, and grow repeat revenue. Get in touch and our team will reach out to you.
