Introduction of the messaging custom video for customers
The most successful businesses are defined by their ability to communicate. Today, this means meeting consumers where they meet – online, across multiple platforms. Companies, for example, regularly send sales and marketing messages via SMS , email and social media. They are increasingly embracing new, richer channels such as OTT chat app is RCS .
But consumers no longer respond to sales communications in isolation, such as within a loyalty program. They want personalized, often two-way communication, and they will happily reward companies that pay attention to this need with repeat business and recommendations.
It's fair to say that communication has transcended its role as a sales tool to become the cornerstone of the customer experience. Loyalty to a brand or company is no longer something that can be relied upon because a consumer has received some form of incentive; rather, it stems from the customer experience—the sum of all the parts of the customer journey.
So why do so many companies continue to struggle with customer communication? Part of the problem lies in a poorly structured approach that turns business functions into silos, leaving sales and marketing, customer service, design, and so on, operating in isolation. However, customers want an organization that offers a single, seamless journey, from initial inquiry to post-sales support and beyond.
There are three main areas where simple improvements to your approach can pay dividends in the long run.
Go on the journey with your customers
Companies need to examine the journey to understand where interaction might occur. This starts with some fairly basic questions. A typical journey looks like this:
Make it relevant -
It's important to emphasize that communication must be personalized, relevant, and zoned based on the needs of individual customers. Examples include onboarding a new customer who recently signed up for a service with a warm welcome, acknowledging what they've signed up for, and guidance on next steps or churn points—for example, when a phone contract is about to expire, if the message contains options that save the customer money by switching to a different plan or offering them the latest phone. Gartner calls this "tailored help." 88% of Gartner consumer survey participants reported not receiving it. It's worth noting that "help" is a customer experience concept, rather than a sales and marketing one, yet according to Gartner, using personalized help in the form of mobile messaging increases business benefits (brand intent, purchase, repurchase, and increased cart size) by 20%. In other words, implementing a customer experience objective has the potential to generate a business advantage.
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While personalized messaging clearly creates the engagement consumers seek, personalized video messaging takes relevance to the next level. Essentially, video brings together two things—motion and sound—that, when combined, convey and simplify complex customer experience messages. Adding it to the experience mix elevates engagement far beyond what can be achieved with other channels. Sinch's data analysis tells us that personalized video messages are read 98% of consumers who receive them (equal to SMS). However, consumers retain 95% of a message when it's a video, compared to 10% when using other channels. Returning to the onboarding example, a company might want to explain how to activate an account, how to get the most out of the service, and the options for upgrading. That's a lot of text and potentially complex communication. A short personalized video can greatly simplify the process, making it much easier to implement.