There are tens—if not hundreds—of small daily tasks to keep up with customer communication as your e-commerce business grows. Wouldn’t it be nice if most of these tasks could be completed through automation, giving your team more time for complex customer service issues?
Don’t worry, if you’re not there already—we can help. This post will show you how you can scale your customer support with business messaging automation, so you can give your agents more time and reduce operational costs.
Let’s get started!
What is business messaging automation?
Business messaging automation is the process of using technology to automatically send marketing, sales, and support messages to new and existing customers. It can work in two ways:
- Pre-set alerts or replies that a chatbot sends to customers
- Chatbot responses powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that allows them to understand customer intent and provide relevant responses
Automated messaging can let you respond to customers promptly around the clock (even outside of your typical business hours) which can also allow your e-commerce business to meet global scalability. Best of all, the majority of customers are happy to communicate with you in this way. According to a recent study by Verizon,1 56% of customers are comfortable with fully automated interactions, as long as the company “demonstrates a good understanding of their preferences, attitudes or other personal attributes” when sending automated responses.
What are the benefits of automated business messaging?
Automated business messaging can be a win for e-commerce businesses and their customers. It can give consumers a quick, convenient way to reach brands and help companies reduce overhead costs without sacrificing the quality of their customer communication and service.
Zendesk’s latest customer experience report2 found that companies who were surveyed who excel in customer service invest in technologies like automated business messaging.
The study found that high-performing businesses are almost seven times more likely to have already implemented conversational customer service capabilities like messaging apps to send automated responses to customers.
Here’s why investing in automated business messaging via these types of channels can be worth it.
Consumers love messaging platforms
If you’re worried about customers finding messaging impersonal, don’t be. Research shows that many consumers enjoy messaging brands.
According to Spectrm’s 2022 report:3
- 40% of customers polled reported that they prefer using WhatsApp to communicate with brands because it’s faster than other options.
- 34% said that it’s the most convenient channel for talking with companies
Zendesk’s customer experience report2 also found that customer queries via WhatsApp and other similar apps increased by 36% over the course of 2021—higher than any other customer communication channel.
These stats don’t just mean that customers are happy to message brands. It also means they may be inclined to spend more. Zendesk2 found that 93% of customers “will spend more with companies that offer their preferred option to reach customer service.”
Scalability
The e-commerce sector continues to grow. Morgan Stanley predicts4 that the e-commerce market “could increase from $3.3 trillion today to $5.4 trillion in 2026.”
Without automation, e-commerce businesses would be forced to hire more live agents to meet growing customer demands. Automated messaging can empower businesses to scale their operations to handle more customer interactions efficiently and more effectively.
With increased adoption, Juniper research5 found that chatbots leveraged for customer service could save retailers $439 million globally by 2023—a huge leap from $7 million annually in 2019.
Not only is business messaging expected to save businesses money, it’s also expected to help drive revenue. According to Gartner predicts6 40% of those surveyed felt that customer service will no longer be seen as an expense, but a significant profit driver by 2025.
Fast response times
Today’s customers expect rapid responses from businesses:
- Zendesk’s 2022 customer experience report2 found that 76% of respondents felt that customers “expect to engage with someone immediately when contacting a company.”
- Spectrm’s recent survey3 found that 56% of customers believe that brands could improve their experiences by responding to messages faster.
- The Spectrm survey3 also found that customers expect a response within a few minutes, and slow responses were the number one thing that resulted in negative customer experiences for them.
Messaging automation can give customers the quick replies that they want.
24/7 global communication
E-commerce is growing across the world in many different markets. eMarketer7 reports that China is currently the largest retail e-commerce market and accounts for 52% of total worldwide sales. Rapid e-commerce growth can also be seen in the UK, Japan, South Korea, and Germany.
Automated messaging can help you grow globally by allowing your business to respond to customers 24/7, regardless of time zones. Multilingual chatbots can also recognize the language the customer is using and respond accordingly.
For a deeper dive into how automated chatbot messaging can power global growth for e-commerce businesses, check out this blog post.
