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4 Ways to Boost Customer Loyalty Through Conversational UI

<p><i>(Shorter version published on </i><a href="https://www.thedrum.com/profile/viber/news/4-ways-to-boost-customer-loyalty-through-conversational-ui" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><i>The Drum</i></a><i>, April 2021)</i></p><p>A loyal customer is a happy one. Not only do they spend more, they are also cheaper to attract – it costs <a href="https://www.invespcro.com/blog/customer-acquisition-retention/">five times more to attract a new customer</a> than it does to retain an existing one. And then there’s the reputational cost of losing customers – people are <a href="https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-service-and-lifetime-customer-value/">more likely</a> to share bad customer care experiences than good ones. What are you more likely to tell people about: the customer care experience where everything went smoothly? Or the infuriating time you were kept on hold for hours, only to be cut off?</p><p>To keep customers coming back for more, great customer care is a must. Conversational UI using a chatbot in messenger and business messaging tools can streamline the experience, making it easier and more cost effective for the business, while also frictionless and seamless for the customer. And crucially, there’s no keeping anyone on hold. Ever.</p><h2>What is conversational UI?</h2><p>Conversational UI is a way of communicating that replicates human conversation. It uses artificial intelligence-powered tools like chatbots and voice assistants to process language in a natural way to make it seem to the customer like they are conversing with a human. This has enormous potential in customer care settings, where customers want quick – and often templated – answers.</p><p>Chatbots are hugely useful in conversational UI, as they are faster and more efficient than live chat operators. And customers love them. One <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-39540-7_16">study</a> showed that quick access to information at any time of the day or night far outweighs any friction customers may experience when dealing with a chatbot. No wonder they are on the rise – according to <a href="https://www.financedigest.com/ai-will-power-95-of-customer-interactions-by-2025.html">another study</a>, 95 per cent of customer interactions will be powered by chatbots by 2025. So it makes sense to get in on the ground floor.</p><p>Why the fuss? Because AI-powered chatbots have evolved significantly in recent years. While once they were simple, text-based chat windows, now they are fully-fledged, versatile virtual personal assistants, able to help with everything from changing passwords to fixing a leak in your holiday let. Not only can they now read into the context of a conversation in order to give an appropriate answer, they can be custom-fitted to your brand’s tone of voice, so a chatbot from a skateboard brand will sound very different to that from a pension fund. (Tip: Don’t mix up the two.) The trick is to meet your customers’ needs quickly and efficiently, and to speak their language while you are doing so.</p><p>They’re interactive, too. So not only will customers love getting information from them, they might even stick around for a chat and a laugh. The best customer support chatbots no longer sound like robots, but could in fact be mistaken for human customer service agents, ones that reflect customers’ priorities and outlooks. Conversation with them should feel as natural and free-flowing as chatting to a friend.&nbsp;</p><p>So how can you best use conversational UI tools like chatbots?</p><h2>Friends with benefits: How to win loyal customers with a conversational UI chatbot</h2><h4>Interact and entertain</h4><p>As the name suggests, conversational chatbots can imitate human conversation in a natural, free-flowing manner. What’s more, the use of value-adds such as emojis, funny clips, language preferences, etc. works wonders in personalising the customer-company support interactions. Chatbots that can catch typos, understand the jargon, and read between the lines are the ones that garner every customer’s imagination and unconditional support. Otherwise you may as well be talking to a toaster.</p><p>Looking for guidance? HelloFresh’s chatbot in messenger is the stuff of legend. The bot is easy to use and offers helpful information in a friendly and warm manner. But that’s not all. It also comes with in-built interactive ‘food-themed’ quizzes to engage and entertain the users in equal measure. The result? HelloFresh enjoyed a <a href="https://www.userlike.com/en/blog/best-chatbots">47 per cent increase</a> in incoming messages and a staggering reduction of response time rates by 76 per cent. Fresh indeed.</p><h4>Respond quickly</h4><p>Just as yoga is a game of inches, customer care is a game of seconds – <a href="https://www.callcentrehelper.com/omnichannel-acceptable-waiting-time-140566.htm">40 seconds</a>, to be exact. That’s how long you have to respond before your customers will give up and go elsewhere. This isn’t just about customer convenience: during a global pandemic, offering help within seconds can literally be a matter of life and death.&nbsp;</p><p>Take the <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/who-and-rakuten-viber-fight-covid-19-misinformation-with-interactive-chatbot">WHO’s chatbot on Viber</a>, which offers free health information on COVID-19 to millions of people around the globe in multiple languages. With the latest news on Coronavirus and information on symptoms, tests and what to do if you think you have the virus all at your fingertips, passing on information quickly is literally saving lives.</p><h4>Promotions</h4><p>Seamlessly connecting with customers is a great start, but to really thrive you need to stand out from the competition. American Eagle Outfitter’s chatbot uses convenience as a prime differentiator to maximum effect, using humour and fun to promote products and engage customers in a sustainable manner. Its tongue-in-cheek approach makes excellent use of memes, GIFs, images, you name it, taking the conversation to the next level. And based on the audience’s interest and user responses, the conversational bot offers practical advice and tips.</p><p>Helpful, engaging, entertaining… it’s everything a chatbot should be. And it’s pretty much guaranteed to have customers coming back for more.</p><h4>Be ‘always on’</h4><p>Today’s customer is always online, and they expect brands to be available to them 24/7. You can’t only offer support during business hours – people work shifts and odd hours (especially since the boom in flexible working brought on by the pandemic), while some customers might be in a different time zone. Ignoring their needs shows you don’t value them, or at the very least haven’t thought of them. The result? They will just turn to a brand that will serve them out of hours.</p><p>You need to provide high-quality customer support at all times, be it 5 am or 5 pm. Because the internet never sleeps.</p><h4>Helping, not replacing, human agents</h4><p>A word of warning. As smart as chatbots are, they can’t completely replace customer care agents – and nor should they. The top customer support chatbots can pick up on the tone and type of query a customer is making and hand over to a human agent who is better suited to handling it. If a customer is infuriated at having been ignored, they are unlikely to be impressed by your chatbot, no matter how witty their use of emojis. Having human agents oversee chatbots and being on hand to de-escalate tensions when needed will prove invaluable, and prevent angry customers doing your brand irreparable reputational damage. Because the last thing you need is an angry customer social media blast that goes viral.</p><p>Chatbots are best used to handle the <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2019/08/chatbot-statistics.html">standard customer inquiries</a> – like opening hours or simple product FAQs – that make up the bulk of most business’ user dealings. They are another tool that, if used wisely, will help create a delightful and seamless experience that will have customers coming back again and again, to browse, buy, or even just to catch feels.</p>

