Multi-Channel Communication Has Its Challenges
With digitalization, consumers have learned to receive service faster and more seamlessly than ever before. Today’s customers expect their needs to be addressed as quickly as possible and to be served in the exact channel they prefer at any given moment. Potential future customers, upon seeing an advertisement in the midst of their busy schedules, expect that contacting you will be as straightforward and quick as possible.
When discussing digital customer communication and marketing, the focus is often on traditional email and social media. However, consumers primarily communicate through various instant messaging applications. Why not leverage this knowledge and use these channels for customer service, sales, and marketing as well? Perhaps because managing simultaneous conversations across all channels is often perceived as too labor-intensive. When messages arrive through different channels, at least a few often go completely unnoticed. So what is the solution?
Instant Messaging Brings New Opportunities to Diversify Channel Offerings
Web chat services have been a valuable addition to customer communication in recent years. Chats have increased customer contact points and opportunities for conversations between the company and the customer directly on websites. Bot conversations enable customer guidance even when a customer service representative is not available. The weakness of chats is that they are tied to the use of a specific website or application at a specific time.
Traditional SMS communication has evolved tremendously and plays a central role in many organizations’ communications. Its proven effectiveness in capturing attention is a definite advantage compared to email, for example.
Text messages are now being utilized particularly as part of customer relationship management systems. The proliferation of marketing automation software has significantly increased the volume of text messages sent by organizations.
There are several communication channels relevant to businesses, and the popularity of instant messaging channels is growing. In consumer-to-consumer communication, instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct Messenger already play a major role in daily communication. These channels offer an excellent way to diversify and facilitate business communication in the future, as they are already channels preferred and used by customers.
From Monologue to Customer Dialogue
Customer communication and digital marketing are still often about sending one-way messages, such as newsletters or advertisements, from the company to the customer. It is easy to remain at a level where you simply describe a product or service and attempt to direct the customer to a website, for example.
Messages can include a link to a specific online service and, through that, enable contact, for example. Messages may also offer the option to respond directly to the message with a keyword that leads to a specific action, such as placing an order.
It is easy to integrate the desired instant messaging channels into these situations, through which the consumer can send a contact or information request and move the conversation directly to their preferred channel. Contact points can be offered through instant messaging channels from any media, at any time.
The challenge is often how to handle contacts outside business hours, when customers are accustomed to receiving service as quickly as possible. With automation and bots, customers can be guided by confirming that their inquiry has been received and that a response will be provided within a defined time window.
Conversations handled by bots and automation can relate to appointment management, for example: The message recipient receives a message with options for available times, and by responding to the message, they can select a suitable time. The automation then sends the customer instructions for arriving at the appointment, and shortly before the appointment time, instructions allowing them to self-check in by responding to the message.