You may be wondering what conversational commerce is and why it is such a big deal.
Gone are the days where customers needed to, and were satisfied with dialing numbers and having to compose an email for customer experience. Customers now choose brands that go the extra mile in making customer experience personalized and efficient through making communication as easy and effortless as possible.
In this article, I will be sharing a few things with you so you know what conversational commerce is and how it actually works.
What is Conversational Commerce?
Conversational commerce is a term that was first used by Chris Messina in 2016, and within a few years, it became a fundamental strategy for sales increment and customer loyalty in eCommerce.
Conversational commerce can be described as a system of direct communication between a brand or business and it’s customers which takes place via digital messages which are shared on platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Viber or Alexa de Amazon. These communications trigger online purchases.
How Does Conversational Commerce Work?
Those who engage conversational commerce, use some indices like event triggers, knowing their customers and their spending habits, as well as carrying out a constant review and analysis of their own site’s analytics to better gauge the market environment.
It involves the use of devices to engage with customers, and spans beyond that to offer a better, more personalized user experience.
Currently, customers do not see the need to waste time on an automated phone menu or even mailing business and having to wait for a reply. Thus brands invest in making customer support as fast and authentic as possible to better attract these customers and set themselves apart from those who rely on the traditional methods of slow and archaic mediums of communicating with customers.
Why is Conversational Commerce Important?
The current importance of conversational commerce cannot be played down on. This importance has necessitated the rise in several platforms that have introduced their own features that heralds the rise of conversational commerce. These platforms include Facebook Messenger Bots WhatsApp Business as well as new customer service additions to Twitter.
Now let’s analyze these:
Facebook Messenger, now boasts of over two billion conversations between customers and businesses.
It has been reported that 40% of millennials say they use voice-enabled digital assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home to research products online before making a purchase.
If a customer tweets as a business, and gets a response, they are more willing to spend 3-20% more on an average priced item from that business in the future.
Another reason why conversational commerce is important is when you present on messaging platforms, you will naturally be where your customers are. This is because messaging app usage has surpassed that of social network usage, thus when you reach out to customers through an app platform with an ad, they are more likely to view it as compared to a standard Facebook ad.
Apart from using conversational commerce to make a sale, you can also use it to get more complete information about your potential customers. With this information, you can create targeted marketing campaigns that include high-converting personalization techniques like including your lead’s name location or recommending a product they’ll probably like.
You can choose to build a customer base and delight your customers through any of the apps like chatbot on Messenger, having a dedicated team to handle customers issues on Twitter, or accepting orders through text message and wave goodbye to obsolete mailing and calling methods to better engage your customers.