To keep customers coming back for more, great customer care is a must

4 ways to boost customer loyalty through conversational UI

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Viber at MEF Connects Business Messaging 

<p>The <a href="https://mobileecosystemforum.com/events_/mef-connects-business-messaging/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Mobile Ecosystem Forum Connects: Business Messaging</a> event took place March 22 - 24 and the Viber team were excited to be involved in a varied and excited programme of content and thought leadership.</p><p>Our Chief Revenue Officer Cristina Constandache was featured on Day 1’s The Jury event and hosted a Day 3 presentation “How do enterprises arm themselves to succeed with Rich Business Messaging in 2021?”, where she was joined by Messaggio’s CEO Artem Podstreshny for a fireside chat and Q&amp;A hosted by MEF's James Williams.</p><p>Our Senior Director of Business Messaging Solutions Etienne Dupont was featured on Day 1's panel "Business Messaging Everywhere: How To Integrate In A Frictionless Way".</p><p>You can watch back Viber highlights from the event, below.</p><figure class="media"><oembed url="https://youtu.be/UdZgA_RqcOU"></oembed></figure><figure class="media"><oembed url="https://youtu.be/_j8Vf3EXVNA"></oembed></figure>

Get the low down from the MEF Connects Business Messaging event

Event recap: MEF Connects Business Messaging 

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Viber for Business FAQ

<p>Here at Viber, we love speaking with our customers existing and new to help them solve problems, maximise revenues and achieve business goals.</p><p>Along the way we encounter a lot of different questions about how things work and as part of our mission to help, the team have collated some of our most frequently asked questions to help you on your journey with Viber for Business.</p><h2>How do I open a Viber for Business account?</h2><p>Viber for Business is not an account in the typical sense - it’s more a collection of solutions. Let’s break them down:</p><h3>Business Messages&nbsp;</h3><p>Built as an alternative to SMS, Business Messages allow brands to initiate a conversation and create a deeper connection with their existing opt-in customer base in a one-to-one setting.</p><p>Whether you need to provide customer care, delivery updates, transactional services or promotional messages, our <a href="https://www.forbusiness.viber.com/en/messaging-solutions/">solutions offer it all</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>To get started, select one of our approved <a href="https://www.forbusiness.viber.com/en/messaging-partners/">Business Messages partners</a> to create your channel and start sending your messages - they are on call to help you achieve your goals.</p><p><i>To learn more about how Business Messages have evolved, check out </i><a href="https://www.forbusiness.viber.com/en/blog/post/product-evolution-business-messages/"><i>our blog</i></a><i> from Noa Bar Shay, our Senior Partnerships Account Director.</i></p><h3>Chatbots&nbsp;</h3><p>Chatbots are the perfect channel to engage the conversation with new and existing customers. Your bot can be a true sales channel to offer your services and sell your goods. Automate workflow by adding buttons and customizing your user keyboard.</p><p>To get started, create your bot account and develop your chatbot in-house by following our <a href="https://developers.viber.com/docs/api/rest-bot-api">API guidance</a>. Need assistance? Our <a href="https://forbusiness.viber.com/en/messaging-partners">trusted partners</a> can help you to develop your bot.</p><p><i>To learn more about how Chatbots have evolved, check out </i><a href="https://www.forbusiness.viber.com/en/blog/post/product-evolution-chatbots/"><i>our blog</i></a><i> from Etienne Dupont, our Senior Director of Business Messaging Solutions.</i></p><h3>Communities&nbsp;</h3><p>People love to gather on Viber and we’ve made it easier than ever to engage your audience with exciting content, news and updates - whatever your industry. Create your community and spread the word to gather your fans on it to keep them updated with your latest news and updates. See and measure their reactions to your messages, videos or pictures and get their attention with polls and quizzes.</p><p>Create your community in 3 clicks directly in the Viber mobile app from your Chats screen:</p><p>"Write” icon &gt; New Community &gt; Add a name - Save</p><h3>Advertising solutions&nbsp;</h3><p>We offer various advertising touch points within Viber for you to reach our global audience as they interact with their family and friends. Our ads are non intrusive, multi-format and versatile.&nbsp;</p><p>To get started, head over to our <a href="https://www.forbusiness.viber.com/en/marketing-solutions/">Advertising Solutions</a> page, browse and pick the solution that’s right for you then get in touch using the “Get started” button - the team will be happy to assist you further.</p><h3>Stickers&nbsp;</h3><p>We believe that a picture really is worth a thousand words. That’s why we offer numerous ways to express yourself with Viber stickers - whether it be through branding with sound or animation - we’ve got you covered. With each Viber sticker shared 11 times on average with 1 billion sent per month.</p><p>To get started, as per above, head over to our <a href="https://www.forbusiness.viber.com/en/marketing-solutions/">Advertising Solutions</a> page and navigate to the Stickers section.</p><p>Want to learn more about all of the above? Be sure to check out our <a href="https://b2b.viber.com/media-kit-request">latest media kit</a> to learn more.</p><h2>How have others successfully used Viber for Business?</h2><p>Countless brands have used Viber for Business for successful customer relationships, campaigns and more - head over to our <a href="https://www.forbusiness.viber.com/en/success-stories/">Success Stories</a> page<i> </i>for more information and get inspired!</p>

We have collated some of our most frequently asked questions to help you on your journey with Viber for Business

What is Viber for Business? Your questions answered

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GSMA WAS#13

<p>Our Telecom Services Senior Director Matan Barth and Senior Partnerships Account Director Noa Bar Shay hosted "The role of OTTs in current Telecom Industry trends" at GSMA's recent WAS#13 event.</p><p>They were joined by Zvika Caspy (Telecom Italia Sparkle), Dan Richards (Messagebird) and Krešo Žmak (Infobip).&nbsp;</p><p>Key talking points:</p><ul><li><strong>SMS A2P Industry trends and how Rakuten Viber has evolved from an OTP sender to an SMS A2P Hub Service provider</strong></li><li><strong>International voice industry trends and the shift of focus of Rakuten Viber from retail offering only to both retail and wholesale services with its International Voice Hub</strong></li><li><strong>How OTTs have changed the business to/from consumer messaging communication by introducing a new engaging way to communicate on the app and the benefits of Rakuten Viber’s Business Messages solution</strong></li><li><strong>How Rakuten Viber continues to innovate and lead the market with its new Business Calls (beta) offering. The Business Calls solution allows businesses and consumers to make voice conversations on the Rakuten Viber app in addition to messages.</strong></li></ul><p>You can watch back the webinar in full, below.</p><figure class="media"><oembed url="https://youtu.be/4KWpuza-mp4"></oembed></figure>

