When you think of customer service, most people think of customer support via email, phone, or live chat. While these channels are really proven and reliable

 customer support tools, it’s important to engage with people in the channels they’re already using. For example, Facebook Messenger is used by more than 2.7 million people.. And in all likelihood, this huge number of users includes your customers.

Since for most people chatting in messengers is already a formed daily habit, the presence of your company means the use of opportunities that are already there. This gives you the opportunity to make communication with the company part of your existing routine, thereby increasing its very likelihood.

Whys or influencing factors:

• Speed of processing tasks/requests and inquiries

The very format and style of communication in messengers allows you to respond much faster to your customer’s requests. There is no need to write large and long letters to solve some support task or just to answer a question.

• Distance between the company and the customer (higher trust, more honest and transparent communication, loyalty to the company)
• Transparent communication on a friendly footing is a way to build a long-term and strong relationship with the customer
• Ensuring the feeling that the company is nearby, in touch, and that any difficulties and issues can be quickly resolved

Communicating with the client via messengers allows you to reduce the distance between the company and its audience, making the company much more alive and tangible. And the more real a company seems, the greater the credibility of its actions, its products, and services. Thus, the new communication channels are not only about the contact itself and its ways but also about the ability to show your brand more openly to make the customers want to trust it and therefore be willing to spend more money. Messengers allow you to create a sense of presence in the message, the company is always in touch, it will answer any questions, help solve any problems, find the right information, and so on. Correspondence in messenger looks like more transparent and informal communication.

• At every stage of the customer path, from initial introduction to active brand advocacy, it’s important to facilitate all transitions. The easier and faster the question can be answered, the more likely it is that the customer will move more easily and smoothly from one stage to the next. The customer will have enough “power” and motivation for all actions, in particular to buy a product or service and subscribe.
• Separately, it is worth noting the advantage of social network messengers such as Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct messaging. Since these communication channels are tied to your customers’ accounts, this creates a lot of additional opportunity for analytics, profiling, and conversions. There is an opportunity to learn a little more about your audience, building a more informal and personalized communication. Using such tools is not only about responding to requests and making purchases, it’s also about the ability to better understand your audience and build better relationships. Such communication is an important part of a separate area of communication marketing, which also increases conversion rates and brand loyalty through multichannel experiences.

What is important to remember when using messengers to communicate with customers:

• Negative experiences are easy to share.

As we discussed above, engaging and communicating with customers in messengers is an effective way to facilitate contact with companies for the customer, to build a more trusted and open brand, with quality and quick response time. But there is always a risk that it is much easier for a customer to share any negative experience. If such a situation arises, the user is likely to report it so that everyone can see it. Even if a failure occurs in a private chat, customers can easily take a screenshot and publish it to their feed because they are already in the interface of one of the social networks.

• People are waiting for an immediate response.

The expectation of the speed of your reaction and response is noticeably higher. Though a person is ready to wait for a response by e-mail within days, in instant messengers, you have much less time. Your brand feels a lot more personal and intimate when you’re on the phone and you’re online. And there are a few tools to make your task easier. For example, on your Facebook page, you can set hours of operation and specify when your team is available. You can also automate the communication and provide a preliminary confirmation that the request will be resolved. 

Tips:

1. Increase the speed. Responding quickly to customer inquiries is vital to maximizing conversion rates. Quick responses also increase customer satisfaction and improve your brand’s awareness and credibility. But for Facebook Messenger, speed is especially important. Facebook displays how quickly the company responds to messages with a colour-coded icon. The highest award is a green badge with a lightning bolt image on it. Next to it is the phrase “Very responsive to messages” For this you need a response rate of at least 90% and a response time of no more than 15 minutes per request in the last 7 days. This is important for attracting and retaining customers, signaling them that you are always in touch and will respond quickly. When a potential customer is considering whether to contact your company, this customer can be more confident that he or she will not have to wait long and tediously.
2. Train support representatives (agents) to follow standard operating scripts. It’s critical that everyone is in tune when dealing with common requests. This minimizes errors, improves team communication and increases the quality and consistency of your service. Without these procedures, a customer service representative might say something wrong or make a promise they can’t keep. This can be extremely costly for a company’s goodwill.
3. It is extremely important to know which channels your audience wants and can communicate through, where they are faster and where they are more comfortable, as well as how many channels they can use simultaneously. Often being always and everywhere initially seems a difficult task to accomplish, especially for smaller teams. With NovaTalks you have the ability to personalize your solution precisely because of the extensive set of channels that you and your customers need. Qualitative analysis of the current and potential audience gives an understanding of where exactly your customers want to communicate.