Back in the day, businesses didn’t engage with their customers. All of that changed with the rise of technology and instant messaging. Today, engaging with your customers is vital because it’s the only way to form strong bonds, learn what your customers want and need, and build loyalty.
However, although engagement is essential, not many businesses do it in the ways their customers want. Up to 54% of customers believe companies need to transform how they engage fundamentally. So, if you want to make sure you’re using the right apps, here are the ones you need to focus on.
1. WhatsApp
WhatsApp is a messaging app with billions of users all over the world. It has a simple interface, and people use it daily to communicate with their friends, families, and businesses. That is why WhatsApp created a unique messaging app for companies called WhatsApp Business.
WhatsApp Business looks just like the regular app, but it comes with a few extra features such as:
- Business profile. You can create a profile with the name of your business and include a catalog of your products and services your customers can look through. Additionally, you have the option to provide a contact address so people can get in touch with you in multiple ways.
- Customer segmentation. Since personalization is critical in all customer journey stages, you can put all of your customers in segments to ensure everyone gets personalized offers and responses.
- Categories. Keep your inbox organized with color-coded labels that help you keep track of all communications. And, because WhatsApp business allows you to contact up to 256 customers simultaneously, it’s good to have a system that helps keep everything organized.
The easiest way to let your customers know they can contact you via WhatsApp is to display it on your website. If you are still not convinced to embed WhatsApp chat in website features, keep in mind that this is the best way to stay in touch with customers even after they leave your website.
2. Instagram Direct Messenger
Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels, and it keeps getting more and more business accounts. As much as 81% of people use Instagram to research products and services, if your company is available on Instagram Direct Messenger, you can directly influence sales.
You can grow your business through social media channels such as Instagram, but you can also use this platform to provide customer support via messaging. You can use both written and voice messages to reply to customers and followers and provide answers and explanations.
Of course, to use the direct messages on Instagram in a way that will help you build relationships and increase sales, you need to have a lot of organic Instagram followers. Your business will prosper if you use AI-targeted growth to build a community without bots or fake users.
If you use Instagram to sell your products, you can also allow your customers to place orders via Direct Messenger. It is beneficial to have a young target audience, as Instagram is primarily popular amongst more youthful generations.
3. Facebook Messenger
Keeping up with the theme of social media apps, we need to talk about Facebook Messenger. This instant-messaging app is also extremely popular, and brands often use it as a support channel. While it may have limited features and isn’t available in some areas of the world, it’s still a great channel.
If you use Facebook Messenger, you can do the following things:
- Set up “Click to message” ads. Choose to run your ads on Facebook. You can add a “Click to message” button under every ad that allows the customer to start a conversation effortlessly, increasing your leads and helping you create buyer personas.
- Receive payments. Facebook Messenger has its payment option, which means you won’t have to use a third-party app if you want to sell products and receive direct payments.
- Track performance. It provides you with analytics about bot messaging and details about the number of messages sent and received. You can also find out how many people started conversations with a bot before transferring to a human employee.
- Send automated messages. Chatbots are becoming more and more popular, and you can use one on Facebook Messenger to send automated welcome and away
4. Slack
Slack is best known as a workplace communication app used by team members, but it can also be helpful as a customer care channel. This app has a lot of potentials as it allows you to build a community where all previous conversations are saved, and agents can provide quick and accurate support.
You can create dedicated channels for specific clients and receive notifications about tickets, significantly reducing the wait time for responses and increasing customer satisfaction. And as a bonus, you can have a separate chat for all support agents so they can discuss issues together.
Final Thoughts
Keeping your customers engaged and happy is the key to growing your business. And now that you know what apps you need to use, nothing stops you from becoming a brand your customers love to interact with. Of course, don’t forget to hire a good web design company Manchester to build your website.