Event recap: GSMA WAS#13

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Messaging’s march

<p><i>(Originally published on </i><a href="https://www.thedrum.com/profile/viber/news/how-brands-can-find-the-most-secure-messaging-app-for-business-use" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><i>The Drum</i></a><i>, March 2021)</i></p><p>Messaging is the most personal way to communicate digitally, not only between people and their friends, families and colleagues, but also between brands and their customers. More and more brands are embracing messaging as a more human and effective way to speak to their customers. But some remain resistant. They usually have two main questions: Can they trust messaging apps as a secure way to send sensitive information? And what steps are messaging apps taking to ensure brands' messages are secure?</p><h2>Messaging’s march: entering a new era of customer communication</h2><p>Whenever a new technology emerges, or an existing technology is used in a new and innovative way, it prompts fears of it being misused or leaking customer data. To allay this fear, it’s useful to look at the example of how technology has revolutionised banking in recent years, and inexorably improved the relationship between bank and customer.</p><p>Time was, any banking that required sensitive financial or personal information meant a long, drawn out process: you had to gather up all sorts of documents verifying who you were, trudge down to your local branch and spend hours in a queue. Mobile technology has improved this dramatically. Now, all you need is a phone to open or close an account, move money, edit payments or do virtually any other type of banking. Both businesses and consumers have benefitted from the change. And while now we might take it for granted, when it first arrived, mobile banking was regarded with suspicion by many who saw it as unsafe.</p><p>The same is true of messaging apps today. And just like mobile banking, messaging apps like Viber, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are opening a whole new way for brands to communicate with their customers.</p><h2>How to pick the most secure messaging app for your brand</h2><p>If you’re looking for what is the best secure messaging app, you need one that will tick certain security boxes.</p><ol><li><strong>End-to-end encryption&nbsp;</strong>This is something of a gold standard when it comes to security. It means that messages are encrypted (i.e. scrambled into an incomprehensible code that any hackers will be unable to decipher) on the sender’s device before they are sent. The messages are only converted back into readable text once they arrive on the recipient’s device. That way, even if they are intercepted by hackers along the way, they won’t be able to be read.&nbsp;<br>End-to-end encryption primarily applies to private chats between individuals. For businesses wanting to send messages to their customers, the closest thing is encryption in transit.</li><li><strong>Encryption in transit </strong>Encryption in transit is used when messages are sent not by an individual but through a brand’s platform using an API protocol. As soon as the message is sent (it’s “in transit”), it’s encrypted, and is only decrypted once it reaches the messaging app’s back-end system. The back end then encrypts the messages again before sending it back to the user or service.<br>Encryption in transit provides an exceptionally high level of security for brands who can rest assured their messages are safe from hackers.</li><li><strong>Messages not stored on servers </strong>Messaging can be so much more secure than email because the messages aren’t stored on the messaging provider’s servers. With email programmes, your emails are stored on the provider’s servers. Chances are, your email provider then allows other companies to read your emails in order to serve you with targeted ads. But a trustworthy messaging app involves no such invasions of privacy.</li><li><strong>The https protocol </strong>Wondering how to decide what is the most secure messaging app? HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a must.<br>It means a secure connection between the partner’s protocol and the system used by the messaging app. It’s another level of security that will protect any messages the brand sends out to its customers.</li><li><strong>An IP whitelist </strong>A good messaging app will also have a way of verifying incoming business messages to guarantee that they're coming from who they should be, and not scammers pretending to be the brand. This is done using an IP whitelist limitation.<br>This means the messaging provider only accepts messages from external partners from certain IP (Internet protocol) addresses. These IP addresses have been duly accepted, verified and set up on the messaging provider’s system. That way, if a message purports to be from a partner brand but is actually sent from a different IP address, it will be rejected by the messaging provider and won’t be sent on to its users.<br>Now you know what security provisions a messaging app should take, you need to think about your priorities as a business, and how you will use messaging to achieve your business goals.</li></ol><h2>Getting the message: how messaging apps trump email marketing</h2><p>For many businesses – especially banks and other financial institutions – security and delivery time are the most important aspects when choosing how to communicate with their customers. They want to deliver messages in the safest, and most convenient way for their customers, and also in the most cost-effective way.</p><p>Messaging excels in all of these areas. It can be cheaper to send messages via messaging apps than with traditional SMS, and messaging apps have a much higher open rate than emails –<a href="https://reckless.agency/insight/email-vs-push-notifications-vs-in-app-messaging-which-has-the-highest-engagement/"> one study</a> put it at 75 percent, which is over 45 times higher than email and nearly three times higher than push notifications. Messages sent via messaging apps can also have more characters than traditional SMS – in some cases, 1,000 versus 160 for SMS.</p><p>Even though messaging is a great choice for communicating with customers, they may still be wary about receiving communications from your brand in this way. Let’s look at some of their concerns and how you can address them.</p><h2>Putting the customer first: allaying their fears, communicating more</h2><p>Security will be the most pressing concern for most customers. As long as you choose a messaging app with the security features mentioned above, and you communicate this with your customers, their minds should be put at rest.</p><p>The other major concern is whether the entity they are communicating with is actually the brand it purports to be. Some messaging apps have several measures in place to verify this – for example the message sender will appear as the company name rather than just a mobile number. The sender will also have its own profile replete with company information like an official logo, physical address, phone number if you want to call them up, and a blue tick showing they have been verified by the messaging app as an official partner brand.</p><p>Lastly, users can rest assured their messages will stay confidential once they arrive on their devices. That’s because the most secure messaging apps for business don’t display the contents of the message on the lock screen notification – instead, all the user sees is “1 new message”. To read the message, they will have to unlock the device and open the messaging app.</p><p>It’s all about giving customers the confidence to use messaging in this way. Once they have that, we’re sure they will embrace messaging as a tool to communicate with brands in a manner that’s quick, safe and convenient for both parties.</p>

Messaging’s march: entering a new era of customer communication

How brands can find the most secure messaging app for business use

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Chatbots and personalisation

