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Tag: text messaging

Reduce Collection Time With Messaging

Posted on Max Fortis

The Accounts Receivables Department is all about action. Staying on top of accounts and getting customers to pay you on time takes consistent outreach and persistence. Credit Unions are looking towards technology to make collections more effective.

A mobile device is always within reach and consumers are increasingly more comfortable with online banking, so it’s no surprise that credit unions are seeking ways to tap into mobile technology, namely, text messaging, as a way to engage with members. In this article, we explore how text messaging has helped credit unions reduce collection time.

Richer Experiences Everywhere

Consumers, trained by the rich mobile experiences they have outside of banking, have come to expect more from their credit union. You don’t have to look far to find the data that supports why this channel has come to the forefront:

  • Text messages have a 98% open rate
  • Text messaging has a 45% response rate (MarTech)
  • Texts are typically read within 3 minutes of being received
  • Over 6 billion text messages are sent in the U.S. each day. (Forrester)

This, coupled with generations of consumers, namely Millennials and Gen Z, who have not only accepted messaging as a primary communication channel, but have come to expect it, has driven more industries to add messaging into their customer engagement strategy. In fact, credit unions have identified messaging as one of the leading ways to attract and retain younger members.

Reduce Collection Time with Messaging

A recent article from The Credit Union Journal entitled,  “Credit Unions’ call center chatter turns to texting,” highlights the incredible results realized from adopting messaging. The article states the many advantages messaging affords credit unions, all of which stem from this channel’s ability to cut through the noise and inconvenience of other channels and engage members where they spend the most time.

One of the most surprising efficiencies has been the reduction of collection time. Before messaging, a significant amount of staff resources were dedicated to contacting members about past due payments. Calling and leaving unanswered messages or sending unopened emails had become the norm. With messaging, credit unions like Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union, have seen collection response rates increase from 5% when calling members, to 75% through texting.

Collection calls are placed during credit union business hours when members are usually working as well. Unlike phone calls, messaging allows members to respond to collection notifications more discreetly and when they are available. Members find it difficult to impossible to answer the phone to talk to a credit union staff member, but glancing at a text notification and responding when that member has a few seconds is entirely doable.

Credit Unions Trust Quiq

The ease and convenience of text messaging have touched everything from informing members of branch hours to notifying members of promotional rates or offers. It only makes sense that members positively respond to the ability to engage in a quick two-way conversation about their payment status.

Quiq has been fortunate to partner with innovative Credit Unions and other lending institutions to help them effectively reach their members and customers. There is a growing number of credit unions adopting messaging for a variety of reasons. We invite you to be next.

Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App, and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. In return, companies get a digital engagement platform to communicate with customers. Learn more about Quiq today at quiq.com.

There’s More to Messaging

Posted on Max Fortis

There’s more to messaging than just sending characters, images, and emojis back and forth, at least when it comes to business messaging. Text messaging between companies and consumers has certain inherent expectations. Understanding, meeting, and managing these expectations are the key to successful customer interactions.

Here are 5 key capabilities required to ensure you manage the messaging channel to deliver a world-class customer experience:

1. Engage at the customer’s pace

Messaging conversations are asynchronous, meaning the agent and customer can communicate without being “on” at the same time. While customers may expect a certain level of immediacy from your company, you can’t always expect customer responses to be as snappy.

Make sure you to engage at the customer’s pace by selecting a vendor that proactively prioritizes multiple incoming conversations for each agent. For example, Quiq Messaging automatically prioritizes conversations based on the customers level of engagement. When customers are responding quickly, that’s a signal that they want more immediate attention. Quiq automatically moves those conversations to the top of the agent’s dashboard and provides color-coded cues to ensure they handle the most time-sensitive conversations first.

2. Pick up where you left off

Messaging allows customers to take a break from the conversation and continue when it’s more convenient for them – just like two old friends. If customers have to take a break from the conversation, they can come back and pick up with the agent wherever they left off.

Unlike other channels and almost every chat solution, Quiq makes sure conversations never get disconnected. Instead of repeating information over and explaining their situation to a new agent, the customer continues the existing conversation. All the content and context is still there. You’re welcome.

3. Ask for help when you need it

We all need a little help sometimes. We’ve made it simple for agents to raise a virtual hand when then need a little extra help from their peer or manager with the ability to collaborate and transfer. Initiating any of this functionality is simple and intuitive. There is the option to tell a customer you’re transferring a message or bringing someone into the conversation, but it can also happen seamlessly and “behind the curtain.”

Customers don’t even have to know if their question is answered by a different agent or someone just collaborating on the conversation. There’s no more “can you hold while I get my manager” involved here, just fast, convenient service for the customer.

4. Set expectations and response goals for agents

While it’s probably pretty obvious, you want to make sure that you’re meeting the customer’s expectations of response time. We’ve made meeting those expectations a priority that can be set on a corporate level through Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

When an agent is in an active conversation with a customer, and a customer sends a message, the agent must respond within the timeframe agreed upon in the SLA. If the agent does not respond before this timer expires, the conversation is re-queued, and the agent won’t be allowed to accept any new messages until their current queue is reduced. SLA’s ensures your agents can handle the current conversations with a timely response or gracefully hand them off to another agent.

5. Monitor performance in real-time

What gets measured gets done. Measure how your team is performing on the messaging channel with real-time stats and critical performance metrics to make sure you’re consistently delivering a top customer experience on the messaging channel. Quiq provides valuable reports and easy to understand dashboards out-of-the-box.

In fact, managers can click right into an active conversation from those dashboards if they would like to observe how agents are doing. Use this feature to facilitate better coaching and onboarding, and help your agents become more effective faster.

Getting Messaging Right With Quiq

Messaging can be a powerful tool to strengthen relationships with customers, but don’t approach it with a laissez-faire attitude. All good relationships are built on the foundation of communication and trust. So don’t leave a well-managed conversation that creates trust up to chance. Go with the experts.

Quiq was purpose-built to handle the messaging channels. Our messaging solution helps companies connect, engage, and improve relationships with customers on their preferred channel.  Our team built the Quiq platform to make implementation a snap and managing messaging at the forefront.

Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App, and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. In return, companies get a digital engagement platform to communicate with customers. Learn more about Quiq today at quiq.com.

2018 is The Year of Text

Posted on Allyson Scott

This year is pivotal for companies to define themselves by, and for, the customer. The race is on to adopt technology that will enable companies to connect and engage with customers with the kind of convenience and ease they expect in all aspects of their lives.

While emerging technology like AI and bots compete for attention, customer service leaders shouldn’t take their eyes off the one thing the majority of smartphone-carrying people most commonly use their device for – text messaging. SMS/text messaging is the most preferred communication channel for the majority of consumers.

