The dramatic shift in customer expectations over the last year is causing companies to rethink their way of engaging with customers. The rising demand for personalized service and convenience drives businesses to be available on today’s most popular messaging apps.
Messaging apps account for over 90% of people’s day-to-day conversations. Messaging platforms like SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Viber have become channels of choice for customers, and businesses have drastically shifted to meet this demand.
The shift from traditional voice calls and live chat to messaging apps transforms the way companies and consumers communicate, opening up new ways for businesses to connect with and support customers.
According to Deloitte Digital, over 50% of app users are more likely to interact with a business if they can message it. As usage rates increase with messaging applications, expectations for response time and quality will exponentially increase as more businesses connect with customers over this new customer channel.
New platforms keep moving the goalpost for businesses. Knowing where to focus your efforts will ensure a successful channel implementation.
Here are 4 best practices to consider when formulating your digital communication strategy:
- Start with an app your customers already use. Be aware that apps tend to support specific markets with localized capabilities. Businesses that want to offer messaging capabilities must support multiple messaging platforms, all with varying abilities.
- Be intentional about adding a new channel. When adding new customer communication channels, the end goal should be to improve the overall experience. Cost savings are a plus but should not be the critical objective.
- Integration is key. Having the flexibility to automatically pass data back and forth to make each system and the people and processes work better together is vital. Ensure you can connect your messaging apps and your back-office apps and employees to get work done.
- Omnichannel is the heart of your strategy. Getting the customer experience right takes a fully integrated, omnichannel CX strategy. Take an intentional approach to ensure you are improving the customer experience.
Omnichannel contact centers win more customers by connecting with them where they are. As a result, customers can move seamlessly from social interactions to sales pages to order status updates, increasing online sales and self-service usage because it never leaves people trapped in automation.