<p style="text-align:justify;"><i>(Originally published on </i><a href="https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2020/04/15/chatbots-and-personalisation-the-impact-covid-19-communication" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><i>The Drum</i></a><i>, April 2020)</i></p><p style="text-align:justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify;">With digital communication methods in the spotlight thanks to the Covid-19 crisis, brands are re-examining how they interact with customers. How can you strengthen relationships with loyal customers and establish new ones in a time of rapid digital change?</p><p style="text-align:justify;">Ironically, the current circumstances have actually led to people communicating more. With a quarter of the world’s population on lockdown, a lot of people now have more time to focus on building, strengthening or restarting relationships free from outside distractions. In many cases, we find ourselves talking more and having more meaningful conversations.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify;">From a business perspective, I think it forces brands to completely rethink their communication strategy – how they communicate, who they communicate with, and what they communicate. Quite apart from showing empathy and contributing to the community effort where they can, a lot of businesses are focussing their communications on existing customers and customer care rather than acquiring new customers, which I think is the right approach. I can’t imagine any business at this time would indiscriminately push promotional campaigns. As a business, I would want to take care of my existing customers, make sure they are ok and that they have confidence in the product and the means to continue to buy my product or engage with my service, whatever it may be. So there’s a clear shift from sales messaging to customer care.</p><h2 style="text-align:justify;">Going digital for the first time</h2><p style="text-align:justify;">Lots of businesses are also now dipping their toe into the digital space for the first time. It’s obvious why – the brick-and-mortar shops are closed, so of course, they’re forced to focus on digital.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify;">Those just starting out with digital should choose a communication method that’s personal, interactive and engaging. You shouldn’t just be sending out blanket newsletters via email marketing. No one wants to receive them at the best of times, let alone now. Rather, you want a channel where users can answer back, and engage with the brand by asking for info, help, or to try a new range of products/services. Only messaging can offer this kind of real-time response. It’s a dual-way of communicating, rather than one-way. If you want to respond to marketing emails, you need to look for a customer care email address or phone number… it’s a hassle. We’re all at home, we’re all in communication mode, is that the right strategy to pursue? Probably not.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">Now that most brands don’t have a physical presence, it’s more important than ever to establish a dialogue with your customers. Forward-looking brands understand this. And if your customer care workers can’t come to work because of social distancing or they’re self-isolating? That’s why god created chatbots. It doesn’t take months or even weeks of development to create a basic chatbot. So you can – and should – still help out your customers during this difficult time.</p><h2 style="text-align:justify;">Staying safe</h2><p style="text-align:justify;">Security is another thing to consider. You want to be sure that whatever channel you use, you have the same peace of mind as you would during an in-person chat. If you’re worried your conversation isn’t private, it adds unnecessary stress. And I think we all have enough stress in our lives right now.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">Evidently lots of people agree, as we’ve seen Viber use quadruple in the last month. And that’s just peer-to-peer messages, it doesn’t include people communicating with brands. But that’s increased too, which goes against the grain for this time of year.</p><h2 style="text-align:justify;">The new normal?</h2><p style="text-align:justify;">It’s too early to speculate, but the current situation could have long-lasting effects on how we communicate. A lot depends on where we are economically speaking once we get out of this. But I would imagine messaging apps will be the go-to choice for customer care in an omnichannel strategy. A lot of companies have had their hands forced to adapt to this new reality, and so they’ve incorporated messaging into their strategy at a much more rapid pace than they usually would have – we’re talking under a month for what would normally take them three to four months. Once they see what can be done, they could well continue like this after the crisis, because it’s more cost-effective, gets higher rates of engagement, and it’s a lot more personal. Why would they go back?</p><p style="text-align:justify;">If we assume that this crisis will have a very strong economic impact, a lot of consumers will be reluctant or unable to go back to their previous purchasing patterns. They won’t revert to the type of mass consumption from before the crisis, but will be much more careful about what they buy. This means they will demand personalised offers, personalised services, and the personalised marketing approach that messaging gives you.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align:justify;">They will have more choice too – a lot of these smaller companies have a head start, because they’re a lot more advanced in terms of digital communications compared to more established, traditional players. Traditional companies will have to work hard to catch up. It could level the playing field somewhat, which would be good for consumers.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">However the current crisis plays out, it’s obvious messaging has an important part to play for both consumers and brands alike.</p>

Our Chief Revenue Officer examines COVID and communications

Chatbots and personalisation: the impact of COVID-19 on communication

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Business Messages

<p>Viber began as a way for people to chat with their friends, family and colleagues through instant messaging, but we soon realised it had enormous potential beyond that. We thought why not leverage it as a way for users to communicate with brands directly, just as they do with their friends and family? Viber Business Messages was born.</p><p>Though at first it was called Viber Service Messages. We chose that name because we wanted it to be very utilitarian – every message had to serve a practical need. It was very service-oriented, and very much about serving transactional content. But for all that, it was a much more personal way of doing business. Now your brand could appear in a user’s chat history right next to their mum!</p><p>We started almost five years ago with a handful of partners in Russia, which was our biggest market. Ukraine followed soon after, and from there it really spread fast: the rest of CIS, and then CE, and all the Balkan areas like Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia. In the last two years we have started to explore the South East Asian market – especially the Philippines and Vietnam. These areas have a good penetration of Viber, so take up tends to be high.&nbsp;</p><p>Next we started to think about expanding the type of communication offered between users and businesses – using it not only for purely transactional purposes, but also letting the business promote itself with relevant content to the users. But it’s not a free-for-all – we have very strict guidelines to stop them spamming users, otherwise they would be bombarded by irrelevant messages, and end up deleting the app. It’s a delicate balance to strike – and we always put our users first.</p><p>Once we allowed promotional messages, we rebranded the service as Viber Business Messages, as it wasn’t just service messages that were being sent. It became a much more comprehensive solution, a much more holistic service. Then we started adding more features, like a profile page for every business that shows their address, phone number, website, logo, and other company information. It acts as a digital business card, and reassures the users that they’re dealing with a verified company.&nbsp;</p><p>Recently we added the option for businesses to send files and documents to the users. It’s very useful for things like bank statements and all kinds of confirmation documents.</p><p>Users love it as a way to get in touch with businesses, and vice-versa. That’s always been the core purpose. If you buy some furniture and you can’t put it together, you can just start a chat with the seller and ask an agent where you’re going wrong. You can both send photos of the furniture, instructions, videos, and so on. It’s an incredibly useful tool.</p><p>Businesses love it too. We work with SMS aggregators, each of which might have hundreds or thousands of clients, be they banks, retailers, courier services, and so on. It’s these aggregators that send the messages for their clients. Once a message has been sent, they get a status in real time. We don’t charge for any messages that failed their delivery. And for every failed delivery you get a reason. If it failed because the user isn’t a Viber user, the aggregator can choose to default to another message medium, like SMS or email. This way, the businesses can guarantee their clients 100 percent reach. And because we don’t charge for any messages that failed to deliver, it doesn’t cost them anything to try a Viber message first.</p><p>We also have some other neat features. You can set a maximum time for a message to be delivered for sensitive information like a bank balance, for example. If it’s not delivered within, say, 60 seconds, the sender isn’t charged. The first time a user receives a message from a business, an overlay appears and the user can choose to accept or decline their messages. It’s another layer to protect users being spammed. Businesses and customers can attach files as part of their chat, and we allow customers to initiate conversations with businesses rather than waiting to be contacted themselves. This is a huge help if a customer needs help with support or customer service.</p><p>The success of Viber Business Messages shows that the way we all communicate with businesses is changing. We were the first ones to offer businesses a one-to-one messaging channel with customers. We now help over 5,000 businesses to communicate with their users, and will continue to strengthen the relationship between businesses and their customers.&nbsp;</p>

