Digital Engagement is the New Normal

Guest blog by Jane Jelly, vee24

Without realising it we are all now using digital engagement. Whether we are text chatting on our phone, to BOTs on a webpage, or video chatting with something like “Facetime” digital engagement is a major part of our everyday lives.

In business, just like our personal lives, relationships are everything. Our relationships start with a conversation, are maintained with more conversations, and grow with conversations. This has always been true, from the dawn of time to the start of commerce.

Even the data backs this position: As of 2017, Facebook Messenger has generated 17 billion video calls, 67% of people across multiple industries say their messaging has increased over the past two years. Customers also love interacting with brands online. According to estimates, more than 67% of consumers worldwide used a chatbot for customer support in the past year, and 40% do not care whether a person or chatBOT helps them with their questions. Moreover, some customers cannot tell whether it was a human for instance according to PWC, 27% of consumers were unsure if the last customer support interaction they had was with a real person or a chatbot (PwC)

So, your customers’ expectations for communicating with each other have fundamentally changed, and this change applies to how they want to communicate with your business. In many ways, you need to bring the in-store, in-branch, or in-office experience online to your customers. You need to be where your customers are, and in today’s world, many are online or mobile.

So how does a business meet these demands?

You need to start by using text chat and then add in AI BOTs for your sales, marketing, and customer service efforts. You may find your best customers need a VIP service that uses video chat may be more appropriate to drive higher lifetime value. Your business will need some type of digital engagement if it wants to stay competitive and drive growth.

Many of our customers typically benefit from over 35% net new revenue, 45% operational savings and 95% customer satisfaction ratings. Utilising one or more of the digital engagement methods listed above. They all started with small wins and learned to crawl, walk, and then run.  So, whether you are ready or not, digital engagement is the new normal and we all need to be online, where our customers are.