Brands can turn engagements into conversations through messaging apps like Viber
By Cristina Constandache, Chief Revenue Officer at Rakuten Viber
Conversational commerce or c-commerce has been a buzzword for some time now and for a good reason. Data reveals that 86% of people are ready to pay more for a greater customer experience – and there are many ways brands can turn engagements into conversions through conversations in messaging apps.
Chief Revenue Officer at Rakuten Viber
Imagine if your brand could speak to its customers as if they were friends, in a way that’s more natural and personal. Because consumers are used to using messaging apps to chat to friends and family, there are no new apps to install or software to learn – they just send messages as if they were checking in with a pal. And with more advanced messaging apps, you can buy products and services from within the app itself, with no need to follow links to web pages.
The biggest advantage here is personalisation. Because it’s so all-encompassing, conversational commerce lets you send recommendations, help with orders, and answer questions both pre-and post-sale. And the more personalised a service the customer gets, the more likely they are to give you repeat business – which is vital for business survival and longevity.
So how can your business tap into conversational commerce’s potential? Let us count the ways.
Chatbots. Serving like robot customer support agents, most chatbots are used to answer common customer queries like a company’s business hours and location. Because they allow 24/7 customer care and don’t require human agents to be on-hand all the time, they can be a very effective customer service tool.
They can also carry out other low-skilled tasks like processing orders, making recommendations, and providing shipping statuses, allowing human workers to engage with more complicated tasks. Chatbots are especially useful if your business has a large volume of customer support questions, many of which are simple to answer.
But as the technology advances, chatbots will be able to handle more complex customer demands. That’s because they use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand customer queries. This is a key ingredient in helping the chatbot to learn and answer with a greater degree of accuracy.
They also use AI and machine learning to become more responsive, improving the customer experience. These technologies allow them to answer and anticipate customer questions, suggest products and services, personalise the experience, and collect user data. With improved communication and intuition, chatbots can help reduce the number of customer inquiries that require time on the phone or over email – something customers are sure to be thankful for.
In fact, 90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as important or very important when they have a customer service question, and 60% percent of customers define “immediate” as 10 minutes or less.
For seven years now, Viber has been improving the way businesses communicate with their customers. Viber Chatbots are a big part of that, as they let companies connect with customers quicker and more efficiently, while also reducing costs.
Viber Chatbots can help increase sales and conversions. By chatting one-to-one, customers receive a personalised experience which will encourage sales. Chatbots can also provide all the information a customer needs without leaving the chat, and the longer they spend engaging with your brand, the more likely they are to make a purchase.
Voice Assistants. Voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana are essentially chatbots that are controlled by speaking. While they can make it easier to buy things with a simple spoken command, they lack human interaction and visual cues. For that, you need business messages.
By allowing a conversation with a real human agent, business messages bridge the gap between voice assistants and e-commerce. They are also more conversational, as the customer is speaking to a human rather than a machine.
Business messages like the one Viber offers help brands give customers all the information they need about products and services, while providing visual cues like images and videos, to help them make informed buying decisions. Viber business messages also allow brands to send files like customer warranties, booking confirmations, and invoices for easy access and convenience. What’s even great about this c-commerce tool is that it allows two-way conversations. In fact, Viber has recorded a 291% growth in conversational business messages for 2021, a strong indication that Filipinos are more inclined to have two-way communication with brands via official business accounts.
Live Chat. Live chat is the precursor to conversational business messages, and both involve real-time customer messaging and help foster a stronger relationship between the brand and its audience. The stark difference is conversational business messages let a brand connect with their customers in real-time to answer any question they may have, and manage multiple business cases in a single channel along every step of the customer journey.
It is natural for customers to want to interact with companies via conversations. As c-commerce continues to be a growing part of the economy, the demand for more convenient and personalised customer experiences will continue to grow. With the right strategies, businesses can leverage conversational commerce to improve their customer interactions and eventually boost their bottom line.