Instant Messaging offers a lot of opportunities for both SMEs and large scale businesses. The reason is clear-your customers are online and are using smartphones that feature apps that allow them to send instant messages including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Telegram among others.
So which better way to reach, engage, and interact with your customers than these Instant Messaging apps? Aside from Instant Messaging, there are customer experience consulting firms that can help you understand your clients/customers and help them deliver a better overall experience
So as a business, how do you leverage Messaging to boost? Read on to know more.
Efficiency
One of the biggest advantages of instant messaging for business is that it’s exactly that – instant. With live chat for business, you can get straight to the point. No need for any of the polite conversation that comes with a phone call, or the formality of an email.
This makes IM perfect for fast-moving projects where you need to communicate quickly and make decisions on the hoof. Transferring information at speed means people can act on it immediately. And that gives you an instant boost in productivity and efficiency.
User Friendly
Whether it’s Facebook, WhatsApp, or just texting on their mobile, most people are familiar with using some sort of instant messaging system in their personal lives. The familiarity of an IM interface means people will feel confident about using it straight away, and won’t have to learn something new in order to communicate effectively. This can drastically reduce roll-out or implementation costs of full company-wide deployments.
Relationship Building
By now, you should at least have heard of the typical implementations of instant messaging for sales. This includes the use of live chat and chatbots to provide customer assistance. This, in the long run, help build a cordial relationship with your customers.
It’s Cost-Effective
The cost-effectiveness of instant messaging for business is perhaps its most important advantage. In some businesses, services such as Slack can all but replace traditional forms of communication, and, from a customer service perspective, online chat may negate the need for an expensive telephone system to handle multiple incoming calls.
It encourages efficient communication
WhatsApp and Twitter have taught us all to say more with less and instant messaging, by its very nature, also encourages short, concise messages. No one wants to trawl through drawn-out emails or take long, needless telephone calls, and instant messaging can be just the tonic for communication fatigue.
It’s Mobile
Any instant messaging client worth its salt will have apps available for both desktop and mobile and possess the ability to synchronise messages across all devices. This can be a lifesaver for businesses when crucial status updates or requests need to be issued quickly and to all employees no matter where they happen to be.
