It is a fact that most customers now prefer messaging channels like text, over phone engagements. As a matter of fact - some of your best customers might hate phoning your business. Yup - a growing group of great customers absolutely detest phoning businesses - they would much rather message you. This article explains why some great customers hate phoning and love messaging. If you are not convinced that customers prefer messaging then think about this. According to the recent Ipsos Report "Ipsos report: How smart communication tools drive business results." almost 8 out of10 people would like to buy products using chat or messaging and about 7 in 10 (72%) customers would
make a purchase online if they could ask questions in real-time.
Take a second and think about yourself - do you text or message friends and family. Would you like to text businesses you love? When you read through the following examples try to imagine how your business could use messaging to revolutionize customer communication.
So - why do great customers love messaging and detest phoning businesses like yours.
There are several reasons - I will quickly touch on some of them.
Most great customers are also busy people - they want to get things done efficiently. Messaging allows them to multitask. They can engage with you while they are attending to other parts of their busy day. Phoning not so much! A phone call by its very nature engages the customer for a longer period of time. Messaging just saves the customer a lot of time and time is money as we all know very well. Customers can communicate at their own pace and according to their timelines and they love this freedom.
Imagine a customer phoning in and asking for directions or for some other complex type of information which they need to write down. Imagine that - they need to grab a pen and actually write it down on a piece of paper. Messaging solves this problem in the most efficient way possible - the entire conversation is documented for them and they can easily refer back to it at any point in the future. Customers love this because it makes them more effective and efficient.
Imagine it's 7 PM and your customer thinks of something she wants to quickly ask you. She sends a text and moves on with her life - the next morning you get the text and respond. We are all very used to these types of encounters with our friends and family. Now if your business only has phone and email then they will have to email or wait for the next day to phone. Text is such a great way to solve problems and allow customers to quickly ask a question or get some help because it enables them to engage at any time of the day. Customers know that you might only get back tomorrow and they are perfectly fine with that.
As they say - a picture is worth a thousand words. In some cases giving customers the ability to quickly send a picture helps you solve problems faster.
Have you ever been on a phone call with a business and then - after meticulously explaining to someone why you are phoning - they inform you that they need to transfer the call to someone else. Uhg! The inevitable repeating cycle starts and this can continue for several times. Messaging allows customers to write down their problem once and the conversation gets attended to in an effective and efficient way.
Customers that have a hard time hearing struggle with phone calls. Also some customers might have an accent which makes it difficult for you to hear what they are saying. Either way - messaging does break through these barriers effectively.
These are some of the reasons why customers love messaging - your business should start implementing a messaging communication solution sooner rather than later because many customers already expect you to have messaging as a way to communicate with them. Competitive businesses around the world are already implementing messaging to better service their customers - as a matter of fact today, over 60% of brands already offer instant messaging as a channel for their customers.
If you need advice on how to implement a messaging strategy we can help you understand the current market trends and where to start.