Adapting to the Customer

In a recent article, Shep Hyken, customer service and experience expert, speaker, and bestselling author, digs deeper with his recent Forbes article, “Getting Customer Support From Companies Will Be Easier In 2018”. The article states, 94 percent of Americans own a mobile phone, and 86 percent of them send 23 billion messages daily.

As the article suggests, companies have already started to adopt text messaging, making it easier for customers to avoid the usual roadblocks to finding and receiving support in a way that is convenient for them. While these companies are outpacing the competition by readily adopting this channel, many other organizations aren’t keeping pace.

Win-Win

Messaging allows customers to effortlessly connect with companies at any point in their journey via their preferred channel. That’s a huge win for consumers and leaps and bounds away from yesterday’s customer service experience when customers would have to interrupt their day to make a call, only to be placed on hold. Or worse, email and wait for hours or days to hopefully receive a response. While messaging is a major move to customer-centricity and more effortless engagement for the consumer, companies also realize big wins. Quiq clients who have adopted messaging for example have been able to reduce agent work time by 25% – 40% and have increased customer satisfaction scores by an average of 8 percentage points.

Messaging allows agents to handle multiple requests at a time. With Quiq Messaging, agents can handle service requests via mobile, chat, and social all within one intuitive interface. The asynchronous nature of messaging allows agents to manage multiple, simultaneous text messaging conversations at once, unlike emails and phone calls. In fact, Quiq’s messaging clients are handling an average of 7 conversations at a time

What’s Ahead

Business messaging provides customers with a natural way to connect. Technology, such as WhatsApp and Apple Business Chat, will prove to be driving forces behind many companies meeting customers where they already are – on their mobile phones. The emergence of these platforms is one of the reasons Mike Myer, Quiq CEO believes “messaging will become an imperative for companies to adopt messaging in 2018.”

Read the full Forbes article to learn more about how messaging will make customer service easier this year as well as Shep’s advice on using bots. If you’re ready to make customer service easier in your organization we’d love to show you a demo. Fill out this short form to get started.

Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with our friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can now engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App,and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. Learn more about Quiq today at quiq.com.

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Consumer Packaged Goods Face New Dawn of Retail

Posted on Mark Kowal

In the constantly evolving, sometimes frantic, world of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), there’s always constant pressure on product development to deliver innovation and products that create differentiation in the marketplace. In the past, winning shelf space, well merchandised end caps, and timely promotions were all it took to get in front of consumers.

Rapidly changing customer expectations, an ever-widening competitive landscape, and technology have changed that. There is a retail renaissance underway where consumers are using their mobile devices to explore a vast landscape of choices and expect 24/7 support. In this article, we’ll discuss how consumer brands can meet the expectations of the modern consumer with messaging.

Purchasing Power to the People

Consumer brands have long been in the driver’s seat, picking the location, times, and variety of products available to consumers, but there has been a shift in power from brands to consumers. Parking, long lines, and lack of variety have driven consumers to explore ways to weed out the disjointed, bulky, and disappointing aspects of shopping.

Consumers are buying more than ever. However, the way that they are buying has changed drastically over the last few years, and their mobile phones are at the center of their experience. Mobile stats show steady growth in the number of smartphone users who make purchases from their device or use their mobile phone while shopping at brick and mortar locations to look up a product review or compare prices.

A growing digital fluency has led to a higher expectation of immediacy and personalization in all aspects of shopping online and off. The product is still the bedrock of the CPG/customer relationship, but the foundation must also rest on the speed and convenience of information and engagement consumers have come to expect from every brand and every interaction in their lives.

Consumer Brands: Overly Focused on Product?

Recent Deloitte research revealed that the majority of brand leaders (60%) believe product quality or product uniqueness (15%) are the company’s unique value proposition. These numbers tell a story of brands that are stuck on product differentiation as the thing that will set them apart from their competitors and drive customer engagement and loyalty.

This belief is why you’ll likely see significant investments in R&D and marketing. Meanwhile, the customer experience is suffering. Research shows that most consumers aren’t struggling with shopping or paying for products. Consumers can quickly find a variety of choices at the scroll, tap, and swipe of their finger.

The most significant opportunity for customer experience improvement is at the top of the funnel with engagement and discovery (32%) and awareness and acquisition (24%).  These are the areas that Quiq clients are aligning technology in creative and efficient ways to optimize customer engagement and influence the consumers’ path to purchase through messaging.

Increase Share of Cart

Losing customers at the top of the funnel can be a really difficult to address. Consumers have more choices than ever before and if they have pre-sale questions about the product or your brand, you want to be able to address those questions in a fast and convenient way. Now, customers can text your existing landlines like they text their friends and family to get the answers that help brands increase conversion and share of cart.

Consumers are already shopping with their mobile phones in hand – comparing prices and looking at alternative products. Adding “Text Us” to your packaging can help those consumers who may need extra guidance on a purchase engage with your brand in an easy, convenient way when they need help the most. Messaging enables brands to have personal conversations with consumers and address their specific questions.

Maybe you don’t test on animals or use vegetable based inks and recycled paper on your blister cards. Perhaps you give a percentage of profits to a charity that connects with your audience. Packaging and in-store signage can only go so far to educate the consumer. Text messaging allows your brand to further tell your story, product benefits, and community involvement.

Quiq clients, like Direct Digital, decided to offer consumers the opportunity to reach them using messaging – text/SMS, Facebook Messenger, web chat, and IVR to text. This nutritional supplement brand found that when customers have questions about a product purchase, they can choose how they want to engage – at the moment of need – making it super easy to get answers quickly, thus converting them to purchase.

The Cure for Engagement Ails

Messaging is everywhere, instant, interactive, viral, and informative. What started off as a way to connect with family and friends has now crept its way into every aspect of our lives. People all over the world use messaging every day in their personal lives, and now, consumers are looking for the brands they trust to send and receive the messages that matter to them.

Messaging has helped clients like Direct Digital readily engage with consumers on the go, using the one thing they can’t seem to be without – their mobile device. Innovative brands like Direct Digital are using their accessibility at the top of the funnel as a competitive advantage to increase sales, engagement and brand loyalty.

From new product introductions to product recalls, consumer brands have good reason to want to use messaging as a way to quickly and conveniently engage with consumers. With a 98% open rate and a 30% response rate, messaging is more effective than email or phone calls.

Quiq Messaging enables two-way communications with customers via text messaging and can be used to promote new products and build brand awareness so brands can continue to strengthen the relationship as the consumer moves down through the purchase funnel. If your brand is ready to lead the new dawn of retail, contact us for a short demo.

Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with our friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can now engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App,and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. Learn more about Quiq today at quiq.com.

