Advertisement feature: Messaging Apps and Video – meeting the demands of the digital consumer

Advertisement feature from Total Chatbots

Over the past 5-10 years, there have been two areas of the digital landscape that have seen significant growth: messaging apps and video.

Messaging Apps

Messaging Apps such as WhatsApp are now built into the fabric of our day-to-day lives. Over 30 million people in the UK now use WhatsApp on a regular basis. WhatsApp’s success lies in the way it allows people to communicate instantly in a simple way. For many, it has completely replaced other forms of communication, such as telephone and email. This is even more prevalent with millennial and ‘Gen-Z’ consumers.

The messaging powerhouse Twilio found that 52% of consumers want the option to choose the channel where they receive messages from businesses. Providing a choice of communication channels is therefore crucial. Telephone and email are still important, but there are millions of eyeballs using messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp who wish to communicate with businesses on those channels exclusively. Those businesses who ignore this are missing out on opportunities they don’t even know exist, because customers will simply engage a competitor that does offer those channels of communication.

Take used car listings as an example. Traditionally an enquiry would be driven from a static web form or a web live chat request. This can result in extended time from the enquiry to re-contact by the sales team to convert the enquiry. Giving the customer the ability to enquire via WhatsApp ensures instant communication between the customer and the OEM or dealer, with no break in the process. The end result means a slicker customer experience from the point of enquiry, and higher sales conversions.

Video

Another area of rapid growth is video. The amount of online video people watch has almost doubled in a matter of years, from 10.5 hours per week in 2018 to a staggering 19 hours per week in 2022. The pandemic has seen further growth in popular video-first technologies such as Zoom and TikTok. In short, consumers love video!

Why? Using video as a business brings with it a number of advantages. Watching video increases website dwell time, trust & engagement and ultimately conversions. On a more simple level, video takes the hard work out of the buying journey. Instead of consumers having to read masses of text before coming to a decision on whether or not they want to buy from you, they can watch a video and make that decision quickly.

At Total Chatbots, we have built in solutions for WhatsApp and video that each represent industry firsts. In the case of video, we allow clients to insert a short video welcome message if they wish, for example a welcome greeting from the CEO to thank the customer for visiting the site. This increases trust by humanising the OEM/dealer brand, as well as naturally increasing dwell time and reducing bounce rate; both key metrics for consumer engagement. It has never been more important for consumers to relate to businesses on a personal level and video is the ultimate engagement tool to achieve this.

Our technology also allows customers to use video from their side. This can be used for different purposes, but a couple of examples include reporting a vehicle fault to the dealer service department / OEM customer care team (to help pre-diagnose an issue in advance of the dealer physically seeing the car), and recording a part exchange walkaround video to help provide a more accurate part exchange valuation. All of this happens seamlessly within chat. Such tools are valued by consumers as they minimise inconvenience, leading to increased customer satisfaction and bottom line performance.

To summarise, businesses that capitalise on consumers’ increasing demands for communication via messaging apps and video will stay ahead of the curve in a fast-paced digital world.