How Real Time Messaging Makes a Real Impact

By Sandra Holland
Marketing Manager at Benbria

In today’s competitive market, every business is striving to set themselves apart from the competition and grow their business. One of the key drivers to success in this endeavor is ensuring the customer experience is not only positive but builds loyalty and grows the relationship deeper over time. 

Using real-time messaging to communicate with your customers not only allows you to better serve them with immediate responses and reactions but also creates operational efficiencies, which can drive revenue and reduce costs. 

In today’s connected world, customers expect timely, if not immediate responses from the vendors they interact with. The more connected a business is with its customers, the deeper that relationship will go. In fact, 86 percent of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. Connecting with customers on the channel of their choice, whether it is text messaging, email, Facebook Messenger, or Twitter direct message, will help engage the customer.

Managing all of these channels can be an operational challenge, however. Using the Loop Experience Platform, you can read and respond to messages on all channels through one unified inbox. This allows for greater operational efficiencies while promoting a customer-centric approach. In a 2020 report, PWC found that the number of companies investing in the omnichannel experience has jumped from 20 percent to more than 80 percent realizing that it drives a better overall customer experience. 

So what impact can real-time messaging have on the customer and business? Let’s break down the top four ways you can make a real impact on the customer experience using real-time messaging.

1. Streamline processes

With the rise of the Internet of Things, customers are more connected than ever before. In 2021, there are more than 10 billion active IoT devices, with an expectation for that to surpass 25.4 billion by 2030. With technology leading the way for finding business information, providing payment, using loyalty programs, and more, the expectation that the business is catering to each of these experiences in real-time is essential. From leaving reviews online to discussing experiences on social media groups, the voice of the customer can have a real long-lasting impact on the brand’s reputation. 

Using the Loop Experience Platform’s unified inbox, you can streamline all the channels your customers use to communicate on and route them to the correct team member for quick action. Remediating issues in real-time, not only helps to streamline processes internally but helps to better serve your customers. 

2. Provide better customer service

When a question or issue arises for your customers, it’s always nice to be heard. Whether you complete a survey after a transaction or communicate through Facebook Messenger to identify an issue with your purchase, customers expect to be responded to quickly. Meet and exceed your customer’s expectations by using Chatbot to automatically respond when you can’t or to simply answer straightforward questions. These real-time answers will reduce phone calls to your store or emails that need to be replied to, saving your staff time and better serve your customers with immediate replies. 

Using technology to automate interactions, doesn’t mean removing the human touch. Use conversation orchestration to hand-off and escalate conversations that require intervention from a staff member to resolve the issue. Efficient and timely resolutions build brand loyalty and create brand champions for your customers.

3. Close the loop on feedback

Being able to access customer feedback in real-time makes a real impact on both the customer experience and the brand management of the company. Collecting survey data is important to understanding customer sentiment and tracking analytics over time, however, being able to take action on that feedback in real-time makes the difference in resolving situations before the customer leaves the premises. With the Loop Experience Platform, you are able to close the loop on the feedback you receive and resolve it before additional customers walk away with the same impression. 

For example, if the cafeteria runs out of cutlery and someone completes the survey indicating that materials were missing, someone on staff can see that and replenish the stock before other customers have the same issue. This immediate action makes the difference to all the customers that come through the cafeteria that need cutlery and the staff for the scores they receive. 

4. Get a pulse on your customer through in-the-moment feedback

We have all been there: you leave the movie theatre with one impression of the movie and your experience. Days later you’re sharing your opinion on the movie you saw, and you have a different perspective of the overall experience. Maybe the movie was great, the food you ordered was fresh and delicious, and the staff was friendly, but all you can remember days later was the line for the bathroom was long and you were left waiting uncomfortably. 

Collecting in-the-moment feedback is critical to getting those initial impressions of both the positive and negative experiences that customers have had while interacting with your business. Having the ability to react in real-time can change the customer’s long-term impression of their experience and how they review it later to friends and online. It’s said that 72 percent of customers will share a positive experience with six or more people, while 13 percent of unhappy customers will share their experience with 15 or more people. 

If you collected the feedback from a customer after they exited the restroom, you would know that the experience they had with the line was negative and could be long-lasting. Having real-time feedback can allow a staff member to investigate the situation and potentially fix a broken stall, or if this is a recurring complaint, make operational changes such as increased capacity limits or changing movie schedules, making a real impact on the overall experience.

Get the right tools to evaluate feedback

Collecting and engaging your customers, clients, and staff in real-time makes a real difference to operations, brand loyalty, and overall customer experience. According to PwC, one in three customers will leave a brand they love after just one bad experience, while 92 percent would completely abandon a company after two or three negative interactions. Ensure you aren’t losing out on fixing issues that are easy to resolve and building a brand that is known for the positive customer experience. 

For more information on Benbria Loop, visit their page on our Marketplace site. Loop allows you to collect feedback at any point within the customer journey, engage with them in real-time, and measure their experience by touchpoint. The platform is omnichannel by design and includes a suite of channels, inbox, reporting, and analytics capabilities.

Loop includes a suite of channels including web, mobile, email, social media, and kiosks for collecting feedback and engaging with customers across any touchpoint and journey — before, during, or after an experience.