Our Senior Partnerships Account Director Noa Bar Shay talks Viber Business Messages

How Viber Business Messages changed customer communication for good

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The evolution of Viber chatbots

<p>Chatbots are great news for customers and businesses alike. They let businesses offer around-the-clock support without the costs that come with human agents, but they are not about replacing humans altogether. Rather, they free up the human service agents to deal with more complex customer care needs, by handling the routine issues: the low-hanging fruit that comprise a majority of customer enquiries. And customers love their always-on, quick-to-reach nature – it means no more being kept on hold while you wait for a human agent to answer the phone.</p><p>But what exactly is a chatbot? And how does Viber let brands leverage them to maximum effect?</p><h2>The many uses of a chatbot</h2><p>A chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversation through text chats, voice commands or both. They are essentially robots that let brands have one-to-one conversations with their customers through our messaging channel – users can communicate with a chatbot as easily as if they were chatting with a friend or relative. A successful chatbot should have an easygoing, conversational nature that’s user-friendly and easy to understand.</p><p>At Viber, we started using chatbots at the end of 2016. Since then, the functionality has grown and grown.</p><p>We now let brands customise their keyboards for their users, depending on what use case is presented. For example, when selecting a language, instead of manually typing in “English” using a QWERTY keyboard, or even selecting it from a tedious list, the brand can present the user with a series of flags. Tap the Union Jack, and hey presto, you’ll see all text in British English. Not only is it more appealing visually, and quicker to enable conversation with the chatbot, it’s also universal across all languages – everyone will recognise a flag.</p><p>Chatbots on Viber can use many different kinds of message formats to interact with users – this includes text, images, urls, videos, rich media carousels, gifs, stickers, contact cards, localisation cards and buttons. This means brands can use the full suite of messaging tools to forge and maintain stronger relationships with their customers. It lets them add more gamification, more automatic presets, to facilitate the conversation, which is a lot more engaging than your typical customer support channel. This is especially useful for informative bots specialising in areas like news. For example, we have a partnership with the WHO to send out updates about Covid, and by using a chatbot, the organisation can use all different message formats to convey this vital information to users.</p><p>But it’s also useful for other uses too, like sending out recipes, tickets, polls, games, and so on.</p><h2>Improving customer care</h2><p>Of course, their use extends beyond these use cases. Using our API, brands can connect their chatbots to their CRM systems in order to improve customer service. This can let them see a user’s engagement history with the brand, say, so they’ll know if it’s a new client or an existing one. They can also customise the level of discussion with each client – by tailoring the response, you will directly meet each individual customer’s needs, rather than asking each customer the same – often irrelevant – questions.&nbsp;</p><p>One aspect we take very seriously is user privacy. Users have to subscribe to chatbots in order to receive messages from them – it is always the users initiating the interaction, rather than the brands. Chatbots are searchable on Viber, to help users find relevant ones, and we showcase certain bots to help surface extra content. We want to help customers find what they need, and not let companies spam them with irrelevant promotions.</p><h2>When to use a chatbot</h2><p>Chatbots exist side-by-side with our Business Messaging proposition. That doesn’t mean brands have to choose between Business Messaging or bots. It depends on what goal they are trying to achieve with Viber. If you just want to send informative messages to clients for transactional or promotional purposes – to basically replace what you were sending with SMS – our Business Messaging channels will do the job perfectly. But if you want to have a more meaningful and immersive experience, to go further than just sending messages, then the bot is a better solution.&nbsp;</p><p>For example, some of our banking partners use chatbots to take customers through the authentication process, and then to send them info like their account balance. In this way, the chatbot can replace a separate feature you would normally get from the bank’s own app. Because the messaging ecosystem has become so big, it’s now a very strong entry point for brands – they realise that it’s a smaller ask for customers to converse with them through a messaging app they already use than it is to convince them to download their own, rather limited, banking app. Who really needs another app on their phone? Especially one with such limited functionality.</p><p>Viber is not the only messaging app to let brands use chatbots, but our API is more flexible in terms of what the brands can do, and the level of customisation it gives them. Some of our competitors don’t let you customise the keyboard or the user support, and they only let you communicate with text – it’s very transactional and only built for very few user scenarios. It’s very restrictive. It’s a very off-the-shelf solution, whereas ours is tailor-made, like a Saville Row suit. A lot of our clients comment on it. They love the level of customisation it gives them.</p>

