Is social media instant messaging better for customer service?

There is no doubt that social media has completely changed the way we communicate as a society. 200 years ago, we were communicating via morse code to send very short bursts of key information, and these would be routed through a telegraph office, and then posted or hand delivered. Today, we can communicate instantly with someone on the other side of the world in real time, through text, voice or video, from a six inch mobile device in our hand. We have even taken communication one step beyond one-on-one with social networks, connecting billions of people around the world, in one place. That is absolutely fascinating. Alexander Bell and our telecommunications forefathers would have been very impressed with where we have taken communication and technology.

Technological evolution on this scale means change in a big way for businesses. The transition is now referred to as digital transformation, and includes all forms of digital change, such as software, data storage, and communication technology. Every aspect of business is affected by technological advancement, and businesses need to keep up with changes gradually, as should they wait too long, they will either have to completely overhaul all their systems and processes to become up-to-speed, or slowly transition with outdated systems and practices, which will impact customer experience, leaving them open to moving to a more updated competitor. No business wants this, so updating gradually as you go along is key to keeping your customers happy and systems updated.

But what does this have to do with social media? Part of updating your systems includes updating your workflows and integrating different types of technology into the various departments, including customer service and marketing. We all know the importance of social media for marketing and advertising but often neglect to utilise it for customer service, as most companies think only of social media in terms of content, but not in terms of outreach for sales and customer care. Customers, on the other hand, use social media for reaching out to companies when they have questions or issues, and are often hit with either a response from a marketing team advising they have passed the message onto the right department or cold, dead silence. Either way, if your customer care department, or a customer focused marketing team isn’t maintaining your social media pages, this is hurting your brand, big time.

The Rise of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp

Now more than ever, using social media messaging is important for customer service and sales. Analytical data revealed by the networks has shown social media users spending more time in mobile messaging apps than on the social media network apps themselves. While that does not sound like much, when you are looking at the scale of billions of users, and millions of potential customers, that’s where the potential lies. Conversational marketing has always been around, but it’s now becoming part of the forefront of customer service communication. Word of mouth is the earliest forms of conversational marketing, with telesales right behind. The best live chat softwares then allowed prospective customers to quickly chat with a business to determine whether they wanted to purchase. Today, we have better than the bygone's best live chat solutions, along with  social media instant messaging all being used as the main forms of instant customer service communication.

Click4Assistance forecasted the rise of social media instant messaging for business and developed a seamless social media integration, allowing your live chat and social media instant messages to live in the same place, increasing productivity and reducing the likelihood of missing an incoming message. This desktop dashboard is also fully customisable, giving you the control to choose what you need on the dashboard, not just stuck with whatever is pre-set. With Click4Assistance, you get the information you want, on your terms.

Along with social media integration, Artie, Click4Assistance’s best live chat feature, an AI chatbot , also integrates with social media, reducing the pressure to respond immediately off of your customer service agents, and giving them the opportunity to provide a higher quality of customer service. Artie does not sleep, is always online and can chat with an unlimited number of website users simultaneously, making him your most productive customer service team member. Because he can also answer basic questions, such as about opening hours and locations, he can also engage with those users without human intervention, immediately increasing your customer service satisfaction rating and fulfilling the customer’s need for

immediacy without adding pressure to your internal customer service team and saving you money..

 If you’re interested in deploying Click4Assistance, the UK’s premier GDPR compliant & best live chat software solution, to increase your business’ productivity for 2020, give us a call on 08451235871 or send an email to theteam@click4assistance.co.uk and one of our experts will be with you right away. Not ready to reach out yet? Discover how it works, try a demo, or better yet, try Click4Assistance completely free for 21 days..