Conversational Commerce
Those were the days when customers
- Called a 1-800 number to seek information about a product or service
- Heard the familiar refrain ‘Your call is important to us …’
- Waited interminably to resolve an issue
- Sent an email to register a service request
We have come a long way from those days to now address all customer issues – whether pre-sale, during the sale process or post sale – in real time through a variety of contact channels that include the traditional telephone, mobile, Smartphone, email or messenger apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat or Facebook Messenger.
How did the transition to WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger take place? The answer lies in the technologies driving artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, Smartphone and Internet all of which fall within the realm of computer science, among other fields.
Just as humans learn, we can program machines to learn and in due course replicate human intelligence through artificial intelligence. Machine learning constructs algorithms to learn from data and make predictions. Data science studies data to extract meaningful information that businesses can use to target customers.
Messaging Apps and Customer Experience
The proliferation of mobiles, Smartphone devices and the availability of Internet saw the emergence of social media as a potent force to engage people in real time. The iconic tech brands, mobile phone giants and audio-visual pioneers invoked technologies to come up with messenger services that revolutionised the way people communicate. These developments provided conversational appeal to people. All these developments culminated in the rise of messaging apps such as WhatsApp and WeChat. The number of messages that float in the Internet space is a mind-boggling 40 billion messages via WhatsApp in a single day.
It was only a short hop for customer-centric businesses to latch on to the huge opportunity offered by the developments in the field to enhance customer satisfaction levels across all industries through conversational commerce.
Conversational Commerce
Customers want to conduct their shopping online as though they are talking to a salesperson at a brick and mortar store. Secondly, customers want to develop a relationship with the salesperson through which a natural familiarity develops. Businesses also want to develop familiarity with their customers. Messaging apps provide the means to develop this familiarity and build relationships. Developing this familiarity through messaging apps is conversational commerce. Conversational commerce rides piggyback on the messaging and chat apps such as WeChat, Talk, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. It essentially engages customers to build familiarity. The latest development in voice technology throws up a whole new dimension in customer engagement processes.
With messaging apps, customers can get their doubts cleared before buying a product or service. No longer will customers need to log out of one mode to access a brand’s website to seek clarifications or get customer support or buy. They can do all these from within the messaging app. They can complete a gamut of interactions culminating in the purchase of a product or service. The technology permits clarifications through chatbots or real humans. The latest trend is to accomplish this through voice commands.
Messaging apps have become the most preferred way of communicating for customers. Significant developments include the tie-up between Facebook Messenger and Uber for engaging a ride directly from Facebook Messenger. Likewise, Capital One’s bank customers can access banking services by asking Amazon’s Echo.
The powerful combination of AI, Machine Learning and Data Science can only enhance conversational commerce as each new input improves the level of interaction. Businesses will be able to mine the data and present offerings to suit customer tastes and preferences. They can anticipate what customers want and enter into a dialogue through voice assistants when they are at their receptive best on the messaging app.