By Terry Kunle

In Nigeria, building a business means doing a little bit of everything. One minute you’re taking orders; the next, you’re answering customer questions, checking inventory or figuring out how to get an order to a customer far away. As the business grows, so does the hustle.

For Augustina Onoriode, founder of Twinny’s Kitchen Limited in Abuja, that hustle has taken her business from humble beginnings to customers across Nigeria and in the diaspora. What began with a passion for making quality Nigerian food products more accessible has grown into a food processing and packaging business serving customers across borders.

As the business grew, it brought its own demands. More customers meant more conversations, orders, and sometimes, more messages arriving at the same time. Before adopting WhatsApp Business, Twinny’s Kitchen struggled to keep customer conversations organised, respond consistently and follow up. Important messages could get buried and responses took much longer, making it harder to keep the service running smoothly.

To keep up with serving her customers, Augustina turned to WhatsApp Business. “As soon as I introduced WhatsApp Business into our communication structure, we became more organised, responded faster and provided a much better customer experience,” Augustina said. As Twinny’s Kitchen reached more customers, Augustina wanted it to be easier for people discovering the business online to connect with her team. Ads that click to WhatsApp help bridge that gap by letting people who see the business on Facebook or Instagram start a conversation with Twinny’s Kitchen directly on WhatsApp, making it easier to turn interest into contact.

As the business grows, keeping up with customer conversations can become challenging, especially when messages come in at any time, including from people in the diaspora in different time zones. When Augustina is busy running the business or away from her phone, Meta Business Agent helps respond to routine customer enquiries so customers can still get the information they need. “The Meta Business Agent helps us maintain excellent customer service while focusing on running the business,” she explained.

Other features also support the day-to-day running of Twinny’s Kitchen. The business uses its Catalog to give customers an easy way to browse products, while Quick Replies, Lists and Away Messages help the team keep conversations organised and respond more efficiently. Together, these features help the business stay responsive, learn, adapt and find better ways to serve customers.

Augustina’s advice to other business owners is simple: “Don’t wait until your business becomes big before you become organised and structured. Start using WhatsApp Business as early as possible. It helps you look professional, build customer trust, improve communication and ultimately grow your sales.”

For her, powering her hustle is not about doing everything herself. Instead, it is about finding ways to keep the business moving, stay close to her customers, and use WhatsApp Business to help Twinny’s Kitchen to grow and stay connected to the customers it serves across Nigeria and in the diaspora.