Community messaging is a specific type of live chat that links costumers – both loyal and future – with brands. It allows brand advocates to advise customers while they are browsing through a website. Community messaging allows brands to retain loyal customers. It also allows brands to turn prospective customers into loyal customers.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at community messaging, explaining what it is and how it can help a business.
How Community Messaging Works
Also known as community chat or click to community, community messaging is quickly becoming a highly valuable tool for organizations across a wide variety of industries. It directly links brands to customers, and customers to brands. In fact, millennials – the fastest growing consumer group – rely on messaging for their primary mode of communication.
Essentially, community messaging or community chat is a form of live chat. When a consumer – either someone who has purchased products from a company before, or a prospective customer – visits a company’s website, he or she has direct access to an advocate for the brand by means of chat.
There are two primary methods of live chat:
- Active communication. The chat is manually initiated by an agent or brand advocate, or automatically by a LiveChat system as soon as a visitor opens a website or meets specific criteria (searched a keyword, has encountered an error, or has spend a specific amount of time on a website.)
- Passive communication. This form of community chat is activated when a visitor to a website clicks on the chat button that is displayed on the page.
Benefits of Community Chat
Live Chat offers several benefits for both consumers and for brands. The following are some of the key benefits of this type of chat:
- Consumer questions can be answered quickly and easily.
- Errors can be corrected
- Brand agents can close sales.
- Lines of communication between consumers and organizations are opened
- Organizations have the opportunity to build their authority and turn prospective customers into loyal consumers
- Customer service becomes much more efficient
Features of Community Chat
In addition to offering live chat between consumers and a brand, community chat also offers other core features that can benefit a company. These features may include:
- Website traffic monitoring in real-time
- A built-in ticketing system
- Analytics that measure the efficiency of agents
Disadvantages of Community Chat
Though the reviews of community chat are generally positive, there are some concerns regarding its high cost and potential glitches that may arise. Other than these potential disadvantages, generally, brands and consumers seem to be satisfied with this form of communication.
Final Thoughts
Given the benefits that community chat offers, it is highly beneficial for both companies and for consumers.
