Small business accounts
Account management
A small business account is a searchable commercial account you can use to maintain a business presence on Rakuten Viber and easily communicate with your customers.
To open a small business account on Rakuten Viber:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Create business account
Fill out the details in the prompts to set up your small business account.
Notes
- The business name can be up to 30 characters, and we recommend using at least 3 characters to improve searchability. Accurate information and description make it easier for your customers to find you. URLs must comply with Rakuten Viber's Terms of Service.
- A business account can only be opened on your primary device.
Small business accounts are only available in select countries. If you don't have the option to open a business account - the service is not yet offered in your country.
Note: If you have previously had a business account that was blocked - you will not be able to open new business accounts.
If your business account conformed to Rakuten Viber’s Terms of Service and still got blocked, please contact us.
Each phone number registered on Rakuten Viber can only have one business account.
To edit your business details:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on your business icon in the top right corner
- Tap on Business account settings
Yes, you can configure your Rakuten Viber business account as fit users over 18. To do that, follow the steps below:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap the checkmark at the bottom saying “My business account is suitable only for people who are over the age of 18.”
This can also be done while creating a new business account on the Business name or Review details screens by tapping the My business account is suitable only for people who are over the age of 18 checkmark.
Once your business page is set as suitable for users over 18, customers must confirm their age before they can access it.
To delete your business account on Rakuten Viber, please follow these steps:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Delete account
- Confirm by tapping Delete account again
Note: This action is permanent and cannot be reversed. Your business chat history will remain available, but you will no longer be able to send/receive messages in those chats.
You can only create and edit your business account on your phone, but you can communicate with your customers on a tablet and/or desktop.
When you change your phone number, both your personal and business accounts will transfer to the new number.
Not at the moment.
When chatting with your business account, customers can only see your business account details, not your personal account details (such as name, phone number, and profile picture), unless they’ve reached you by phone number, in which case your Viber name will also be visible.
To keep the platform safe for everyone, Rakuten Viber prevents the usage of certain names and keywords in the business name field. If you are prevented from using your business name, please contact our customer support agents.
To edit your greeting message:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Welcome message
- Tap on Edit message
- Enter your desired welcome message (up to 1,000 characters)
- Tap on Save
Note: Your welcome message cannot include links.
To set an away message:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Away message
- Toggle Send away message to ON
- Enable Send outside of business hours to send the message to customers contacting you outside your working hours. This option will be greyed out if you did not set up business hours. You can set up your business hours by tapping Add your business hours under this setting.
- Enable Always send when you’re away for long periods of time, like a vacation.
- Tap Edit message
- Enter your desired away message (up to 1,000 characters) and tap Save
To view your business insights:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on View all
The Business insights screen includes multiple stats you can review to understand your business metrics for the previous 30 calendar days:
- Reach: Number of times your business was shown to users in search results
- Subscribers: Your business’ current subscriber count
- Chats: The number of your business chats
- Your average reply time to customers
No. For your protection, customers won't see your phone number on your business page or the call screen (if you choose to enable calls.)
Yes, you can disable the option to call your business by doing the following:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap the toggle next to your phone numbers to OFF
Business categories
You can add up to two categories for your business account.
Yes, your customers can use categories to find your business.
At the moment, we only support category suggestions. If there's enough demand for a specific category - it will be included in a future release.
To change or remove your selected business categories, follow these steps:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Edit
and choose new categories or remove existing ones
- If you don't currently have categories selected, you will see
Add category instead
- If you don't currently have categories selected, you will see
Business hours
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Add business hours
- Configure your business hours
- Enable Custom to configure your business hours separately for each weekday
- Select your working days
- Tap Save
To add a mid-day break, set Custom to enabled and tap Add hours for each relevant day.
Setting your business hours is not mandatory, but we suggest offering this information on your page for customers to know when you're open for business.
Yes. To configure hours on a per-day basis:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Add business hours
-
Configure your business hours
- Enable Custom to configure your business hours separately for each weekday
- Select your working days
- Tap Save
To add a mid-day break, set Custom to enabled and tap Add hours for each relevant day.
To edit your business hours:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Edit
next to Business hours
- Make your desired changes
- Tap on Save
To schedule days when your business is closed temporarily, do the following:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Edit
next to Business hours
- Tap on the Checkmark
next to the days when your business is closed to define that day as closed
- Tap Save
Note: Remember to re-enable your working days once the vacation/holiday ends.
Business promotion
You can promote your business by sharing your business landing page with your customers.
A Business landing page is your Rakuten Viber business card on the web created for you when you open a business on Rakuten Viber. You can share the link with anyone (including non-Rakuten Viber users), and they will be presented with the details you choose to share on your business page. Non-Rakuten Viber users can also download the app to chat with you on Rakuten Viber. To share your landing page:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap Share your business
Visitors to your Business landing page can access the business information you have provided and initiate a chat with you if they’re Rakuten Viber users (or download the app if they’re not.)
Yes! Customers who aren’t yet on Rakuten Viber can download and install Rakuten Viber before interacting with your business.
To generate an external link to your Rakuten Viber business page:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Share business
- Choose Copy link and send/paste it where you’d like
Yes! When you open a business account on Rakuten Viber, the option to mention that you have a business account is enabled by default.
Customers can find your business by searching for it or using a link, share, or QR code. Once a customer finds your business, they can initiate a chat.
Note: Business accounts are country-specific. If your customer lives in a different country, they will not see your business in the search results.
You cannot initiate new conversations using your business account unless you have the customer in your phone’s address book, but you can chat with users who have initiated a chat with your business account. You can also forward your contacts a link to your business page or chat.
Keep in mind that forwarding your business to users you haven't interacted with will trigger Rakuten Viber's anti-spam filters.
Your business account becomes searchable in your country when our Moderation team reviews it.
Broadcast
To send a broadcast message to your customers/followers:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on Chats
- Tap on Compose
- Tap on New business broadcast
- Write your broadcast message (up to 1,000 characters)
- Tap on Send
To be able to send a broadcast message, your business must have at least one customer.
No, but you must have an active chat (a chat that your customer hasn’t left) with that customer.
You can send a broadcast message to customers outside your contact list as long as they agree to receive messages from your business.
We currently do not support attaching any kind of media in broadcast messages. However, you can include URLs in your broadcasts.
Catalog items
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Catalog
- Fill out the details
- Tap Save
To edit a special offer:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on Edit
in the catalog item you wish to edit
- Make the required changes
- Tap Save changes
Displaying prices on catalog items isn't currently supported, but you can include them in the title or description.
You can have up to 50 catalog items active at the same time.
What happens when a customer taps on your catalog item depends on your selection under Give customers more information about this item:
- If you've selected In a chat - customers will be auto-subscribed and taken to a chat with your business
- If With a link was chosen - An in-app browser will take users to the URL you've entered
Yes. While creating an offer, select With a link under Give customers more information about this item and enter the desired link.
To delete an existing offer:
- Open Rakuten Viber on your phone
- Tap on More
- Tap on Business account settings
- Tap on the Trash can
- Tap Delete to confirm