• Around 2015 and 2016, we started to see companies experimenting with emoji in their messaging. Of course, everyone started with the most banal and not very emotional emoji. Rather, what would reinforce and convey the intent of goodwill communication. What any good consultant does with his smile in the sales room, they started to do using smiling Emojis.

• Already, more and more brands are using emojis not only to convey emotion in a message, but also to convey the tone and language of their brand. In this way, brands can further differentiate themselves from other companies, so that even from a message, the customer can understand which company they are dialoguing with. Emojis have become another element of full branding, which has a special value in customer support and all other contacts with the audience.

• Full-fledged branding also means choosing the tone and voice of your brand, with which intonation you will form your message, both in the media and in the products themselves. Emoji is an easy and simple way to broadcast your tone and voice through communication with your customers in chat rooms

• So it makes sense to pick a set of some branded characters and make them distinctive to your brand and how exactly your brand communicates with your customers

The expected question here will be, this is just “emoticons”, why do we need to spend so much time and attention on such small things. Put smiling emoji after greeting and already demonstrated your positive attitude in communication.

• Through a comparative study of thousands of customer chats, with and without Emojis, we were able to observe that messages with Emojis were four times more likely to elicit a response from the customer. That is, the likelihood of getting a response from a customer in a correspondence increases 4 times if Emojis were used in the message. Because a message with Emojis has more emotion and mimics real communication, people are more interested in such communication as part of their socialization. So even little things like Emojis can increase customer touchpoints, improve audience engagement, and as a result build longer and stronger customer relationships.

• Sure, there may be some doubt that Emojis can make your language and tone less serious and worth trusting. But as studies have shown messages with Emojis led to more positive perceptions of the attractiveness and effectiveness of the brand leader figure.

• The main conclusion is that companies that allow themselves to express their emotions the way they do in real life will be able to build better relationships with their customers.

Tips:

• Use: Discard stereotypes about Emojis and try using them. Starting with the simpler and more common ones, use Emojis when communicating with current customers and potential audiences. If possible, it’s always revealing to observe the reaction of your audience personally, whether you see results, whether there is an increase in engagement in correspondence or an increase in customer response rate.

• Complement but do not replace: Emojis should be a complement to your text, they should add emotion and feeling to the content of your message. But, it is highly discouraged to use Emojis to replace any words or characters. This can look like too informal and even lazy communication with the client. It is important for the customer to see that there is always a full-fledged response to their query, which has a constructive essence to it

• Make your Emojis brandbook: Since Emojis help to reflect the tone of your brand, from the variety of Emojis, choose some of the most relevant Emojis, those that will help to convey the mood and tone of your company and build appropriate associations for customers through colors and symbols.iA good practical exercise for creating such an Emojis brandbook can be the task of describing your brand and your company using only Emojis. Try giving this set of Emojis to someone outside of your company and assess how well they understood you and your brand.

• Know the time and place: script Emojis with Emojis in mind. Despite the proven effectiveness of Emojis, it’s important to realize that not in all scenarios their use will be appropriate and beneficial to your brand. In more critical or sensitive moments, such as when resolving a customer issue or handling a negative review, the use of Emojis can be taken inappropriately and too lightly. At times like these, it’s crucial to be clear and focus on solving the problem and openly communicating it. To reduce the risk of ineffective communication in these situations, script your agents with your Emojis in mind. Let Emojis become part of the guidelines so that even such communication elements are systematized and don’t differ from agent to agent.

• Study and experiment yourself: Even after studying all the available “manuals” on customer support using messengers and reading all the studies on the effectiveness of Emojis, no one knows your customers better than you do. Every contact, every chat is an additional opportunity to learn and understand how customers themselves communicate and react to your communication. In the context of Emojis, it is very important to observe whether there is a difference in response to Emojis, which Emojis customers use in their correspondence and whether they use them at all. All of these observations and their analysis will best give you an understanding of what Emojis your brand needs and how much their use enhances your communication and conveys the tone and language of your brand.