Getting Customer Support From Companies Will Be Easier In 2018

Posted on The Quiq Team

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, keynote speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal, bestselling author. Recently, Shep shared why he thinks some brands have decoded how to connect with their customers. Read the Forbes article to hear Shep Hyken’s recommendation on using messaging to increase customer satisfaction.

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Williams Plumbing: Reaching Customers in New Ways

Posted on Mike Zinne

Peak times, like severe winter weather and high volumes of emergency calls, had Williams looking for a way to better manage customer needs. They also wanted to allow dispatchers to handle more customer inquiries while maintaining their level of service.

Quiq Messaging has been the answer. Now customers can contact Williams via text, web chat, and Facebook Messenger—and they are happy about it. When a customer calls Williams, they are presented with the option to text instead. Mobile website visitors can simply press the “Text Us” button to start a conversation with Williams’ Service Team. And a website visitor can choose to simply start a chat conversation. Whichever messaging route a customer chooses, they can receive free service advice to try to resolve their problem. If the problem cannot be solved, they can simply schedule a technician – all via messaging.

“Allowing our customers to reach Williams via messaging has already proven to be successful and we are just starting. We are hitting our key call abandonment goals of 5-8%, which aligns directly to our ability to deliver a superior customer service experience.”

Quin Williams, CEO, Williams Plumbing & Heating Inc.

With a ‘text us’ button on the mobile website, chat on the desktop site, and Facebook Messenger also routed into Quiq Messaging, it’s easy for customers to reach Williams. It has even launched a TV commercial promoting this new communication channel for its customers. Customers must be catching on—the number of messaging conversations has increased 5X since launching Quiq. And even more, telling is the call abandonment rate has dropped from 12.92% down to 5-8% on any given day because customers are choosing to transfer to text messaging rather than waiting on hold.

Guy working on a part .            Pipes .          Bronze pipes

Easy for Their Employees

With Quiq’s simple user interface, dispatchers can manage text, web chat, and Facebook Messenger in one easy-to-use tool. All conversations are easily captured in the dispatching software, including any photos, maintaining a complete customer interaction history regardless of the channel. Dispatchers can manage multiple customers simultaneously and can get all of the answers before replying, providing a seamless customer experience. There are fewer voicemails to respond to each morning because customers are choosing to send a message, allowing dispatchers to quickly reply when arriving in the office.

Employees are also taking advantage of Quiq internally to message Human Resources with insurance and payroll questions for a quick response. And just because a technician may be on light duty due to medical issues, they will still be able to work by responding to customers’ questions via messaging.

About Quiq

Williams is changing the way construction projects are delivered. With offices across Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota, it specializes in providing quality plumbing, civil construction, HVAC, green energy, and consulting services for any size project. Superior service and collaboration have been a long-time staple for its business, setting it apart from its competition.

Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with our friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can now engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App, and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. Learn more about Quiq today at quiq.com.

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Credit Union Journal: Credit unions’ call center chatter turns to texting

Posted on Mike Zinne

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Call Center Chatter Turns to Texting

Across all demographics, consumers are adopting text messaging as the preferred way to communicate with businesses. Recently, the Credit Union Journal published “Credit Unions’ call center chatter turns to texting”, highlighting the surprising results that credit unions are realizing through messaging.

Credit Unions are engaging members on everything from branch hours to collection reminders. Read more to see why so many CU members are rapidly adopting messaging.

Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App, and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. In return, companies get a digital engagement platform to communicate with customers. Learn more about Quiq today at goquiq.com.

Quiq Customer Messaging Platform Video

Posted on Max Fortis

Quiq is a leading-edge customer messaging platform that makes it easy for customers to engage with brands on SMS/text, web chat, social, and more. But it’s not just about having more conversations. It’s about more engagement, that’s more efficient than an email, faster than a phone call, and accessible across mobile devices.

We help you do more with the resources you already have through asynchronous conversations. You can reduce customer service costs by enabling your agents to handle multiple, simultaneous conversations, and power your sales team to address customer questions with lightning speed to expedite purchases.

Customer Messaging Across Multiple Digital Channels

Wherever your customers prefer to engage with you, every message is managed in a simple, robust workspace. Help your employees be more productive with intelligent features like conversation rules, routing, and smart replies that move conversations toward a faster resolution.

Quiq’s customer messaging platform video gives you a closer look at the solution that companies like Overstock, Brinks Home Security, and Cyprus Credit Union trust to expand their digital customer service. These clients and many others have used Quiq’s easy integrations with Salesforce, Zendesk, Oracle Service Cloud, and others to upgrade their CRM.

Quiq’s Customer Messaging Platform and Chatbots

customer messaging platform video mobile and botsView the video to learn how chatbots are easily integrated into your customer messaging conversations. Quiq compliments your human agents, allowing them to focus on high-value interactions. Quiq is super flexible and works with native, custom, and third-party bots across all of your digital channels, collecting customer data, answering customer questions, and acting as an “always-on” agent.

Ready to see more? Request a short demo to see how to put messaging to work for you.

How Messaging Impacts Workforce Management

Posted on Max Fortis

So you’ve opened messaging as a customer service channel. Great! Still a little concerned about the impact messaging will have on your workforce management? Well, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of answering those workforce management questions like:

  • How many inbound messages should I expect to get?
  • How many agents will I need to manage the messaging channel?
  • When will I need to schedule agents for the messaging channel?

When you have messaging as a customer service channel, staffing your contact center shouldn’t feel like you’re riding a pendulum and swinging between service levels and agent occupancy. With messaging, you won’t be sacrificing the consistent delivery of excellent customer service because you have to keep your staffing costs in check.

As we discussed in an earlier post, you’ll be able to do a lot more with your existing staff through messaging. That includes decreasing workload while increasing customers satisfaction scores. In this post, we’ll explore what you can expect when staffing for the messaging channel.

The Workforce Management Challenge

Contact center leaders are always looking for ways to do more with what they have. Workforce Managers have to ensure the right number of resources are available for incoming customer inquiries – forecasting and scheduling just enough staff to cover expected volume, but not more than necessary to keep costs in check. This careful balance remains a constant challenge.

In addition to fluctuations in call load, back-office processes must be considered, not to mention employee training, vacation time, sick days, employee turnover, and changes in employee skills that come into play. Phew!

All of this, while ensuring that you provide a consistent customer experience: optimizing staff utilization, reducing wait times and trying to surprise and delight the customer while you’re at it. Forecasting and modeling help to rein in some of these variables. The key word here is  “variables”, which is what makes staffing so hard.

Let’s take a look at how Quiq Messaging has helped clients meet the workforce management challenge head-on.

