With the world being hit by COVID-19, businesses are changing the way they advertise about their brands and win new customers. Digital channels have dominated before the pandemic as well, but it has turned out to be a goldmine for some companies.
While businesses are leveraging digital platforms as channels of communication, the consumers are also attracted to the new way of interacting with their favorite brands. Today, more and more customers rely on Google Search and Maps to find a brand. One of the common user journeys hints that after reaching the website, the users initiate the webchat with the brand.
Now that Google has introduced its Business Messages service that allows customers to quickly message the brands right from Google Search and Maps to connect with a live agent. It shortens the customer journey and creates an opportunity for faster conversion. It somehow raises the question of webchat’s potential.
All in the name of happier customers, the brands get to leverage both platforms (Google’s Business Messages and webchat) because of:
- Humans and bots working together
- Creating an omnichannel customer experience
- Providing an instant response to the customers
Though the Live Chat or WebChat works similarly as that of Google’s Business Messages, there are a few observable differences that bifurcate the two.
How can GBM become a game-changer in 2020?
In striving to make the customer experience better, Google processes more than 5 billion searches each day, and most of the traffic is attributed to mobile users. As the customers are getting comfortable messaging the brands with a single click, brands must look for solutions to meet this user behavior.
Moreover, Google’s Business Messages come to rescue as both – brands and consumers – connect faster and share the right information through quickly.
To provide end-to-end customer engagement and create a rich experience for the customers throughout their lifecycle, starting from engagement to acquisition and providing end support, Google’s Business Messages is becoming the choice of both brands and consumers alike.
It is advantageous for you because of:
a) Faster Conversions from Search & Maps:
GBM is a real-time messaging platform that provides a faster and more pleasing customer experience. Consumers require quick, contextual, and hyper-personalized responses in real-time, and brands can build a strong relationship with the customers by leveraging Google Search and Maps to yield better results.
It’s a win-win situation when it comes to messaging channels because it allows the customers to interact or engage with the brand even before visiting the website, thus increasing brand loyalty.
b) Rich Media Support and Richer Experience:
It goes without saying that today’s consumers prefer to be provided with the information seamlessly whenever they want. Supported with rich media solutions, Google’s Business Messages enable you to share elements, like product recommendations in carousels, flight tickets, invoices, brochures, or user manuals. Ensuring that customers are given the required information without delay, get you an improved customer satisfaction score.
c) Seamless Bot to Agent Transfer:
In the decade that follows, the future is dependent on bots and agents working in harmony. While the bot can resolve the first-level or simple queries without human intervention, the agents can focus on more complex queries that need immediate attention.
This, in turn, gives the agents a relaxation from handling repetitive queries, utilizing their time productively.
d) Increased Team Productivity and Efficiency:
Let the truth be told, agents’ average handling time increases when the customers do not respond immediately. With Google’s’ Business Messages, the agents can switch from one conversation to another effortlessly. Agents can wait for Customer A to respond and in the meantime, they can start a conversation with Customer B. Even if the customer responds in days, the agents can pick up from where they left off, while assisting other customers without any drop in their performance.
e) Track Historic Conversations:
Agents get a holistic view of the customer’s previous interactions to preserve the context. This relieves the agents from asking repetitive questions and also increases the first contact resolution rate. Agents can easily track customer behavior from previous interactions, such as the product type that they are interested in, and can send them relevant suggestions to gain customer’s attention.
Webchat
Webchat platforms work in similar ways as Google’s Business Messages, but webchat has its own advantages and limitations.
While the user is on the webpage, they can easily engage with a bot or agent from within the website without having to switch to any other channel, thus increasing the conversion rate. Unlike Google’s Business Messages, webchat can initiate a custom message for the user when they are on your website.
Webchat: Advantages and Disadvantages
Webchat is Active Media:
The customers expect a spontaneous response after sending their query and in webchat, the bot can respond immediately to address them. The query can be seamlessly transferred from bot to agent without any escalation thus providing the experience that the customers will enjoy.
The response time can have a major impact on customer satisfaction. With webchat, integrated with bot, you can leverage the opportunity to respond to the customer at earliest without requesting them to wait.
A report by Statista states that the average customer satisfaction rating for live chat globally is 83.1
Webchat for all Devices:
While browsing through a website on desktop or mobile, users seek instant information from the brands. Webchat becomes the go-to option for the users when the brands give them the option to communicate instantly on their preferred device, without having to switch to any other channel or tab. The number one focus for the brands should be making the customer’s life easy.
Collecting Customer Information:
Webchat helps the brands extract customer information effortlessly which can further be used for nurturing the leads and converting them into customers. Having the lead information also helps the contact center agents to preserve the conversation context for future actions which helps them have qualified interactions.
High Conversation Abandonment Rate:
The customers abandon the brands that do not provide a response according to their preference and convenience. While Google’s Business Messages shortens the customer journey by helping the user reach the brand from within the search results, webchat requires the user’s presence on the website to engage with the brand.
While Google can handle multiple brand chants in a single platform at the customer’s end, webchat needs the users to return to the website again to restart the chat. In the purchase process, the customers need quick information and they do not like to be glued to a browser window to make a buying decision.
If the customer comes back to engage with the brand in 10 minutes, they receive a prompt that says “this session has ended” and to seek a resolution, the customer has to start all over again with another agent.
Why do you need both Google’s Business Messaging and Webchat?
Owing to exceptional customer experience, the future of the brands revolve around building an omnichannel experience that helps the customers navigate through different channels seamlessly. While Google’s Business Messages allows the user to find information using Google Search & Maps on mobile devices, the inclusion of a webchat platform gives an edge to provide an end-to-end customer experience.
Private messaging is here to change the game of acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, and providing support. Let’s be real, according to a report by Google, around 50% of users use mobile devices to locate a store whereas only 38% of people use desktops/laptops to find the same information. Customers are already using Google Search & Maps, it’s your brand that needs a presence there.
Hear from our solution experts on How Google’s Business Messages work.
