In our fast-paced, digital world, the biggest challenge brands face is to serve their customers in a timely and personal manner. Customers demand immediate service so, the response time of “within 24 hours” is no longer acceptable. That is why brands started adopting Live Chat, they saw it as a fast and easy way to connect with their clients. Indeed, Live Chat was a good solution in the last 5 years. However, how companies have handled customer care is always changing as technology improves and customers’ expectations become increasingly demanding.
Chat vs Messaging
Right now, this chat is not sufficient anymore. Why? 21% of live chat conversation go unanswered and the average response time is almost 3 minutes!
Well, 3 minutes is hardly “live” or “instant” response that visitors are expecting these days. In addition, chats don’t stick around meaning that the users have to stay on the same page for the whole conversation.
Besides, Live chat is impersonal, customers typically don’t feel that they are talking to a live person on the other end. Answers often seem robotic and cold. This is not to mention that Live Chat rarely works on mobile, which is a BIG problem – more than 50% of browsing occurs on mobile.
What now? Guest Messaging is the solution for your problems! Messaging Apps offer a very different model of interaction.
In today’s post, I am going to give you 5 reasons why messaging is better than a website widget!
People Prefer it
Did you know that 2 out of 3 customers actually prefer to message a business? This has to do with the fact that messaging plays a big role in our daily life. Instant messaging apps like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp have nearly 1 billion monthly active users each! Messaging is the new language of the planet with 1.4 billion people sending over 50 billion message a day! If customers are hanging out in these apps and if you want to build a more authentic, personalised relationship with them, you need to meet them there! Messaging has found a new place in customer-business relationships, which is why people are using other mediums much less. Email, nowadays, feels slow and impersonal. Phone calls and live chat are intrusive. Messaging is how we communicate with one another!
Your customers don’t feel like they’re waiting for a response
Live chat is similar to waiting on hold on the phone, the user experience usually includes a wait time and a queue number. On the other hand, with messaging, users can send over their message and continue with their business as usual. They will later be notified with a notification when there is a response – similar to Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or WeChat. Additionally, their entire conversation is contained in a single thread. Consequently, different support agents can access the thread and easily catch up on the matter. From the customers perspective, they won’t have to repeat information or feel the pain of being transferred to someone different and having to repeat the process again, which happens in the live chat experience.
You are able to show and tell!
Ever heard that a picture is worth a thousand words? That is particularly true when it comes to support or complex queries. Users frequently have troubles describing what problem they are experiencing. With instant messaging apps it’s easy to embed screenshots and other types of media so that the support agent can see exactly what is going on.
It feels like you are talking to a friend
It’s crucial that customer care conversations feel as seamless and conversational as possible. The best way to achieve this is to provide customer support on a medium your clients are already familiar with. The intimate setting of chat makes brand engagement feel more like chatting with a friend or family member.
Messaging can be automated
Automation is everywhere these days, enabling users to accomplish a wide range of tasks – from booking a hotel room, checking in to asking for room amenities. Messaging is a brand-new space for companies to connect with clients and prospects. Now, businesses have the perfect opportunity to create new revenue streams using real-time, personalised service chatbots within messaging apps. The more than 34,000 bots on Messenger is a reflection of this trend.
Using hotel promotional messaging instead of a widget has a lot of advantages, for instance, hiring and training staff takes a lot of time and money while automated assistants can offer time and cost savings. Better still, these customer care bots help you free up employees from processual tasks so they can focus on the more challenging and creative ones. Furthermore, chatbots are always on! They are not constrained by time zones or public holidays, thus organisations have the ability to deliver a 24/7 customer care service to fix issues as soon as they arise. Another key advantage has to do with the fact that bots are reliable, free from biases and afflictions.