The Numbers Game

While estimates of incoming customer inquiries will never be 100% accurate and you can’t control when customers call, you can have a substantial impact on average handle time (AHT) with Messaging. Traditionally, call centers have staffed based on the estimated call load, or the amount of agent time required to service the calls received.

Call Load = (Calls Offered x AHT) / Occupancy / 3600

  • Calls Load = The amount of agent time required to service the requests received
  • Calls Offered = The number of calls you expect to receive in a period (hour, day, week, or month)
  • AHT (in seconds) = Average handle time includes talk time, hold time, call prep, and call wrap
  • Occupancy = How busy an agent will be in a given period
  • 3600 = Number of seconds in an hour. It converts all of the seconds into hours

This equation will result in a pretty good indication of the number of staff hours needed. The wrong estimate to any of the variables in this equation can leave contact centers understaffed and customers frustrated at the level of service they’re receiving.

Typical Challenges with the Phone Channel for Customer Service include:

  • Call volumes can experience big swings during busy seasons

  • Events, such as new product releases or unforecasted events, can leave AHT all over the map
  • The ebbs and flows of calls can be so random that it’s often necessary to schedule more resources than necessary to ensure handling incoming calls correctly
  • With phone conversations, agents can only handle one phone call with one customer at a time, adding additional constraints to AHT and occupancy

How Messaging Improves Productivity for Customer Service:

Messaging can help smooth out some of the peaks and valleys of calls by deflecting as much as 15% – 20% of current inbound calls to messaging, which has proven to be far more efficient and cost-effective. Quiq clients realize as much as a 25%-40% reduction in work time because agents are able to quickly address those frequently asked questions that don’t necessarily require a phone call (think password reset process and hours of operations). Additional productivity is found in the higher concurrency of messaging. Unlike phone calls, messaging agents can address more than one message at a time.

This higher concurrency meant that clients had to rethink the call load metric. Since agents may engage with customers over an extended period with messaging, AHT can’t be measured as a linear event.

How Messaging Impacts Workforce Management

At Quiq we’ve developed a new metric to calculate Work Time for this new asynchronous channel that captures the intent of traditional handle time metrics while accounting for the nuances of the messaging channel. Keep in mind, messaging puts the customer in control of the conversation and allows them to engage with agents at their pace. Conversations can be two minutes, two hours, or span 2 days.

When an agent is engaged in a messaging support conversation, he or she might look up an order or do an inventory check. In either case, the work is ultimately represented by a message sent back to the customer.

Quiq Messaging’s analytics can show you how much actual work time conversations on the messaging channel take, as well as any peak times to be mindful of. The work time metric, data on agent performance, activity levels, and active conversations are the tools you’ll use to determine when and how to staff the messaging channel.

Here’s where you’ll see the biggest benefits:

  • Staffing Forecasts

Understanding the average work time requirement for customer interactions will allow you to staff appropriately as you direct more interactions to the messaging channel and as you anticipate busy periods.

  • Workforce Assessment

Work time can be used to evaluate individual agents or entire teams. Agents with the same responsibilities but disparate average work time metrics are indicative of under or over performing agents.

  • Agent Workload Tuning

Quiq allows you to configure the number of simultaneous conversations an agent may be assigned through a configuration known as the agent ‘soft limit’. The ideal number of simultaneous conversations varies by use case. Watching the average work time of your interactions, while adjusting the soft limit will allow you to identify the optimal configuration. If the work time increases significantly after an increase to the soft limit, you know that agent context switching is taking a toll on your customer interactions

The Best Defense

A great start to prep your workforce management process to account for the messaging channel is to gauge your current call volume. You can expect 15%-20% of customers will select messaging over making a phone call. Staffing and training can be accomplished with relatively little disruption to current workflows. Messaging is already a natural activity for everyone, so the training is minimal, but if you are using phone agents as messaging agents, be sure to test their writing skills.

Adding SMS/text messaging to your contact center does not have to add complexity to managing staff. In many ways, messaging will actually add efficiencies to make staffing easier. Quiq Messaging can help you reduce some of the uncertainty of workforce management through this asynchronous channel.

Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with our friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can now engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App, and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. Learn more about Quiq today at quiq.com.

How Messaging Impacts Contact Center Staffing

Posted on Michael Hartsog

You already have the agents with great attitudes, aptitude for learning, and passion for helping others. If you have these agents who are a great cultural fit with experience in the customer service field – you’ve hit the bonus round.

When it comes to messaging, you may be wondering which agents may be the best fit to staff your business messaging channel. In this article, we’ll discuss how Quiq’s clients have managed staffing for the messaging channel, and the surprises and lessons learned along the way.

Why Staffing For the Messaging Channel Is Different

The Skinny: The staff on your messaging channel will need to communicate a bit differently because customers have different expectations as compared to traditional channels.

  • The point of having a multi-channel strategy isn’t to force everybody to one channel, but to provide each customer with their preferred method to have a conversation with a company. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think about what your customer expectations are for each channel. Understanding where each customer is in terms of their product lifecycle, demographic, lifetime value or life event/status can help you determine where to focus the energy within your contact center.
  • For instance, if you’re a customer service center that provides complex and lengthy explanations of 401K options to Baby Boomers, you’re probably not hopping on Facebook and updating your Instagram stories too often. However, you still may want to use messaging to attract new generations of investors or to help those who may need some guidance on their first account. On the other hand, if you’re selling concert tickets, you’re customers are probably jumping on Facebook or trying to text you to buy the best seats.
  • Not only do your customers get to choose the channel they prefer, but multi-channel contact centers also allow you to align your personnel to their channel preference. This table will help you think through your customer’s preference for a particular channel and why it’s important that your agents are aligned appropriately:
    Channel Customer Motivators Agent Motivators
    Phone
    • Complex issue
    • May need to ask a lot of follow up questions
    • Wants someone to talk through the issue
    • Enjoys talking to people
    • Easily able to verbally relay the appropriate empathy
    • Finds the ebbs and flows of calls to be enjoyable
    Email
    • Has a non-urgent issue
    • Needs some form of documentation
    • Wants to share details
    • Likes to have more time to deal with issues
    • Believes that an email trail gives the customer more confidence
    • Likes to batch work and feels the influx of email is more predictable
    Chat
    • Doesn’t want or need to talk to anyone
    • Engages online regularly
    • Wants help right away
    • In a location not suitable for a phone call (i.e. too noisy, at work, etc.)
    • Comfortable using automation to reduce handle time
    • Able to communicate well with images and a few words
    • Capable of multi-tasking to keep multiple conversations moving
    • Enjoys a steady stream of work
    SMS
    • In a location not suitable for a phone call
    • Doesn’t want to be tied up in a phone tree or talking to someone
    • Busy, on-the-go

    While all of these channels may be available, once you implement messaging, you will see a decrease in phone and email volumes as customers shift to messaging. Most Quiq clients see 15-20% of calls deflected from the phone channel. Since the majority of your agents text message on a daily basis, it isn’t difficult to train them to handle messaging.