Our Senior Director of Business Messaging Solutions talks chatbots

The ever-expanding chatbot: how bots help brands 

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Viber's 10th anniversary

<p>(Originally published on <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/profile/viber/news/how-messaging-platforms-created-a-decade-of-digital-connections" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">The Drum</a>, November 2020)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>A lot can change in ten years. The past decade seems to have disappeared in the blink of an eye, but our lives are almost unrecognisable from 2010. Then, we were obsessing over the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411008/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Lost</a> series finale and Lady Gaga’s&nbsp;<a href="https://guce.huffingtonpost.co.uk/copyConsent?sessionId=3_cc-session_ebefd0e4-61c3-4456-8f99-2ba851dc8b06&amp;lang=en-gb" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">meat dress</a>, getting used to being annoyed by generic banner ads, and messaging like crazy.</p><p>What we weren’t doing though was sharing memes, gifs, videos, emojis or other digital media, or seeing highly personalized ad content – at least not on our phones. The&nbsp;<a href="https://thenextweb.com/future-of-communications/2015/02/16/people-still-using-sms-2015/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">most widely used data application</a> was still SMS; we could reach one another quickly, easily and very briefly – no more than 160 characters thank you – but it was a pretty bland experience.</p><p>So let’s give thanks for progress. Because at the same time, the smartphone was overcoming its initial limitations and starting to gain ground, while IP telephony was about to make the leap from expensive corporate luxury to accessible consumer tool.</p><p>That’s really where messaging platforms began. If you can make a voice call over the internet without having to get tangled up with various mobile network protocols, why not use the same technology to send text and visual content to other devices as well? This is exactly what Viber started to do a few months after its initial launch as a Voice over IP service.&nbsp;</p><p>Since then, messaging hasn’t looked back, while calls and ads have become a whole new experience as more and more functionality has been introduced to provide what consumers want and businesses need.</p><p>Viber’s platform exists because humans like to share. First it was calls and messages to another person. But one-to-one soon became many-to-many with group messaging. No gang of friends or colleagues is without a group chat these days. All you have to do is stay on top of whatever the subject is that minute, and navigate the delicate politics of leaving a conversation. Viber also hosts Communities for people with similar interests, and you can even run polls with your contacts to gather their opinions on life, the universe, or what the best biscuit is.</p><p>Messaging also gives us the means to express ourselves more, well, expressively. And that means visuals and moving content. We introduced stickers in 2012, and 1.3 billion are now sent on average by our users&nbsp;each month. We even celebrated Viber’s first wedding in 2015 with a specially created pack, inspired by two customers who lived more than 10,000 km apart but kept their relationship growing over Viber. Now of course, personalization is <i>the</i> thing, and what could be more personal than creating your very own stickers and GIFs?</p><p>Privacy and security have also become increasing concerns as our online world has opened up, which means we want our interactions to be protected. That’s why, as well as encrypting messages end-to-end so only those sending and receiving them can read them, on Viber you can hide chats on shared devices, or set a self-destruct timer to make a message disappear after a certain time period - on both sides of the conversation.</p><p>It used to be the case that businesses led technology adoption and consumers would follow. With mobile and messaging however, it’s been the opposite. With consumers spending more and more time on their devices and in their messaging app, it makes absolute sense for brands to get in there and connect with them where they’re already hanging out. And so in 2016 Viber also became a business business. With our&nbsp;messaging solutions, companies can reach out to a new audience, and communicate better with their existing customers in a native environment. They can send targeted offers and promotions to turn&nbsp;prospects into paying customers, and gain their loyalty over time by building deeper relationships. They can even do business with them, offering products and services&nbsp;that customers can use without having to leave their messaging app.</p><p>As for actually talking on the phone, while we do this less than we used to, it’s still easier (and&nbsp;cheaper) than before. Viber Out is an affordable way to make calls to any mobile or landline number, anywhere in the world, and has been around since 2013. Video calls followed the next year, and now you can have group calls with up to 20 people, which is ideal in our new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2020/04/15/chatbots-and-personalisation-the-impact-covid-19-communication" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">stay-at-home, work-at-home reality</a>.</p><p>The point is that by using the internet – which is pretty much limitless – along with other technologies like chatbots and artificial intelligence, it’s possible to keep on developing the services that help people and companies stay in touch on their own terms.</p><p>Imagine a world today without this type of messaging platform. How would we share all the things most important to us, from big news stories to the major events in our own lives? How would we stay connected and do the things we need to? It doesn’t bear thinking about. Seriously, would anyone choose to go back to plain text and 160 characters? No, me neither.</p><p>It’s almost impossible to say what the world will be like by 2030, but one thing’s for sure, and it’s that messaging platforms are only going to get bigger and better. So here’s to the next decade, and even better connections.</p>

Our CRO Cristina Constandache looks at 10 years of Viber

How messaging platforms created a decade of digital connections

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Marketing through messaging apps

