How Instant Messaging Fosters Stronger Customer Relationships and Drives Sales

With the growth of the speed of communication in the digital age, instant messaging (IM) has become a key effective means to reach customers and boost sales for modern businesses. Due to features such as real-time connectivity, the use of IM provides consumers with personalized experience, which cannot be disclosed in conventional communication method. 

In this article, we will discuss the effect of instant messaging on customer relations and sales, possibility & approaches and useful advices to enhance results.

Customer Communication – Its Evolution

The relationship between business and customer has drastically changes over the years, particularly the mode of communication. Traditional modes of customer communication include phone calls, SMS and emails while advances in the communications technology have led to availability of more communication avenues than before. 

However, instant messaging is perceived as the most revolutionary, as it provides companies with the opportunity to communicate with customers directly in a matter of minutes regardless of the distance.

Instant Messaging: A New Form of Communication

Instant messaging dates its origin from the early use of the internet and was not popular among businesses until recently. Instant messaging applications are now intrinsic platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat, with over billions of active users. These platforms have not only changed the way individuals communicate with each other but also how companies communicate with their customers.

The Advantages Offered by Real-Time Messaging

This is perhaps one of the most important benefits of instant messaging as it enables instant communication to take place. Instant messaging also allows business organisations to interact with their customers unlike with cold emails where the responses can sometimes take time. 

This immediacy is particularly important in the modern world as customers demand and deserve instant attention and resolution. Instant messaging can used to respond to customer inquiries, solve their problems, or provide the required information in real-time, which may also improve the overall experience of a customer.

Building Stronger Customer Relationships

It is widely said that relations with customers are the cornerstone to any business organization. Loyal customers are the customers who are always coming back to the business, they refer friends and family to the business. These relationships are further vital for business growth because instant messaging can provide enhanced, friendly, and efficient clients relations service.

Personalisation and Customisation

A key advantage of the use of instant messaging is the opportunity to address the client or at least the company individually. This way, using data and customer details, one organization can be in a position to send out a message that echoes with the recipient. From referencing and calling the customer by their name, recommending a specific product to wishing the customer on their birthday, personalisation fosters relation.

Enhanced Customer Support

Of all the existing communication approaches, instant messaging is without doubt a turning point in customer support. It avails clients an opportunity to contact the organizations with their queries or complains. Also, it can be utilized to deliver proactive help, for example, notes, updates or follow-ups from businesses to their consumers. This level of support not only resolves an issue as a complaint and offer an effective solution but also shows the customer that the business actually cares.

Building Trust and Transparency

Customer trust can be said of as being one of the most important constituents of any customer relationship. Instant messaging is effective in building trust due to the ability that allows the communicators to be as open and candid as possible. 

Consumers like to be attended to without any delay, and the information given is credible without any intentions of deceiving the consumer. By using the instant messaging, companies can provide customers with the updates on order status, delivery, or possible delays - such actions increase the level of trust to the business.

Driving Sales Through Instant Messaging

One of the ways which many firms have formulated to unlock the power of instant messaging for sales purposes is discussed in this paper.

Although customer relationships are important to develop, for business profitability relationships mean sales. Instant messaging in particular presents several approaches in undertaking this task, right from lead generation to the point of sale and even afterward.

Lead Generation and Qualification

Instant messaging can be an effective way for lead generation work. Courses, companies can embrace instant messaging widgets on their websites or profile interfaces hence communicating with interested user who is also perusing their catalog. These interactions allow the opportunity of lead qualifying on the fly, asking questions and edging the potential buyer down the funnel.

Streamlining the Sales Process

Instant messaging can go far in easing sales to some extent. Through the direct selling exclusion of one-to-one selling, crier selling or instant messaging, the sales representatives can be of assistance to the customer by providing him or her with the necessary product information, clarifying any questions or doubts the customer might possess and generally help the customer overcome any hitch in his or her purchase process. 

Further, by applying instant messaging, customers can be notified about the possibility to complete the shopping by purchasing the goods in the cart, or can be offered a discount or other benefits in case they will not complete the purchase. Instant messaging is interactive; customers do not need to drag out time to get to a decision on what to buy.

Post-Purchase Engagement

Working with a client is not a one-time occurrence where the sale is closed and that is the end of the customer contact. Customer follow-up is important in ensuring that he or she remains a customer to the business in the long run. Instant messaging makes it easy for firms to communicate with the clients, chase them to provide feedback regarding the product they bought from the business, and extend some assistance where necessary. 

Such constant interaction is useful in reminding customers of the brand, and making them consider the brand the next time they are in the market for a similar product.

Guidelines for the Use of Instant Messaging

However, for firms to be able to get maximum advantages out of the use of instant messaging, it has to be done systematically. Here are some best practices to consider:

Choose the Right Platforms

It is therefore important to note that not all instant messaging platforms are the same. The networks to be adopted by businesses should be those within the demographic groups of the target customers as well as those most suited to the intended forms of communication. 

For instance, WhatsApp could possibly get an organization closer to a market audience in another country as compared to Facebook Messenger which could be more favorable for businesses that are targeting the youth.

Ensure Responsiveness

The effectiveness of instant messaging therefore widely depends on how responsive one has to be. Customers want responses immediately, and receiving responses the next day may be seen as an unwelcome event. 

There is the need for companies to have the capability and tools to reply to the messages swiftly. This may mean premising professional responses to frequently asked questions, or employing staff in charge of customers’ messages.

Maintain a Professional Tone

Instant messaging is usually regarded as an informal form of communication; nevertheless, organizations should avoid using informal language. This doesn’t have to refer to a stiff ‘business-like’ approach, but rather can mean courteous, unambiguous language when speaking and writing. The idea essentially is that the perceived accessibility of the brand should neither be exploited to where professionalism of the firm is compromised.

Monitor and Analyse Performance

As with any branch of Internet marketing, instant messaging should be managed carefully, and its effectiveness should be analysed after it has been implemented. Measurable parameters that include response time, customer satisfaction and conversion rates should be measured. This data can then help them see a pattern on what really is effective and not, and just like any other strategy, it can be fine tuned for better outcomes in the future.

Conclusion

Instant messaging is not only a means of communication, but it is a key to customer interaction and sales. The use of IM in business communication allows companies to reach out to their customers directly and create a feeling of familiarity and closeness thus improving the total store image and in the process encouraging customer patronage. 

In the future, more and more companies are likely to integrate instant messaging into their customer interaction system, meaning that those company that have adopted the system will be likely to benefit in the future.