Increase Sales With Instant Messaging

Many consumers love the convenience of eCommerce sites but become frustrated if they can’t get questions answered. This obstacle causes lost sales and missed opportunities. First and foremost, people want to feel confident when making purchases. A live, text-based conversation removes doubts that would otherwise cause them to decide against completing transactions.

How to Increase Sales With Instant Messaging by Guiding Consumers

Instant messaging helps eCommerce brands and other sales-oriented businesses avoid scenarios that decrease transactions. It lets conversations happen between those entities and their consumers using the most preferred and convenient channels.

An instant message platform gives useful answers to shoppers’ pre-purchase questions, providing the guidance they need and want before buying. eCommerce brands can also use messaging platforms with augmented reality. This capability lets retailers have conversations with consumers where potential buyers can picture products in their homes. Whether the merchandise is a pair of shoes or a couch, the chance to visualize it in a real-world environment makes shoppers eager to buy.

How to Increase Sales With Text Messaging and Compelling Offers

eCommerce consumers appreciate receiving content beyond standard text messages. If an online retailer sends a message to a lapsed customer, it could include a direct link to a product similar to what the shopper purchased before. This approach reminds the past buyer of the brand’s relevance. 

Creating a special offer for returning shoppers is another excellent way to bring them back. If brands send exclusive offers or content about upcoming sales in messages, people get excited and feel compelled to take advantage of perks. Purposeful alerts can also show consumers that retailers have solutions that fit their specific needs — whether those include buying a new outfit for a wedding or purchasing a desk for a home office. 

Choosing a text messaging platform that supports custom payment methods allows shoppers to use their preferred options to complete transactions. This advantage removes friction that can discourage purchases.

How to Increase Sales With SMS Messaging and Helpful Content

When consumers opt-in to receive further communications from retailers, that decision helps brands and shoppers stay in touch. Similarly, when retailers select a messaging platform that does not require consumers to download anything before starting a chat, they provide a hassle-free way to reach out and get personalized assistance. 

It’s also possible for eCommerce businesses to send videos and images during conversations. Brands can then continue connecting in useful ways by giving shoppers instructional videos, illustrative photos, or similar content that eases uncertainties. If a shopper wants to purchase something requiring professional installation — such as new internet service — a video works well for showing how quickly the setup happens.

Increase Sales With Instant Messaging by Contacting Quiq

The rich messaging options provided by the Quiq Conversational Customer Engagement Platform let eCommerce companies cater to consumers through custom payment methods, dynamic suggestions, instant solutions, and exclusive promotions. 

These offerings reduce interaction times and boost the likelihood of shoppers acting and purchasing. Contact us today to learn more or try out a demo to see how Quiq improves consumer-brand interactions.

The Evolution of Texts and Instant Messaging in Business

Instant messaging has changed the landscape of business-to-consumer interaction. The average American now receives a variety of texts from corporations and acquaintances. Digital-based customer service also opens more avenues to conduct business worldwide. How has digital transformation changed this multichannel approach and disrupted eCommerce and the sales cycle as we know it?

Brief History of Technology in Customer Service

Instant messaging has come a long way since the days of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and web messaging platforms used throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Now there are multiple messaging apps on a consumer’s smartphone at a time, such as WhatsApp, Kik, and Snapchat, supplementing the already versatile channel of text.

Call tracking has also grown in sophistication to be more than logging what phone number will reach the customer. This technology includes more insights and integration to create personal profiles and track the entire customer journey, not just record a conversation.

The Impact of New Technology on Customer Experience

A deeper customer experience arrived with 21st-century technology. The wave of instant messaging began as more Americans purchased smart phones and computers. They’ve become acquainted with the ease and quickness of communication, and the text message now dominates exchanges between friends and family.

As customers spend more time connecting through mobile and online, businesses are next to adapt these new technologies into their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. For representatives, the use of the traditional call center declines in favor of the direct, instantaneous nature of text and web chats. As customers know, when they can reach out to companies faster and avoid waiting on the phone, they’re increasingly willing to initiate these conversations.

How Customer Behavior Drives Business Messaging

Today’s market is full of tech-savvy digital natives who often rely on their smart phones to gather information and shop online. Customers prefer the convenience and familiarity of text, especially because they can start and stop the conversation as they please.

In today’s stores, the phones might ring less often but an organization’s social media and web chat bustle with activity and potential new customers to connect with. Instant messaging ultimately drives a more personalized experience when learning about your products or services.

Also, businesses are able to continue to build trust and loyalty by sending relevant outbound messages to customers with up-to-date information about products and promotions that will keep them coming back for more.  It is extremely important that businesses consider this is not just an opportunity to reach customers, but that if the customer has a question, they should be able to easily respond to the message ensuring it is a two-way conversation.

The Future of Instant Messaging for Business

Mobile messaging volume is rising by the year and signaling no intentions of slowing down. Another noteworthy trend is the way in which third-party platforms continue to develop their messaging apps, injecting rich media into the presentation along with more features and service integrations.

You can expect to see more businesses harnessing instant messaging on their platforms. Chatbots are already in-demand for supplying even faster solutions. What’s more, sales and service reps need training for this channel to act authentically with customers — professional, conversational, and engaging — as if two friends were texting.

Does digital transformation within the customer experience mean the phone call is obsolete? Perhaps these technologies shouldn’t be competing but complementing each other to give the customer more say, whether it’s using their voice or their fingertips.

Embrace the Future of Instant Messaging With Quiq

The Quiq Digital Customer Engagement Platform utilizes SMS/Text and instant messaging as part of an multi-channel approach to business and customer communications. The streamlined integration with your existing CRM solution and in-depth performance analysis allows you to use messaging as your most versatile communication channel and make improvements to customer service operations. To learn more, request a live demo today.

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