In this age of digital communication and 24/7 customer service scenario, customer engagement has transformed into a round the clock activity. Listening to the customer and fostering trust and developing relationships through open interactions have gained significant importance for the companies —interactions that result in positive experiences and outcomes for customers. Because customers are not just interacting with you, they will talk amongst themselves, sharing their experiences across social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even YouTube. If not addressed properly, the grievances have the potential to translate into a public relation nightmare for the company. So, selling products is no longer the only job, it also involves facilitating an active, passionate online community around your product.
These days customers expect prompt redress of their grievances, and they want it in an easy and hassle-free manner. This is where new age technologies, like in-app messengers, come into the picture.
These are tools built into websites, web apps, or mobile apps of business houses. Unlike live chats, which are a real-time chat service, in-app messaging is not real time, so the queries can be spaced out and answered suitably. In an in-app messenger system, customers too can initiate conversation. They offer the facilities of SMSs, messaging, chats, emails, and push notifications to organizations to stay in touch with their customers.
These apps allow a business firm to carry out customer behavior research and analysis, such as from where the user has logged in, the number of times the customer has visited the site, social media account information, and the pages the customer has visited. A sequence of personalized, targeted auto emails based on customer personal and behavioral data can not only enthuse and engage them but also prevent them from going away.
The information about what products people browse in its app can be used to tailor the content to their personal likings. As emotions play a crucial role in decision-making process, engaging with customers in their wavelength satisfy their ego. In-apps facilitate interaction with customers in the context of their daily lives. Not only you are able to provide them with better, more immediate service, but you also gain loyalty and stay in their minds. When the time comes to make a purchase, they’ll choose the product they trust through a series of positive experiences.
These features make the in-app messenger an ideal tool for customer engagement. The personal and friendly approach features of in-app messengers make them an ideal tool for customer engagement, as they cause minimum irritations to customers. Creating distinctive memorable experiences with this kind of personal touch translates into a high level of customer engagement and satisfaction, which in turn increases referrals and sales.
According to Localytics, apps that use push and in-app messaging have higher engagement and retention rates. Users who have enabled push to launch an app an average of 14.7 times per month, have witnessed higher level of engagement versus users who have not enabled push messages and who launched an app only 5.4 times per month. This represents a 171% increase in app engagement, which has more than doubled since 2014 when the increase in engagement was 88%.