  • Next, let’s discuss three simple characteristics that make a messaging agent effective.

    Characteristics of an Ace Messaging Channel Agent

    Messaging is fun, agents like to do it, in fact, many of them will request to do it. Some Quiq clients even use messaging as a way to reward agents. You can use the messaging channel as a promotion from handling phone calls and emails.

    While most people text on a daily basis, including your agents and your customers, that doesn’t mean that every agent will be able to handle multiple messages within the desired time.

    Here are a few things to look for in a messaging agent:

    1. Great multi-tasker

    • Messaging requires agents to work concurrently on multiple conversations, so you have to be sure that your agents are comfortable with this kind of workflow. Just because some employees are mobile and social geniuses, they might not be the best agents for handling simultaneous activities, so you need to have the right training in place to ensure a consistent service experience.

    2. Clear and concise writer

    • There are reasons why you should limit your SMS and text messages to less than 160 characters. The core idea is that these messages should be short and to the point given customers are using a mobile device. If your customers want to read or send something longer, they’ll likely use email.

    3. Not afraid of cross-sell and upsell opportunities

    • Customers that use messaging are engaged and most likely to be happy with this channel, unlike a customer who has been sitting on hold or waiting for an email response. Messaging-enabled agents should not be afraid to offer additional value to these customers who are more approachable and receptive.

    The Productivity Hacking Tool

    Agents want to use Quiq Messaging because of the ease of use and productivity gains. Some Quiq clients even look back at their initial hesitation to add messaging as a channel and wonder why they didn’t adopt messaging sooner #SMH.

    Staffing and workload improvements have made messaging a home run for a more productive contact center:

    • Quiq clients have seen work time reductions by as much as 25 – 40% with text messaging versus other channels.
    • Messaging agents can handle 6-8 conversations at a time, as compared to 1 phone call.
    • Messages come in at a more steady rate since consumers are able to shoot off a quick message at any time during the day.
    • With Quiq, messages are prioritized based on the customers level of activity or interaction with the agent, so the agent never has to worry about who they should engage with next.
    • Quiq clients are realizing a 5-7 ppt increase in customer satisfaction rates over the messaging channel, higher than any other channel.

    Messaging is an easy, convenient channel that’s a real time-saver – and everyone wants to keep it that way. An agent who can blend speed and issue resolution, for both simple and complex cases, is perfect for the messaging channel and will help you fully realize efficiencies.

    Let Quiq get you started on messaging. Request a demo today.

    Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with our friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can now engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App, and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. Learn more about Quiq today at quiq.com.

Megan Weller can #codelikeagirl | Women’s Month 2018

Posted on Lauren Winder

Quiq’s Very Own Megan Weller

Megan Weller, a front-end software engineer at Quiq, is born and raised in Billings, Montana. When Megan isn’t crushing code, she’s working creative magic in other pursuits. This Women’s Month, get to know this talented developer who isn’t afraid to #codelikeagirl.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself, and when you discovered a love of tech.

I discovered my love for tech at a young age. I was always naturally inclined to technology and soon became the go-to for tech support in my family. Although I did start my college career in graphic design, I took a web design class and discovered that I liked the coding part even more than the design part. The core reasons why I wanted a career in tech is that I enjoy problem-solving, design, and creating.

I like to think that I have a pretty creative eye when it comes to design and structure. As side hobbies, I enjoy calligraphy, interior design, woodworking, and designing invitations for my friend’s weddings and bridal showers. I’m creating something out of nothing with these tools that I have.

I think coding goes hand in hand with creativity. You have a blank slate and there are so many possibilities on what to create, how you’re going to do, and how it will be built. There will always be problem needed to solved and I do love a good puzzle. I never knew what I wanted to be when I was growing up, but when I realized that software engineering was a strong possibility, it felt like something just clicked and I knew it was right for me.

Q: What do you love about technology and what developments are you most excited about?

One thing I love about technology is that we are creating simple solutions to problems people didn’t know they had. Making applications and solutions to make life easier and more convenient. Take Quiq for an example, I could call the customer service hotline at a company but then I’m on hold for maybe 30 minutes and transferred several times. But texting a customer service number, and conversing that way is more convenient for me because it’s on my time and makes whatever problem I have so much easier to resolve.

Q: What are the skills or career paths that may be exciting prospects for women now and in the future?

I think this year and the past few months have made this day more important than ever. Women are rising up in the workplace and demanding equality. While I was in school and now as an alumnus, I attended events and groups dedicated to women in tech and engineering. I’ve heard speeches from trailblazing women like Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, Susan Wojcicki, CEO of Youtube, and MSU alumni like Jean Sweeney, a VP at 3M, and many more. All women had one common advice, which was to work hard and have ambition. There are some gender obstacles in the way, but they will not be the deciding factor. A career in tech is extremely rewarding and I’m happy I made my decision to get a degree in Computer Science. I’m excited to see where my career takes me and the changes made in the tech industry, where we one day will have gender equality. As Sheryl Sandberg put it, “In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders”.

Hospitality Technology: Ski Resort Uses Text Messaging to Interact with Guests

Posted on Mike Zinne

Jackson Hole uses messaging to interact with guests.

Hospitality Technology highlights how Jackson Hole Mountain Resorts uses messaging to interact with guests. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has only been using messaging since February 2017 but has seen dramatic results.

Jackson Hole rolled out Quiq’s messaging solution and live chat platform for its customers. This easy implementation expanded its customer service channels and gave customers more ways to reach the resort whenever and however they want.

The implementation was fast and the results have been incredible. See how this resort is blazing new trails in the travel and hospitality industry with innovative new ways to serve their customers.

Quiq Celebrates #womenthatcode for Women’s Month – Q&A with Gretchen Dickie

Posted on The Quiq Team

Adjusting to growth can be challenging and change can be hard for some people, but Gretchen Dickie, Senior Quality Assurance Engineer makes it look easy. From major career moves to the frequent and fast-paced changes in technology, Gretchen has been able to identify and seize opportunities that have helped her move forward as a one of many #womenthatcode.

As part of our International Women’s Day series, we invite you to get to know a bit more about the women at Quiq who are helping to move technology forward. We’re proud of the talent we have at Quiq and are excited to share the stories of the women that are helping to make this company a leading software for text messaging for business.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself, and when you discovered a love of tech

The elegant logic of science and math has always fascinated me and led me to BS degrees in Medical Technology and Microbiology. It also led to a cross-country move from Wisconsin to a job as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist in a small hospital in the mountains of Montana. After being lucky enough to take some time away from my career to spend the early years of my son’s & daughter’s lives at home with them, I decided to return to school to pursue a new career path.