<p><i>(Originally published on </i><a href="https://www.thedrum.com/profile/viber/news/9-steps-to-master-marketing-through-messaging-apps" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><i>The Drum</i></a><i>, February 2021)</i></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As the last year has shown, messaging apps are an incredibly powerful way for marketers to communicate with their customers. In fact, for many marketers, they have become something of a lifebuoy keeping them afloat.</p><p>During 2020, instant messaging boomed even more than in recent years as people were forced to turn to digital means of staying in touch with friends, family and colleagues. This increased demand spurred brands on to accelerate processes and, for those yet to dip their toe into the messaging apps space, to dive right in. Those who adapted quickly were able to profit. And those whose endeavours were less successful (or nonexistent) learned the hard way about messaging apps’ potential for reaching customers.</p><p>The bad news is that, in terms of the pandemic, 2021 has started in much the same way as 2020 ended. The good news? Pretty much any brand can start using messaging to their advantage to reach customers and increase engagement. These new consumer behaviours are here to stay, so messaging is quickly becoming an essential marketing tool, rather than a ‘nice to have’.</p><p>So how do you get started? We’ve put together a list of tips on how to master marketing through messaging in order to engender loyalty, maximise conversions and drive revenues. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer, or a first-timer looking to get started, you can make this year much better than the last one.</p><h3>Step 1: Assemble your toolbox</h3><p>If you are an advertiser looking to invest in a new channel, you should first understand what the channel has to offer and how it can help you with your marketing goals. Each messaging app offers different tools, including banners, native advertising, notifications, chatbots, and so on. For each, it’s vital to understand the user journey and how you can touchpoint with the users at different steps along the way.</p><h3>Step 2: Choose the right tool based on your customer journey stage</h3><p>How you use a messaging app is just as important as which one(s) you choose. The more advanced ones offer brands a range of tools to help them communicate with their customers at each stage of the user journey: attract, interact, transact and stay in contact. It’s a multi-pronged approach, and it will help marketers reach their customers wherever they are in the funnel.</p><p>For example, say you need to attract more customers. You can use a range of messaging tools like ads, stickers, targeted messages and offers to increase your visibility and reach a wider audience. And if your customer would like to make a purchase, you can make it easy for them by integrating a buying option right into the messaging app. That way the experience is completely native – they don’t have to leave the app to buy your product.</p><h3>Step 3: Automate for the people</h3><p>Chatbots are the holy grail of automation, but not all brands have sufficient resources – a fully-fledged chatbot should connect to your CRM tools to monitor the user journey and keep track of their history. But chatbots are not the only form of automation that can help your business within a messaging app.</p><p>Notifications or messages that remind customers to book a dentist appointment/service for their car/buy a gift for an upcoming special occasion can also prove invaluable. Communications like these delivered by messaging apps are far more likely to be seen by customers –<a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-messenger-marketing-experiments?__hstc=4273004.8bce7b1f1feccfed4be2fd26f313b599.1556894361584.1556894361584.1556894361584.1&amp;amp;__hssc=4273004.1.1556894361586&amp;amp;__hsfp=1134662652" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> different studies put messaging apps’ open rate at 80-90 percent,&nbsp;</a>versus 33 percent for email. And once it’s automated, it’s out of your hair and off your to-do list – you know it’s taken care of, so you can forget about it, and so can the customer.</p><h3>Step 4: Speak their language</h3><p>Because of the personal nature of messaging as a medium, you can afford to be a bit more informal with how you connect with your users. Your tone of voice should reflect your user’s situation, like their age, interests, outlook, and so on. But this can also change on a case-by-case basis – because it’s a real-time conversation, you can pick up on their mood and alter your tone accordingly (if they’re frustrated at poor customer service, maybe park the banter for now). You can also adapt your reply format, for example by customer care agents sending shorter messages rather than long email-like missives. It’s another unique benefit of messaging apps – no other channel offers this level of flexibility.</p><p>We’ve seen retailers that appeal more to women (like Yves Rocher) do this particularly well. The results of their campaigns with Viber went beyond their expectations precisely because they could offer a very personalised experience. But it’s not only these types of brands that have seen great results – more traditional sectors like banking have prospered too, by aiming a certain type of credit card at a younger audience and adding gamification elements to their messaging, like gifs and funny images. It’s a much more informal approach than you would traditionally expect from a bank, and more interactive, too. It helped them achieve a conversion rate of around 30-45 percent above their expectations.&nbsp;</p><p>The key is understanding who you’re talking to, and making sure you adopt a communication style that really matches their needs. It’s applying traditional marketing skills within a new technological framework.</p><h3>Step 5: Integrate messaging comms with CRM</h3><p>By integrating your messaging comms with your CRM, you’ll be able to see your whole customer history – in other words, you can track the steps the customer took and see the interest they’ve shown in different parts of your business. This is invaluable, as it stops you sending them irrelevant, out of context messages, reducing friction. And because everyone within the organisation – from marketing to sales to customer service – can have customer communications in full context, it will create a more fluid end-to-end experience.</p><h3>Step 6: Keep your customer database up to date</h3><p>It’s an old marketing maxim: The more you know about your customers, the better you’re able to serve them. But messaging apps add a new twist to this. Because of the gamification elements that exist within messaging and bots (like stickers, points and rewards), you can garner all sorts of information about a user without them having to fill out a tedious questionnaire, which for them will just feel like work for no reward. It’s a much more intuitive way of getting to understand user preferences.</p><p>So what kind of data should you collect? All kinds of customer data can provide excellent insights, but the most valuable data focuses on customers’ preferences and likes/dislikes when it comes to your business. Once you know what your customers prioritise, you can create a customised customer experience in order to drive conversions.&nbsp;</p><p>The customer data you collect should always be focussed on increasing transactions – don’t lose sight of that. It’s too easy to become fixated on collecting as much data as possible with no end goal in mind, but that can actually be counterproductive.</p><h3>Step 7: Use digital coupons</h3><p>Coupons are a great incentive for customers to convert. But they need to be presented in the right way. They should appear as a customised experience for the customer, one that is timely and relevant to what they are doing. If you see they have viewed a product you offer, you could give them a gentle nudge with a coupon sent via a messaging app to convince them to buy.</p><p>There are other techniques you can employ to make the process even more native and fluid. For example, making coupons easy to find from within the messaging app will save a lot of scrolling. And you can have them accepted in stores too, giving your customers more options of how to shop with you.</p><h3>Step 8: Prioritise shopping cart abandonment</h3><p>If someone abandons their online shopping cart without completing checkout, it’s a missed opportunity for your business. Messaging apps provide the perfect opportunity to bring these customers back and help them convert.</p><p>Using the tracking functionality available through the bot, you can send them personalised messages to remind them that they have an abandoned cart, or that there is a time-limited special offer on this particular product, thereby encouraging them to complete their purchase. This approach can be applied across a wide range of sectors, like holiday bookings, or financial products. And we know that shopping cart abandonment is causing retailers huge losses –<a href="https://www.salecycle.com/blog/featured/infographic-the-remarketing-report-q2-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">&nbsp;one study</a> says over 75 percent of global consumers abandon their shopping carts.</p><p>Other channels have similar functionality, but are much less effective than messaging apps. That’s because messages sent through messaging apps:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>have higher open rates than email</li><li>allow click-throughs without leaving the app (i.e. offer a native experience)</li><li>are more personal</li><li>aren’t filtered into any spam, promotional or junk folders</li></ul><p>Shopping cart abandonment is such a big issue, that for most brands, even a small improvement will have a huge bearing on revenues. Because sometimes, it’s the small changes that have the biggest effect.</p><h3>Step 9: Choose a messaging app that serves your needs</h3><p>Most users use at least three messaging apps for different purposes – maybe they like the functionality of one, but one particular friendship group (or family members, or colleagues) use another. Nobody is restricted to using just one app, so it’s a fallacy that your customers are present in just one place – the reality is there’s much more overlap than that.&nbsp;</p><p>There are lots of different messaging apps offering all sorts of different functionality – it’s a wild west out there. Hence it’s crucial to focus on the messaging app or apps that offer your brand most – if not all – of the functions that you are looking for. In that case, it’s ok to educate your customers in how to find you.</p><p>How do you do this? You’ll have to develop a broad knowledge of what apps are available, what they offer and the strengths and weaknesses of each to your brand. Then it’s a case of mapping the user journey to meet your marketing needs and choosing the right channel thereon.</p>