Collects customer data
Any department (sales, marketing, customer service) can use automated messaging to collect feedback from customers— specifically from younger generations. According to Forrester,8 Gen Z prefers to provide feedback in a more conversational way instead of answering “a generic list of questions,” which is exactly what messaging apps offer.
Your customer support team can send customers simple surveys after interactions that ask them to rate their experiences (thumbs up or down, star rating, etc.).
To see more examples of how you can use WhatsApp to survey customers, refer to this resource from QuickReply.ai.9
4 examples of automated e-commerce messaging
Messaging apps like WhatsApp are one of the most popular channels for sending automated business messages. They integrate easily with a majority of popular e-commerce platforms, so they’re pretty easy to set up.
And while some say that automated messages are impersonal, they can make customers feel right at home if set up well.
Not sure what types of automated messaging your e-commerce brand could benefit from? Here are a few ideas to get started.
Welcome messages
Automated welcome messages are a great way to introduce your business and products to new customers and to help you engage them in real-time.
Eco-friendly bag producers Chéel used automated welcome messages via WhatsApp to break the ice with new customers and introduce them to the brand’s vision and mission.
Within three months of starting to use WhatsApp to communicate with customers, Chéel saw a 70% increase in sales.*
*All results are self-reported and not identically repeatable. Generally expected individual results will differ.
Away messages
Send automated away messages when a customer contacts your business beyond its working hours. Acknowledge customer inquiries and let them know that you have received their message and will respond to them shortly.
Away messages offer immediate responses and can assure customers that you aren’t neglecting them, even when you’re not able to address their issues right away.
Check out this resource to see just how easy it is to set up away messages via WhatsApp Business.
Special offers and discounts codes
Spectrm3 found that 47% of customers “want brands to offer personalized offers and deals to them through WhatsApp, based on their preferences.”
One of the easiest ways to send customers special offers and discounts is with QR codes.
When a customer scans the code, it immediately takes them to the deal that you’re promoting. To increase the chances of sparking a conversation, you can even create a pre-populated message that customers can quickly edit and send once they open your short link.
Check out this resource to see how easy it is to use QR codes in WhatsApp.
ChatWith.io also offers an excellent resource on how to create and send coupons via WhatsApp Business.10
Cart abandonment reminders and order tracking
Customer communication in every phase of your sales funnel can be supported with messaging apps. Automated reminders can be used to re-engage customers that might have forgotten about a product that they previously showed interest in.
A good example of a tool that is built specifically for e-commerce is Shopify’s “WhatsApp Abandoned Cart & Chat11 app,” which offers:
- Automated abandoned cart recovery
- Automated order confirmation, shipping alert, and cash on delivery (COD) verification
- Automated review collection
- Automated off-hours chat support
Fashion retailer Modanisa used WhatsApp chatbots to solve customer concerns about orders, returns, cancellations, and deliveries in five different languages. Custom WhatsApp chatbots equipped with AI capabilities to recognize customer intent enabled the brand to solve 70% of customer inquiries without live support and cut call center costs by 36%.*
*All results are self-reported and not identically repeatable. Generally expected individual results will differ.
Business messaging automation is easy with WhatsApp Business Platform
To encourage sales, communicate on the channels that your customers prefer to use. That channel is increasingly becoming WhatsApp Business Platform. Spectrm3 found that 69% of customers “are more likely to buy from a brand if there’s a WhatsApp option available” to them.
WhatsApp Business Platform can be easily integrated with many leading e-commerce platforms and offers many great options for automating customer messaging, including:
- Automated message flows for FAQs, auto-replies, or away messages to reduce the response time and answer questions conversationally.
- Automate sales and marketing processes that introduce your products and services and share your WhatsApp business catalog.
- Automate proactive notification templates that target customers who have opted in to receive updates on things like abandoned cart status, order confirmations, or payment reminders.
Learn more about how the WhatsApp Business Platform can help drive your e-commerce brand’s growth with automated messaging solutions.
