Talk to sales
Now more than ever, businesses are looking for ways to improve their customer engagement via instant messaging apps. It’s quick and easy and provides customers instant connection across all social media platforms.
According to a YouGov study, 69% of consumers like communicating with brands through text messaging instead of phone calls.
Furthermore, it found that 72% of its respondents prefer companies communicating reminders, updates, and travel plans via messaging. While 60% utilizes financial services, updating consumers with their bills, accounts, and payment reminders.
There are several ways you can use the most popular messaging apps as leverage to enhance customer engagement. The key is knowing when and how you can provide the best experience for your consumers. Here are the top 5 tips on how you can do just that.
Top 7 Tips On Improving Customer Engagement Via Instant Messaging Apps
1) Knowledge and Experience
Don’t get easily swayed by super hyped-up products with hardly any experience in to real-life applications. Conduct your research, and review customer feedback.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions about their expertise in troubleshooting the worst-case scenarios that your business may encounter in the future. How efficient are they in providing the most reliable support and customer service?
Search their track record because it will speak for itself. What companies did they serve in the past? Did they have a high satisfactory rating? Why or why not?
2) Ultimate Customer Satisfaction Mindset
Will your vendor for instant messaging apps for work in your business have the same mindset as you? Always making customers’ needs their top priority?
How can they help drive value by engaging with consumers? What are their plans for improving your company’s customer service through instant messaging? How do they picture your overall success?
3) Range of Functionalities
Before you can determine the right tool for you, you need to know the product’s range of functionality. Take time to assess these products and ask all the questions that pop into your head.
How does it process customer requests? Is a ticket automatically created on queue, or can the customer look forward to a one-on-one conversation with a service agent?
How many instant messaging and chat apps can it support in one interface? Can your stand-alone product also seamlessly integrate with other order management systems and customer service applications?
4) Strict Security Protocols
Numerous customers suffer trauma due to security issues. These days a person’s sensitive personal data is highly vulnerable to theft. Thus, your company requires a messaging platform to guarantee your customer data’s security and privacy.
Part of your interview with various vendors should include their security protocols. How compliant are they to ensure the safety of their messaging tools? If you’re thinking about using cloud-based messaging tools, how can the vendors ensure that your information will never get mixed up with data from other companies?
5) Automation and Ease of Use
Automation does not only make communicating with customers streamlined and convenient. It also simplifies and makes your processes more efficient. So speak to your potential vendors about their level of automation and how much of it can be tailor-fitted to fit your company’s needs.
Also, consumers won’t bother using your messaging software unless you have easy-to-use features. Is your messaging platform intuitive? Easy to navigate? Does it offer practical ways and messaging options that allow your agents to move across conversations efficiently?
6) Value
Will you get value for your money? Is it worth every penny you’ll be spending? Because it’s utterly pointless to get the most sophisticated instant messaging app money can buy if it will ultimately slash out your budget needed in other areas of your business.
Be honest when talking to your vendor. They will not be able to help you and give you the best options if you do not have a realistic idea for your app’s budget. Make sure to choose a messaging platform that can return your ROI in a reasonable amount of time.
7) Plans for Innovation
After going through all the instant messaging application examples and their benefits, can your vendor guarantee continuous innovation in their technology? What are their plans for development in the future so that you will always be ten steps ahead of your competitors? Learn what brand new capabilities they have in mind for their tools and what they will do to make these goals come true.
And to make sure your company is ready to meet the increased pressure on their help desks, do your homework and look for the best help desk software solutions examples.
Choosing What Matters
In the end, it’s choosing what matters. No one else can answer this question but you. Do you want endless possibilities with quicker returns? Is having the most advanced application security and compliance standards your top priority? And does price matter if you get valuable insights to generate proactive business decisions?
Try to find a vendor that can make even the most complicated scenarios simple and provide chat experiences that will get your customers hooked.
Check out our scalable communication platform Innoinstant, that offers powerful and customizable APIs and SDKs for chat, voice and video.