Technology professions were barely on anyone’s radar the first time I was in college but now offered seemingly endless possibilities. An MS in Computer Science exposed me to a new world of software design, theory, programming and problem-solving, and bonus – I got to take more math classes! After finishing my Master’s I joined RightNow Technologies (later acquired by Oracle), and held positions of Support Specialist, Business Systems Analyst, and Quality Assurance Engineer.

I’m now Sr. QA Engineer with Quiq, where I’m continuing to pursue my passion for contributing to the creation of software that can actually make people’s lives a little less frustrating.

Q: What do you love about technology and what developments are you most excited about?

What do I love about technology?  Each day brings new challenges & opportunities that allow me to continue learning – no matter what your age is, there’s something new to learn every day.  I enjoy everything that goes into releasing software – witnessing the innovation and ideas the team comes up with every day, contributing to design decisions, implementation, testing, and seeing the outcome of all the hard work in the product we release to our customers.  Things move fast here and are always changing – tech careers are never boring!

#womenthatcode

Q: What are the skills or career paths that may be exciting prospects for women now and in the future?

My path to a technology career was a long journey with lots of turns, but it’s proof that the possibilities are endless if you decide to take that path – and the exciting thing is, even after you get to your destination, there may be surprises.  After getting a CS degree I fully expected to pursue a career as a software engineer, but along the way, I discovered that I loved other aspects of this profession more than coding.

There are so many options available in this industry that no one should limit themselves to a narrow view of what technology professions look like.

Credit Union Journal (Press Release): Quiq Adds Eight Major Credit Unions, Accelerating Financial Sector Momentum

Posted on Lauren Winder

Quiq Adds Eight Major Credit Unions, Accelerating Financial Sector Momentum

Offering Messaging Attracts Millennial Customers,
Improves Customer Satisfaction, and Decreases Costs

BOZEMAN, Mont., March 06, 2018 — Quiq, a leading provider of messaging for customer service software, today announced that the company has added eight credit unions to its customer base, which signals strong momentum in the financial sector for the fast-growing firm. Combined, the eight credit union clients now give more than 720,000 members a messaging option to handle customer service issues, which improves member satisfaction, increases response rates, and lowers costs.

Quiq’s credit union clients include Alabama One Credit Union in Tuscaloosa, AL; the Educational Employees Credit Union (EECU) in Fort Worth, TX; Ent Credit Union in Colorado Springs, CO; GenFed Financial Credit Union in Akron, OH; Red Rocks Credit Union in Highlands Ranch, CO; Land of Lincoln Credit Union in Decatur, IL; Pima Federal Credit Union in Tucson, AZ, and Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union in Lakewood, NY. Shaa Moore, System Administrator at Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union, credits the addition of Quiq’s customer service messaging solution with an uptick in membership:

“We’re attracting the younger generation with a modern communication channel,” Moore observed. “Members think it’s ‘cool’ and tell their friends about it. Our member response time has gone from 10 minutes or more by phone to 1 minute via inbound text messaging. Now, our members are more likely to contact us because we’ve made it easy. We’ve also used outbound messaging to remind members of past-due payments. On one day alone, we received 32 payments. Past-due collections calls typically generate a 1 to 5 percent response. Thanks to outbound text messaging with Quiq, our collections recoveries have increased over 75 percent. This was unexpected and amazing.”

“We decided to add a messaging option because that’s how our members communicate with their friends and families, and we felt that many would want to use the same channel to talk to their credit union,” said Jason Halperin, Chief Lending Officer at Alabama One Credit Union, who is currently implementing Quiq. “Our goal is to increase digital engagement with our members across the board, while appealing to millennials, who clearly prefer to use messaging. Use of SMS is associated with higher response rates, which we hope will reduce delinquencies and aid in collections, and we’re also hoping to see an increase in loan pull-through rates and velocity.”

Quiq’s messaging solution presents messaging conversations to agents and if an agent is handling multiple conversations simultaneously, Quiq automatically prioritizes the conversations based on the pace and responsiveness of the member, so the agent can ensure timely responses and high member satisfaction.  Quiq’s Messaging also offers more sophisticated features including inbound and outbound messaging, routing, queuing, transferring, and collaboration on a single, omni-channel platform that can handle SMS/text messaging, web chat, and Facebook Messenger. This eliminates the need to log into multiple platforms to manage member conversations, which enhances agent productivity. Finally, Quiq delivers comprehensive reporting and analytics from all the messaging channels to support continuous improvement of the member experience.

“Members increasingly expect to be able to message financial institutions like they do companies in other industries,” said Mike Myer, CEO and founder of Quiq. “We’re excited to work with our credit union clients to help them improve response rates through digital engagement. With Quiq, credit unions work more efficiently on a single platform that encompasses multiple digital communication channels, while giving customers the messaging options they expect.”

To learn more, please visit quiq.com or contact the company via text at (646) 887-8398.

About Quiq

Our mission is to improve the way customers communicate with companies. Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can now engage customer service via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, and Kik, for help with their pre-sales questions and post-sales support. Find out more at https://quiq.com/.

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Quiq Celebrates International Women’s Day – Q&A with CMO, Dani Wanderer

Posted on The Quiq Team

Quiq Supports International Women’s Day

Quiq is proud to support International Women’s Day by highlighting three of our own Quiqsters who are helping to move technology forward. Our first profile is our very own CMO, Dani Wanderer. Dani has been working for tech companies for over 25 years. She’s helping move technology forward by supporting and mentoring incredible women to pursue their dreams, fight for what they want, and provide opportunities to help them succeed.  Aside from being a mom of two and avid hiker, Dani is the only Bozeman-based board member for Make-A-Wish, and working to make lives better for critically ill children.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself, and when you discovered a love of tech

I didn’t start off with a love of tech. I started off with a passion for languages and studied French, German, Spanish, and Latin in high school. At the time, I wanted a foreign language to be part of my job but knew that just majoring in a language in college was not going to result in a high-paying job. I decided to add a business to my degree and pursue international business, and as I entered college, I selected German over the other languages I had studied. This was primarily due to the fact that the Berlin Wall was coming down during that time and I thought there would be a great opportunity to live abroad and work in a German business after graduation.

“Sometimes the path you plan to take has some roadblocks and other paths open up.”

