Customer Service and Messenger: WhatsApp and Co. Preferred to Email and Social Media!
Messaging Apps as a Customer Service Platform: what has widely been suspected has finally been confirmed. The results of a survey conducted by BT and Cisco involving 5,000 participants from over 10 countries (the USA, Belgium, China, India, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Great Britain, Spain and Germany) have shown that when people need to contact companies, they want the easiest and most uncomplicated way to do so. What does this mean? Messengers like WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger etc.! The following article will give you an idea about the importance of messengers in customer service and how to best fulfill your customers needs.
Quick links:
- Why Customer Service plays an ever more important role for companies
- Customer Service often means Customer Frustration a Lot of Times!
- As a Customer Service platform, Messengers and Chats are More Popular than Calls or Emails
- Customers Want to Contact Companies via Messengers
- Software Solution: The Messenger Communication Platform
1) Why Customer Service plays an ever more important role for companies
When people want customer service support, they prefer to do so using their everyday communication methods. Today’s customer service could better be called a “customer experience”. In Facebook’s study “ More than a message “, 53% of the respondents said they are more likely to buy from a company which provides customer service via chat on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger than one that does not.
The German bank „Commerzbank“ realized this early on and started offering a WhatsApp chatbot called CORA, which customers can use to receive more information about specific topics. CORA provides information in the form of analysis and assessments from the bank itself. For questions such as product information, the Chatbot is able to direct customers to the proper contact, who can be reached by telephone or email. You can read our exclusive interview to learn how Commerzbank’s Messenger Marketing works in real life: “Commerzbank WhatsApp Service: Innovative Messenger Marketing”
Tip: To learn more about how other companies and businesses in a variety of industries use messaging app customer service, check out our article: Messenger as a Customer Service Solution: Best Practice .
2) Customer Service often means Customer Frustration: Blame the Channel!
You have a problem and need to contact a business – which ends up taking up a huge chunk of time and leaving you with even more problems. This situation is well known for most customers.
A quick Google News search with the term “customer service” reveals exactly how prevalent bad service is: The first three results refer to a globally known telecommunications provider and its terrible customer service.
What’s wrong with the current customer service models?
- Customer service via phone: being stuck in waiting loops for what feels like eternity, just to be connected with an employee who is not in charge of the issue you are facing. Sound familiar?
- Customer service via e-mail: often feels like “snail mail” busines.: You send an email and wait 24 hours just to get an automated standard response. When you inquire further, you just don’t receive a response – or if you do, it’s delayed by a few days and still doesn’t fully address your issue.
- Community Management via Facebook or Twitter: in most cases, this just doesn’t work at all. If it does, then primarily for large companies and often with a referral to the hotline or email support. (see points 1 and 2)
The added value of customer service with WhatsApp Business & Co. is obvious: the customer does not have to wait on hold on the phone, can describe the problem or concert regardless of opening hours, and has the possibility to communicate via text, image, voice or video when the problem arises..
Tip: You can learn what specific options WhatsApp offers for companies in the article: “ WhatsApp Business API At a Glance – Features, Potentials, and Costs ”
Look inside the Messenger Communication Platform and learn about messaging app customer service strategy and best use cases in our free webinar:
Successful Customer Service with Messaging Apps.
3) As a Customer Service platform, Messengers and Chats are More Popular than Calls or Emails
There is one communication channel that is clearly preferred by people all over the world. Global usage statistics of WhatsApp, WeChat, Apple Business Chat and more messengers clearly show that the digital world has long been dominated by messaging apps. When it comes to customer service, all generations prefer a direct chat via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or another messaging app, rather than a potentially drawn-out phone call or email conversation.
4) Customers Want to Contact Companies via Messengers
Another common problem: you need to contact a company because you recently purchased a product; got an inquiry about your flight or train ticket or want to track your order that hasn’t arrived yet. And of course, you’re short on time, so being stuck in a waiting loop for 30 minutes is simply not an option. You need to contact the company as quick and easily as possible. A survey on digital transformation shows: 65% of today’s customers explicitly want to contact companies via chat!
The time for customer service change has come. Messenger services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Apple Business Chat have finally realized this trend and are introducing new features to specifically focus on customer care, and provide todays’ customers with modern service that fits their schedules. For more in depth analysis of these diferent options, read our analysis of the Apple Business Chat , or the WhatsApp Business API .
5)Software Solution: The Messenger Communication Platform
With our Messenger Communication Platform we offer the first professional and data protection compliant ticket system especially for customer service via WhatsApp Business, Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger, Viber and Telegram. Here you can get a first impression of our product.
You can also register for one of our free webinars . In the webinars, we will guide you live through the product and give you tips on all aspects of content and strategy for your customer service via messaging apps.
This was part 1 of our series „Messaging apps for businesses – Customer service via WhatsApp & Co“. Here are all the posts at a glance:
Part 1:
Customer Service and Messenger: WhatsApp and Co. Preferred to Email and Social Media!
Part 2:
Why Companies are Using Messaging Apps for Customer Service
Part 3:
Tool tip: Modern Customer Service Ticket System – New From MessengerPeople
Part 4:
Messenger Customer Service: 7 Tips for Perfect Customer Care
Part 5:
Messenger as a Customer Service Solution: Best Practice
Part 6:
How Chatbots Can Be Successful in Customer Service
Have a great idea for customer service via messaging apps and want to talk about it? Message us!
