How businesses can take advantage of the opportunity with messaging now
By Emile Litvak
People communicate with each other through messaging. But while there are billions of interactions between people and businesses every day, many businesses are not giving people the opportunity to engage them with messaging. Despite a clear shift in behavior, many businesses are stuck in the past. It’s time for businesses to catch up with the times and follow consumers’ lead to messaging.
The next few years will be about how these technologies impact the customer experience – improving digital touch points and relevance of your communications and marketing. As businesses plan customer experience and engagement strategies, and make plans around how to leverage existing tools and where businesses invest – messaging needs to be the cornerstone for the next chapter of digital transformation.
Everyday, people around the world turn to WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram to connect with businesses. It may seem like a quiet revolution in the United States, but the shift to business messaging around the world has been fast and furious.
Image Credits: Meta (opens in a new window)
Our research shows that 7 out of 10 people feel more connected to businesses they can message. And over 65% of people said that they actually prefer messaging over email and phone.2
People want convenient solutions because they’re busy. They don’t have time to be on hold on a call or write a long email explaining everything they need. Business messaging creates virtual store counters where customers can browse products, talk directly with shop owners, make purchases and even complete returns – all of it while on the go.
A great example of this is Aldi, a global supermarket chain, who reimagined how to answer customer questions about what products were in stock. They reduced response times from three minutes to three seconds and redeployed eight and a half percent of their customer service staff by using an AI-powered assistant on Facebook Messenger. Messaging is more convenient for customers and more efficient for business owners.
As we explored at our inaugural Conversations event, businesses have an unparalleled opportunity to build experiences with messaging. Whether it’s personalized shopping or booking appointments, people want messaging solutions to match their busy lives. Businesses need to adapt if they want to stay relevant.
For businesses looking to provide personalized customer experiences at scale, incorporating messaging-led offerings needs to be at the forefront.