What can you do to engage your retail customers and make them more loyal today and in the future? One essential and emerging tool for that is conversational messaging. According to Gartner, US technological research and consulting firm, conversational messaging is the single most significant paradigm shift in the communication between brands and consumers. Gartner’s 2019 Market Guide for Conversational Platforms concludes that around 50% of the interviewed businesses will spend more on Conversational Applications than mobile apps.
What is conversational messaging? It’s a one-to-one conversation between a brand and a consumer on any messaging platform. It’s not like a live chat, though, where you wait for an agent’s response. Conversational messaging is like texting a friend and provides your customers with a constant connection to your brand – making it possible to receive speedy information.
For effectiveness, conversational messaging should be implemented across multiple channels so that your customers can choose any platform they prefer – for example, WhatsApp – or Instagram Direct.
The benefits of these platforms are that they combine texting with the richness of websites, i.e., graphics elements and video, plus they allow consumers to complete their transaction – they don’t have to go somewhere else to get it done. Surveys show that investing in conversational messaging can increase conversion by 30%-50%, compared to using E-mail or SMS – and 20%-50% in customer care cost reduction. By utilizing conversational messaging, you are ready and open for communication whenever your customers want to ask something, provide you with ideas, or chat.
Let’s give you a hint of how you can work with conversational messaging by using Instagram as an example. It’s a platform for emerging culture, creating trends, and discovering new brands.
Messaging is central to Instagram when it comes to helping people connect with brands of interest in personal ways. For example, through story replies, mentions, and direct messages – 62% of active Instagram users use direct messages, and 72% of the direct message users say they have conversed directly with brands. Over the last year, total daily conversations between people and businesses on Instagram grew by over 40%.
Using the Messenger API for Instagram and integrating it with existing tools and data, the Messenger API enables managing high volumes of customer messages easier.
Other benefits are:
– Conversion – create sales opportunities at every stage
– Customer relationship – by always being available, you improve the customer’s perception of you and your brand.
– Engagement – gain a 360 view of customer loyalty and activity.
– Scalability – automate customer replies to reduce effort on your CX team.
– Analytics – learn from your customer. CRM connection enables contextual and personalised service.
Are you curious to know more about Nexer and retail in general, the future of retail, or how Nexer can help you connect all your retail systems into one “Digital Ecosystem for Retail”?
