With Podium Webchat and Feedback, you can leverage customer chat to deliver memorable experiences that show customers you’re more than just a business.

When considering the purchase of a new product or service, what brands immediately come to mind? Likely ones that previously delivered a meaningful experience. Companies that bring their customers’ needs to the forefront have the most success in developing repeat business. How can you use customer chat to deliver remarkable experiences to your customer base? 

With Webchat and Feedback, you can establish an open channel for free-flowing customer chat with potential customers. This makes it easy to offer an attentive, concierge-style experience that customers crave. 

 

Give Customer Communication a VIP Touch

When was the last time a business did something unique that made you feel special? Reports show 58 percent of customers say they will spend more money with a business that provides top-notch customer service. 

Podium Webchat gives you the unparalleled ability to offer a rare, white-glove customer service experience. Webchat arms you with a complete record of a customer’s interactions with your company. With this powerful insight, you can send exclusive offers, suggest targeted companion products, or send helpful articles that best apply to their specific set of circumstances. 

Be the Hero When Your Customer Needs You the Most

Urgent questions require immediate replies. Customers might need to schedule a clinic appointment, find a locksmith, or learn how quickly they can have a tire repaired. Customers with pressing questions are not in the mood to wait. If they feel their questions are being ignored, they will quickly move onto a competitor. 

For customers under stress, there is only a critical window of time for you to engage with them. When response time is of the essence, Webchat’s real-time messaging lets you quickly ease customer anxiety. Your customer will see you as the hero and trust your business for future needs. 

Bring in Immediate Business by Answering Last-Minute Questions

These days, business owners don’t have the luxury of replying to customer questions at their leisure. Customers are no longer tethered to landlines at home or tied to their desks; they can now ask last-minute questions while on the go. Perhaps they are just around the corner from your business, confused about where to find parking. They may ask about your closing hours as they are leaving a nearby meeting or want to stop in while rushing to pick their kids up from school. This is why business text messaging has emerged as its own customer service channel.

In these types of situations, you’ll lose the customer if you don’t answer within a small window of time. You don’t want to miss questions from customers that are “on the way.” Ignored customers will bypass your business or push the visit to the following week. By that time, they have likely forgotten about you altogether. With Webchat, you can significantly increase your walk-in business by communicating with customers on their schedules.

 

two customers at a table

 

Find Out Customer Attitudes in Real-Time

Have you ever received a survey from a company long after doing business with them? By that time, you’ve likely forgotten the details of your positive experience. Even worse, you’ve already spread details of your negative experience to friends and family. 

With Feedback, you can send immediate surveys and hear back within minutes. Surveys live right in the text message and do not require clicking off to separate or lengthy pages. With this convenient method, customers are far more likely to reveal their opinions, so you can capture customer enthusiasm or quickly fix a problem. 

Reach Customers when the Time is Right

Take advantage of real-time communication by treating your customers to delightful, unexpected experiences. Imagine a customer vacationing at a resort with questions about the happy hour menu or pool hours. While an offer sent via email might get read days later, 90 percent of text messages are read within three seconds. With Webchat, you can follow up with personalized, exclusive offers like free poolside appetizers or upgrade reservations to the best seat in the house. 

Perhaps a customer reached out with a question while wandering a trade show or convention. With an ill-timed reply, the customer might already be home or back in their hotel room. With a real-time reply, you can answer questions on the spot and invite a customer to visit your booth for a special giveaway. 

Showcase Your Business’s Expertise and Unique Personality

People enjoy doing business with actual people—not robots. Podium Webchat is an easy way to humanize your business and share its unique personality with the world. Show your customers they are more than just dollar signs by communicating via friendly, accessible platforms like text messaging. 

Podium Webchat gives you the opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. You’ll be the immediate go-to when customers have questions or need another product like yours in the future.

 

Handle Customer Concerns with Care

What leads customers to file complaints via social media? Polls show 70 percent of customers are driven by the desire to share their negative experiences with other consumers. Using Webchat, customers have an easy, convenient way to reach you through your website. You can instantaneously discuss issues and concerns before they spread onto the web like wildfire. Your caring, transparent response will instead leave a positive impression: one you won’t mind that they share with friends and family. 

Find out potential issues in advance by sending out targeted surveys with Podium Feedback. You can proactively solve a simmering problem before it boils over into internet ire. 

 

Maintain a Consistent Connection with Your Customer Base

Do you ever feel like your week ended in the blink of an eye? Depending on your business, you might get stuck behind a computer or tethered to your production facility. With a never-ending to-do list, it’s easy for a week to fly by without having any meaningful conversations with your customers. 

With Webchat, you can maintain relationships with your customers no matter what the day brings. People are far more likely to reach out to you when they can use convenient methods like text messaging. Webchat makes it easy for you to stay involved in customer conversations and uncover new intel about your product experience. It might even inspire an idea for a brand new product.

 

Get Podium Webchat and Feedback

Stand out from the crowd by treating your customers to an exclusive, VIP-style experience. Instead of using customer service to answer standalone questions, you can use it to develop meaningful, long-term customer relationships. While other companies continue to offer average customer service, you can use Webchat and Feedback to transform this area into a meaningful profit center. 

James+James Furniture noticed a declining rate of customer interactions. While the company was well-known for creating customizable furniture, requests slowed. To provide customers with an easy way to ask questions, James+James Furniture added Webchat to their website. Questions started flowing in, and the average Webchat user ended up spending 15 percent more than those that didn’t.

Popping up in the familiar, friendly place of a customer’s text inbox also helped James+James Furniture provide a personal touch that other businesses couldn’t. The company was able to gain trust with potential customers by communicating in a more personable way. Webchat helped James+James Furniture extend its unique level of personalization into the customer service sphere. 

Matt Boyce
Matt Boyce Head of SMB Marketing

Matt Boyce is a marketing and business professional at Podium, the premiere messaging platform that connects local businesses with their customers.

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