Our Chief Revenue Officer examines effective marketing in 9 steps

9 steps to master marketing through messaging apps

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6 marketing trends for 2021

<p><i>(Originally published on </i><a href="https://www.thedrum.com/profile/viber/news/your-2021-marketing-toolbox-6-trends-to-inform-your-new-year-marketing-strategy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><i>The Drum</i></a><i>, December 2020)</i></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I don’t think anyone would argue that 2020 was a turbulent year for commerce, and that’s putting it mildly. But among all the gloom we did see some glimmers of sunshine that point to brighter days to come.&nbsp;</p><p>Certain retail trends were already in place during 2020, but because of the pandemic they were accelerated to a much higher degree than anyone would have expected – progress that would normally take five or six years was achieved in just five to six months. Irrespective of how we move forward from Covid, it’s clear that these trends are here to stay, and should inform the 2021 marketing strategy of any commerce company.</p><p>So what are these trends? Let’s take a look.</p><h2>1. Hyper-personalisation</h2><p>With the pandemic causing store closures around the globe, and reduced footfall at other times, brands didn’t deal with their customers on a face-to-face basis in 2020 nearly as much as they used to. But that doesn’t mean that need has gone away – lots of customers prefer the personal touch that only a one-to-one interaction can offer. Brands might not be able to see their customers in the flesh as much as before, but they can still offer a hyper-personalised experience through channels like messaging apps. This is why we’re seeing chatbots that are becoming more and more sophisticated, more customisable and capable of more personalised interactions. And if the bot can’t serve the customer’s need adequately, it can connect them with a real-life agent, bringing them as close as possible to replicating an in-store experience.</p><p>In many ways, dealing with a brand this way is actually better than doing so in person. Each time the customer interacts with the brand, the bot or agent has access to the customer’s history, so they won’t have to explain their issue again every time they reach a new level of interaction with the company. It removes a lot of the frustration customers currently experience each time they are passed from one customer service agent to another. And it also helps build a more personal relationship between brand and customer.</p><p>This kind of service doesn’t just make the customer’s day – it’s good business. Having an effective sales channel is obviously very important, but instilling brand loyalty by keeping customer satisfaction levels high is at least as vital, if not more so. It’s what differentiates a good customer experience from a bad one, and will hopefully help 2021 bring more economic stability. You might not be able to see your customers in the flesh, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get under their skin and find out what makes them tick.</p><h2>2. More chatbots and AI</h2><p>Chatbots had a bit of a faltering start, but they are quickly becoming more advanced and ever more capable. And brands are cottoning on. By 2024, the global chatbot market is<a href="https://outgrow.co/blog/vital-chatbot-statistics" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">&nbsp;predicted</a> to be worth $994 million. It makes perfect sense – not only can a chatbot quickly and effectively solve the vast majority of customer queries, it can also be personalised to take on your brand’s attitude and tone of voice. Hence a skateboard brand’s bot will sound very different to a bank’s. Or it should, anyway.</p><p>Chatbots also allow brands to stay open 24/7 (which consumers increasingly expect), have lower operating costs, and can be used for transactional channels as well as customer care. Expect to hear a lot more about chatbots in the year to come.</p><h2>3. A focus on messaging</h2><p>There are many advantages to connecting with customers through a messaging app as opposed to a brand’s own app. It’s cheaper for the brand than investing in all the R&amp;D and the constant maintenance and updates required for a standalone app. These costs are considerable at the best of times, but during a worldwide economic downturn brands are really going to feel the pinch.</p><p>But perhaps the biggest advantage is that you are meeting your customers on a platform where they are already active – you are going to them, rather than making them come to you. Because who wants to download yet another app? It’s more convenient for the customer, and because it’s a ready-made solution, it’s more cost- and time-effective for the brand. Everybody wins.</p><p>A lot of brands were caught unawares by the pandemic, and those without substantial digital operations already in place really struggled to meet customer needs. Having a ready-to-use platform like messaging apps was essential in helping them connect with their customers. It definitely won’t be the only channel brands use to touch in with customers, but it will definitely be one of the key ones throughout 2021 and beyond. One<a href="https://www.reportlinker.com/p03646058/Global-Mobile-Messaging-Apps-Industry.html?utm_source=GNW" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">&nbsp;estimate</a> puts messaging apps’ current reach at 1.7 billion people, set to grow to 2.7 billion by 2027. Can you really afford to miss out?</p><h3>4. Transparency</h3><p>Consumers are tired of years of scandals and cover-ups – they want brands to be honest with them. According to<a href="https://sproutsocial.com/insights/data/social-media-transparency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">&nbsp;one study</a>, 86 per cent of US consumers believe transparency from businesses is more important than ever. But this isn’t cut and dried, especially recently: people’s priorities tend to change during an economic crisis; their thinking becomes more short-term and individualistic, rather than long-term and benevolent. They’re concerned with surviving the here and now, rather than what the world will look like in 50 years’ time. But with vaccines starting to roll out and an end in sight to the pandemic’s economic turmoil, people’s priorities will change again. Hence the huge importance on brand transparency and having a social conscience.</p><h2>5. The shift to conversational commerce</h2><p>What if buying goods and services was as easy as chatting with a friend? With today’s technology, it can be.</p><p>Chatbots and messaging apps are known as a great way of providing customer support, but what’s less well known is their enormous potential for enabling commerce. There are now payment features within chatbots, so customers can finalise the transaction and go through the entire sales flow within a bot – you never have to leave the messaging app. But it’s never at the expense of customer service; indeed, by integrating the CRM tools into the bot, you as a retailer can offer customer care and after-sales care through the same channel as your retail solution. That way, you’re touching base with the customer at all points in the marketing funnel, from prospection all the way through to transaction and post-sale engagement. You’re giving them one dedicated space where they can not only buy your product, but also solve all their queries, just as they could with an in-store sales assistant.</p><p>For example, Viber’s Business Messages proposition offers File Sharing, which lets businesses and customers exchange files through the messaging app. That means the business can send invoices, warranty documents, booking confirmations, membership details, price lists and more. Everything is on the customer’s phone in a single conversation thread – there are no confirmations to print out or lengthy email chains to search through.</p><p>Checking into a hotel? Just find your reservation details from within the messaging app on your phone. Doing it all through one channel is so much easier than switching channels from bot to website, to email to phone, and so on. It’s about easing the customer journey, and in the process, instilling brand loyalty.</p><p>As we come out of the pandemic and into a new normal, retailers will have to enhance their sales efforts, and it’s essential they enable this two-way messaging with their customers. Bricks and mortar retail will take a long time to recover – these vaccines aren’t a silver bullet to ending the pandemic – so it’s important to keep up this focus on digital. Using messaging apps provides a very real answer to this need.</p><h2>6. Moving towards a new normal</h2><p>This last trend encapsulates all of the above. Brands will continue to embrace the new, frictionless commerce which is native to enabling technologies like chatbots and messaging apps.&nbsp;</p><p>Despite the fact that non-essential businesses (like a lot of commerce brands) have been affected worldwide by the pandemic, we have seen an increase in the use of messaging by brands of around 30-40 per cent in some cases. Couple that with an increase in active bots of about 20-25 per cent, and the picture is clear: a lot of businesses are choosing to diversify the channels they use to connect with consumers. We can’t claim just yet that messaging apps are the only channel they use, but 2020 clearly shows a predilection towards conversation and two-way messaging, rather than traditional push campaigns.</p><p>Here’s to 2021, and brighter days for us all.</p>

Certain retail trends were already in place during 2020. So what are they? Let’s take a look

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