There’s a good chance you’ve adopted (or at least thought about adopting) conversational customer engagement (CCE) software. CCE is a fast-growing business SMS strategy focused on creating personalized connections with customers. But how can you optimize your CCE strategy once you’ve got the basics down? Lean on your favorite business apps.
Your omnichannel messaging platform can integrate with many third-party web apps. SMS integrations allow your messaging platform to share data and even perform cross-platform actions. Ultimately, data-sharing and automations are key to optimizing your conversational customer engagement strategy.
Let’s dive in.
Your CRM System and Conversational Customer Engagement
Personalizing replies to customer messages and outgoing content is a critical tenet of CCE. You want customers to feel like you know all about their past interactions with your brand. But how can you be sure your business SMS platform contains up-to-date contact information without constantly cross-checking your CRM system?
Integrate your omnichannel messaging platform with your CRM system, like Salesforce SMS or HubSpot SMS. The platforms can share data continuously, automatically updating when any changes or additions are made in either platform. You’ll be able to:
- Access accurate contact information in both platforms at all times, including custom fields
- Send personalized mass texts, using CRM custom fields in SMS templates
- Automatically send text messages when information in your CRM changes (for example, when a lead’s status changes to “customer” and you want to send them a welcome text)
An integration between your omnichannel messaging platform and your CRM system will let you personalize customer messages quickly and accurately—a must-have for CCE.
Your Customer Service Platform and Conversational Customer Engagement
Your customer service platform can improve two key pillars of your CCE strategy: message personalization and regular follow-ups.
Integrate your omnichannel messaging platform and customer service platform, like HelpScout. You’ll be able to:
- Access accurate contact information at all times from either platform, including custom fields (just like with a CRM integration)
- Answer customer questions via text right within your service platform interface with help from the wealth of data at hand
- Schedule SMS follow-ups right after you resolve customer queries—even if the customers’ original customer queries were sent through another channel (But don’t forget: you can only text customers who have opted in to your SMS services.)
This integration works similarly to the CRM integration; in fact, you can also text customers from within your CRM system if you have that integration set up. Regardless of which app you integrate your omnichannel messaging platform with, the results are the same: it will help you achieve CCE’s goal of personalization and close customer care.
Your Internal Messaging Tools and Conversational Customer Engagement
Responsiveness is another key tenet of CCE. You should always have an auto reply set up, both during business hours and after hours. In addition, your team should answer customer questions as quickly as possible.
Integrate your omnichannel messaging platform and internal messaging tool, like Slack SMS or Microsoft Teams messaging. You’ll be able to:
- Route all incoming customer messages to a central channel in your internal messaging tool
- Quickly coordinate with team members in a single app
- Save time by texting from within the internal messaging tool, instead of switching back and forth between platforms
An integration with your internal messaging tool is a great way to boost response times, ensuring that customers know their experience is your priority. Plus, fast response times encourage customers to keep texting in for fast issue resolutions.
Your POS Platform and Conversational Customer Engagement
Conversational customer engagement strategies focus on inbound customer messages. But a good CCE strategy also takes outbound content seriously. It’s important to periodically reach out to customers, ensuring that they are having a good experience and encouraging them to connect with your team.
Integrate your omnichannel messaging platform and point of sale (POS) platform, like Shopify. (Your business text messaging platform may offer a native Shopify SMS integration, or you may need a tool like Zapier to bridge the gap between your omnichannel messaging and POS platforms.) You’ll be able to:
- Personalize messages with POS order information
- Automate your omnichannel messaging platform to send templated messages when a custom field (e.g., delivery or order status) changes in your POS system
- Set up an automation that reaches out to customers who abandon their eCommerce carts
Your POS system can work with your omnichannel messaging system to ensure you’re reaching customers at the ideal moment, increasing reply rates and the number of conversations your team has with customers every day.
Want to learn more ways to optimize your conversational customer engagement software? Check out our blog.
