If you already have an official account and just need to connect it to Medallia Concierge, jump straight to How to Set Up your WeChat Channel.
WeChat is a popular messaging system in Asia and allows businesses to communicate with their customers. Medallia Concierge supports a complete WeChat integration for businesses that allows our customers to interact with WeChat customers using Medallia Concierge's interface and Zings.
What Type of Official Account do I need?
WeChat has two types of Official Accounts: Service and Subscription.
Service accounts allow effectively unlimited 2-way messaging between a business and its customers. These accounts are designed for the types of interactions Medallia Concierge supports - rich manual and automated customer service and customer interaction. As such, you need a Service account to use the WeChat channel in Medallia Concierge.
Subscription accounts are geared toward businesses that deliver periodic advertisements to all of their subscribers. There are restrictions on how many outbound messages WeChat allows a subscription account to send and they're not really designed for customer service interactions.
But there are two types of Service Accounts!
WeChat defines two classes of Service Accounts. Medallia Concierge will work with either of them, but it's important to understand the differences.
International Service Accounts are sometimes granted to companies outside of mainland China. These accounts are restricted in that they can only communicate with WeChat users that are not in mainland China (international accounts). This kind of account would, for example, allow a business to communicate with a customer in the US using the WeChat service but not with a customer from mainland China with a mainland WeChat account traveling in the US.
Mainland China Accounts are usually only granted to businesses with a corporate presence in mainland China and are allowed to communicate with all WeChat users, both mainland and international.
How do I get a WeChat Official Account?
Since WeChat is a Chinese company that deals primarily with businesses that have a corporate presence in China, obtaining an account can be a little bit tricky. You can read all about the process and apply for an account on WeChat's Official Account Admin site.
I've got a WeChat Official Account, Now What?
You can learn how to connect your WeChat Official Account to your Medallia Concierge service in the article How to set up your WeChat Channel.