Sometimes the path you plan to take has some roadblocks and other paths open up. I had planned to attend Thunderbird for my masters and thus had selected Arizona State University for my undergraduate school. My mom and I visited the ASU campus and after seeing the campus and meeting the counselor, that it was clearly not the place for me. Being a planner and hater of change, not to mention a teenager, I was devastated. My mom, bless her, decided to drive me down to Tucson to see the University of Arizona. Despite being a very reluctant and negative participant on this detour, the first person I met there actually asked me what I was interested in doing and where I saw myself after graduation. Those questions revealed a whole new opportunity that was just perfect for me. U of A had just launched what they called a 3/2 program, which was a 5-year program where participants would receive a liberal arts degree in 3 years and a masters in 2 years. I was one of the first people to take on that challenge – keep in mind it can take some undergraduates 5 years to get one degree and I was going to have to buckle down to get 2 degrees in 5 years. The upside benefits were that I could still get a degree in a language and also end up with a masters degree in finance, but also, as an out-of-state, working student, I could minimize the years of tuition and student loans.

So, how did I discover my love for tech? It came when I was recruited out of the U of A for a job with Hewlett Packard. Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska did not afford me much exposure to tech, not to mention I grew up with more “blue-collar” than white. Hewlett Packard was under the leadership of John Young and then Lew Platt, so the HP Way was very alive and well. That is where I discovered and fell in love with tech.

Q: What do you love about technology and what developments are you most excited about?

What do I love about tech companies?
– the speed at which they move
– the constant change and continual innovation across every single team, not just product/engineering
– addressing new and different challenges every day
– the energy of the culture and people

Q: What are the skills or career paths that may be exciting prospects for women now and in the future?

I believe that we should continue to encourage women in business, supporting their path to senior leadership, and becoming a CEO is still a huge opportunity. There are still only 27 female CEOs in the Fortune 500–that is 5%!!! Encouraging women to go into business and work their way up through the ranks and grow their skills must still be a priority.

How Messaging Fits Into The Call Center

Posted on Michael Hartsog

Are your customers antagonized by a complex IVR menu maze? Do they get frustrated and press zero to talk to a live person, shout “agent, agent, agent”, or hang up before they resolve their issue? You’re not alone. Although IVR has been viewed as a pillar of customer self-service for a long time, most people have a strong aversion to using them.

IVR systems have received a lot of scrutiny as consumers, especially Millennials, have become increasingly more self-reliant and mobile. Advocates and critics have predicted the rise and fall of IVR for decades. Maybe it’s time we start to think of a different outcome – one that isn’t a total win or lose game for IVR.

In this post, we’ll discuss how IVR must evolve in order to stay relevant in today’s mobile world. We’ve identified three things that must be brought into the IVR experience.

Omni-Channel

Consumers live across many devices. Laptops, smartphones, and tablets are the screens that manage our lives day in and day out. Whether it’s staying in touch with our family or friends or staying on top of current news, we are digitally connected and dependent. From tracking our diets to tracking packages, there is an expectation of immediacy and availability of information and support that spans channels.

These expectations don’t stop once a customer picks up the phone to call a company. In fact, this is where those expectations can turn into impatience and frustration.  In fact, 93% of customers using a call center channel want one call resolution (OCR).

However, many customers hang up before they even speak to anyone.  Call abandonment rates can average anywhere from 10% – 15% depending on the industry. For those calls that do engage an agent, OCR is at a 72% industry average, which means 28% of customers have to call back one or many times to reach a resolution.

These stats tell us that anywhere from 38% – 43% of customers picking up the phone for customer service are not getting the level of service they want and expect. We believe IVRs will have to present customers with channel options, other than just voice so customers can find more convenient paths to issue resolution.

This is exactly the reason a lot of Quiq clients have looked at messaging as a way to honor the needs of the digitally connected customer. These clients are enabling asynchronous messaging over SMS, social, and the web. Quiq Messaging integrates directly into an existing IVR and enables existing landlines to send and receive text messages.

Personal

IVR’s are notoriously robotic, confusing, and impersonal. Future IVR’s may find ways to change that with advances in voice recognition and by making menu options more visual. The use of visual communications is on a rise throughout all media consumed because it helps relay information faster and with a more clear and more consistent delivery.

For instance, Quiq clients have found that customers are engaging heavily through mobile devices. The majority feel right at home attaching documents, emojis, gifs, videos, and photos to bring more context to their specific situation. Agents who use Quiq Messaging are often encouraged to use visual content such as emojis to make conversations with customers feel more like the conversations they have with friends and family.

Quiq clients are also adopting messaging as a way to make conversations feel more human by adapting to the customer’s speed and pace of interaction. Quiq’s Adaptive Response Timer automatically prioritizes conversations for agents based on the customer’s engagement pace to give each customer a more tailored experience.

Mobile

Calls get missed or dropped. Customers get busy and have to abandon conversations. Future IVRs will have to be more accommodating to the lives of busy customers who don’t want to shout “representative” or “agent” repeatedly into the phone while in noisy environments or sit through confusing menus only to be put on hold.

Instead of having customers wait on hold, Quiq clients are able to provide customers the option, within the IVR, to have the next available agent text them. By deflecting calls to messaging, our clients are able to give customers a more preferred option to engage. By deflecting calls to messaging, our clients are able to give customers a more preferred option to engage, while reducing workload ~25 to ~40%.

Research shows that 71% of consumers find text messaging to be an extremely or very effective Consumer-to-Business (C2B) communication channel (Customer Preference for Messaging). Customers appreciate having the option to address their issues over the channel that is most convenient for them.

With asynchronous communications such as text messaging, conversations can take place over a time period that fits the customer’s pace, so even if your customer has to walk away from a conversation or gets disconnected, conversations pick up right where they left off.

IVR still remains one of the leading entry points for consumers to engage with companies. However, it’s also the costliest way for companies to interact with their customers and the most inconvenient way for customers to engage. Quiq Messaging allows you to deliver a personal, mobile, omnichannel experience – easily integrating within your current IVR. If you’re ready to bring your IVR into the future, request a demo today.

Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with our friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can now engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App, and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. Learn more about Quiq today at quiq.com.

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3 Ways Messaging Can Improve Pull-through Rates

Posted on Max Fortis

Time is money. Truer words have never been spoken, especially when it comes to loan closings and improving pull-through rates, a key metric for success of any lending institution. Unfortunately, when most people think of loan applications, words like “long,” “drawn-out” and “inefficient “ are words that may readily spring to mind.

A lot of lenders are looking at technology as a way to change this perception of the process and taking a closer look at messaging. With so many people using messaging as a daily communication tool, it’s easy to see why 66% of consumers prefer texting as a way to engage with companies. Messaging is helping lenders deliver faster, more convenient service to borrowers through messaging while reaping the benefits of this preferred, more cost-effective,  method of communication.  Let’s take a look at why messaging has become so crucial within the lending industry.

