To build unbreakable relationships with your customers, see social messaging differently

For most businesses and customers, social media is becoming their primary communication channel and a catalyst for building relationships with one another. It’s the public social profiles, posts and ads that make it possible to reach a wide audience, but it’s the private, personalized experiences with businesses that bode well for customer loyalty.

Starting today, Sprout Social will be expanding Messenger API support for Instagram for customers in phases over the coming months. This new functionality enables businesses to manage customer conversations initiated on the network with greater efficiency while providing a more engaging, cohesive customer experience.

Martha O’Byrne-O’Reilly, Head of Messaging Developer Partnerships at Facebook, shares Sprout’s passion for business messaging as a way for brands to build unbreakable relationships with customers. We recently sat down with O’Byrne-O’Reilly to discuss the ways companies can use social messaging to take their business to the next level.

What role does social messaging play in the customer experience?

MOO: When we think about the ways we interact with businesses, the communication methods available to us are all over the map. You might sign up for text alerts to get a discount, order a product online, get a confirmation email but then need to call a service number to get customer support. The customer experience is extremely disjointed.

Twilio commissioned a survey and found that only two out of 10 people in the U.S., Great Britain and Australia thought businesses were effectively communicating with their customers. People today have lost their tolerance for friction in any form. They want to engage on their own time and in their channel of choice, which is increasingly social messaging.

Social messaging is convenient, accessible and efficient, for both customers and businesses. That’s why more than 3.1 billion people and 180 million businesses, from Fortune 500 companies to independent coffee shops, use our family of apps to communicate with one another every month–numbers that have almost doubled in the last few years.

What other factors have influenced the shift to social messaging?

MOO: 2020 was a challenging year, but at the same time, it was a year of accelerated digital transformation. While everyone around the world sheltered-in-place, people relied on messaging to stay connected with friends, loved ones and businesses. During the height of the pandemic, total daily conversations on Facebook apps grew by over 50%, and voice and video calling on Messenger and Whatsapp doubled.

Small and mid-sized businesses are adopting messaging for the first time in lieu of in-person interactions to show and sell their products. We’re also seeing larger, enterprise companies invest in messaging as storefronts go digital or call centers become remote and the volume of customer support inquiries increase.

Messaging is not a fleeting trend though. It’s here to stay, especially as use cases expand beyond one-on-one communication and customer care.