As a customer, I recently took on a home renovation project and spent countless hours trying to connect with the right kind of professional to help with my buying needs. This frustration led me to want to find a more effective way to communicate with product or service experts. I’ve used that initial experience to build Heymarket and help thousands of businesses communicate with their customers over messaging. Here are some learnings and reasons why customers prefer messaging a real human and how you as a brand owner can empower employees to use this new medium.
Multitasking
Messaging helps customers get more done while interacting with you.
With traditional phone call, both you and the customer are tied up for the duration of that interaction. With messaging however, customers can text a request and move on to work on other important things while you work on the best response. And since they read 98% of messages, they’re almost guaranteed to read your response.
Messaging is inherently direct and can be just as professional as email. You’ll spend less time connecting, composing emails or trying to discover an answer.
Expert Advice
Customers want to connect with the right person that can help with their specific needs.
With texting, each customer can build a relationship with an employee and depend on them for advice on future purchasing decisions or simple support questions. There is also a record of the conversation that they can go back to at any time. A text message from a Best Buy associate led me to purchase my entire home entertainment system over messaging. This salesperson is now my expert resource for audio/visual needs and has led me to purchase his product recommendations.
The Data Behind Messaging
According to this Twilio survey, 66 percent of consumers now prefer to reach a company through messaging.
What’s also interesting is that 85 percent of these consumers want to be able to not just receive messages from brands but also to be able to answer questions they have using the same channels.
Conclusion
Your customers have shifted to messaging and expect the businesses they interact with to do the same. We built Heymarket to empower you and your associates to effectively manage these communications with customers.
What are some ways your customers have been reaching you over messaging?