Improve Pull-through Rates with Messaging

It has been a seller’s market since the housing recovery began.  A shortage of inventory has left a lot of buyers competing aggressively for homes. This inventory strapped, competitive market has lengthened the home-buying timeline to account for buyers losing bids to other, highly motivated, buyers. Still, lenders have seen around 40% of the loan applications they receive go to closing.

40% may seem like a respectable number, but examining the hard costs involved in each transaction may make you reconsider. It costs on average about $8,000 of hard costs to move people from loan application to closing and pre-approval processing can account for up to $2,000 of those hard costs. When you think of the 6 out of 10 people who never close, the amount of money that walks out the door with them quickly adds up. It’s easy to see why improving pull-through rates can substantially impact the bottom line.

Let’s look at three ways messaging can help improve pull-through rates.

1. Gain buyer loyalty

Industry research indicates that homebuyers may expect to wait two weeks for a loan pre-approval, at least 30 – 60 days just to find a home and an average of 40-50 days to close a loan after their offer is accepted. One often overlooked risk that some lenders have found of this lengthy sales cycle is that it opens the door for other lenders to lure borrowers away, putting the 40% closing rate further at risk.

Staying engaged with borrowers throughout this long, complicated process can help alleviate the need to shop around for other lending options. Assisting lenders in becoming the trusted advisors that home buyers need and want throughout the buying process can solidify the borrower’s trust in the lender and cement the relationship.

First time home buyers and millennials may need extra care, and attention and messaging is key to reaching these buyers. Millennials tend not to be as brand loyal as other generations so if they feel they’re not getting the information they want as quickly as they want it, they won’t hesitate to find another lender who’s willing to provide it.

2. Expedite the transmission of information

A lot of first time home buyers are surprised at how long the process can take and what is involved. According to the National Association of Realtors Millennials and Gen-Y (Buyers 36 and younger) make up the most significant share of home buyers, and 66% of these buyers are also first-time home buyers so their communication preferences can’t go ignored.

Delays in Income verifications, credit pulls, and other documentation can substantially delay a closing. Messaging greases the communication wheel with buyers to help move the process along. Unlike phone calls that go unanswered or emails that can get caught in spam filters or fall too far in an inbox to get urgent attention, borrowers receive messages directly to their phones and read them within three minutes of receipt.

The new generation of borrowers prefer text messages over calls and emails and will be more likely to open a text message vs. answering a phone number that’s not familiar to them. Messaging has a 98% open rate and 30% response rate which means borrowers can easily see and address important notifications and requests. Sending requests for documentation, or asking questions via messaging ensures a more frictionless closing process.

3. Gain More Referrals and Repeat Business

The average homeowner will move or refinance every 5 – 7 years. Delivering an outstanding loan experience can generate more advocacy and retention for future business. Messaging helps lenders deliver that first excellent experience by improving communication, managing expectations and enabling a faster means for two-way communication between lender and borrower.

Messaging can also help lenders stay top of mind with these buyers. Quiq clients frequently use outbound messaging as a way to keep in touch with clients and lenders have plenty of opportunities to provide customers with quick reminders and messages to keep the relationship going:

  • a message on their birthday or anniversary
  • market updates as they near the time they may be considering downsizing
  • or a quick reminder that their home equity can assist in paying for their kid’s college education.

Communication is crucial to setting and managing expectations, especially among new home buyers and Millennials who may seek more guidance during the process. Communication that is fast and convenient is critically important to these buyers, which is why text messaging has become such a highly preferred method of communication with lenders.

An investment in technology is no longer a process improvement but a competitive necessity for lending institutions. Quiq Messaging is helping lenders connect with borrowers in a convenient, preferred way through mobile, web, and social messaging. If your institution is ready to improve your pull-through rates, request a demo.

Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with our friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can now engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App,and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. Learn more about Quiq today at quiq.com.

Direct Digital: Augmenting Customer Service With Multi-Channel Messaging

Posted on The Quiq Team

Giving customers choices and standing out from the competition—that’s what Direct Digital wanted. Their customer service department always strives to deliver excellent service. However, using the traditional communication channels, such as phone and email, just wasn’t enough.

“From a manager’s perspective I really like how I can help my agents respond to customers when needed by using the collaboration functionality in Quiq. It’s super easy to use and we can ensure customers get their questions answered correctly and quickly.”

Lauren Adcock, Senior Manager of Customer Service

They decided to offer customers the opportunity to reach them using messaging – text/SMS, Facebook Messenger, web chat, and IVR to text. Wanting to make it even easier and more convenient for customers to contact Direct Digital, and offering a more comfortable way to ‘talk’ to agents, they chose Quiq.

Now, with Quiq Messaging, Direct Digital is supporting three of their major brands, Instaflex, Nugenix, and Peptiva with multi-channel messaging—text, web chat, and Facebook Messenger. When customers have product inquires, questions about returns, or shipping questions, they can reach Direct Digital’s experienced contact center by using one of these messaging channels. When customers have questions about a product purchase, they can choose how they want to engage, making it super easy to get answers quickly. Customers go away happy and healthy, getting their questions answered in just a few minutes.

Easy for Agents and Managers

Since Quiq is so intuitive, all of Direct Digital’s in-house contact center agents are trained to manage these messaging conversations, along with email and phone calls. They can shift between whichever channel they need to, allowing for equal distribution of inquiries, regardless of brand. The contact center does not skip a beat when in-house agents are out. As the business has grown, Direct Digital’s outsourced agents pick up the overflow messages to ensure customers are responded to quickly, especially during weekends.

When managing over 1,000 message conversations monthly, the majority of them via text, Direct Digital appreciates the ability to use pre-built responses to easily train new agents and allow agents to quickly respond to customers with commonly asked questions. Managers like the opportunity to assist agents when responding to customers using the collaboration functionality offered by Quiq, which ensures customers aren’t put on hold.

The Future is Bright

This is just the start for Direct Digital. They plan to expand the use of messaging to other sections of their brand websites. You will soon see messaging available on its various ecommerce sites and check-out pages to allow customers to ask questions during these critical interaction points. As its contact center continues to grow, Direct Digital will look to use routing rules in order to get the right messages to the right agents throughout the day.

About Direct Digital LLC

Direct Digital LLC develops and markets wellness and nutritional supplements in North America and internationally. The company distributes its products direct-to-consumers and through major retailers.

Quiq

Quiq makes it easy for customers to contact a business via Messaging, the preferred channel already in use with our friends and family.  With Quiq, customers can now engage with companies via SMS/text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Web Chat, In-App,and Kik for help with their pre-sales and post-sales questions. Learn more about Quiq today at quiq.com.

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