Messaging customer experience is a key factor in how people select the brands they’re loyal to. 75% of consumers say they prefer to engage with brands over messaging instead of traditional channels like phone and email. Clearly, there’s an opportunity for brands to differentiate by providing rich messaging experiences that delight customers. The key here is go deep on messaging, taking a unichannel approach to customer experience rather than providing mediocre support across a wider-range of channels.
Why Messaging Channels?
Compared to legacy channels like phone, messaging allows human agents to handle up to five times the number of conversations at any one time. How? Messaging is asynchronous. An agent can switch between concurrent customer threads in-between waiting for responses.
Customers prefer it too. They can send a message from their phone on WhatsApp, head out for lunch, come back, open up WhatsApp on their laptop and resume the conversation. You’re never tethered to a single browser window or a specific device. Messaging a brand is as seamless as messaging a friend.
It’s clear that consumers want to engage with brands on messaging channels. That’s a fact. But what channels should brands utilize?
Here Are Our Favourite Messaging Channels for Customer Experience:
Facebook MessengerWith 1.3 billion monthly users and growing, and 20 billion messages exchanged every month (10x growth in 2 years) between consumers and businesses, Messenger is at the forefront of customer experience. |
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WhatsApp BusinessWhatsApp Business is one of the biggest messaging platforms in the world, with over 2 billion users. The quantity of messages sent daily is over 3x peak global SMS volume. In the UK, Europe, LATAM and India, it completely dominates other methods of communication. |
Apple Business ChatThere are more than 1.4 billion monthly active Apple devices worldwide. First launched in March 2018, Apple Business Chat gives iOS and Mac users the option to engage with brands directly in the Messages app and utilize a range of rich messaging customer experiences. |
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Google Rich Business Messaging (RBM)It is estimated that businesses will send an estimated 2.7 trillion SMS messages by 2022. RBM, with functionality that rivals customer-built apps, allows businesses to use rich messaging to reach customers in powerful new ways. |
Instagram DirectInstagram has 1 billion monthly active users, with 80% of those users following at least one business. Currently thought of as part of the social customer experience, with the Instagram Direct API, which will allow customers to exchange threaded messages with business, opening for BETA to CSPs in 2020, there is another messaging monster around the corner. |
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Each of these channels allows you to create unique customer experiences across the customer journey. Our platform helps you to harness the power of messaging and automation, helping you to build 1-1- relationships with your customers at scale.
