What can an always-on in app messaging channel do for your business

Brands ranging from PayPal to Virgin Mobile to Walgreens have started to build in-app messaging channels to bring customer conversations into their apps.

Following on the super popular Venmo model, PayPal evolved their peer-to-peer payments experience to include messaging to make the act of paying a friend more fun and social.

Virgin Mobile created a messaging-powered support channel in their app that made asking for help as easy as messaging a friend.

Walgreens created a secure space for patients and coaches to continuously converse with one another for as long as necessary, until patients feel comfortable to take on the world.

Each of these brands utilizes the potential of in-app messaging to connect with customers, deepen their relationships, and provide a modern, unique brand experience.

Benefits of always-on, in-app messaging

Reduce friction at every stage of the customer journey by transforming customer communication into ongoing messaging conversations that inspire confidence, trust, and operate at the speed of NOW.

Here’s what in-app messaging can do for your business:

In-app messaging enables transactions

Always on messaging lets you offer concierge-like experiences that are personal and make customers feel cared for, and create a sense of connection. This can help build relationships to lead customers to repeat purchase, especially in marketplace apps.

In-app messaging can help prospective buyers get their questions answered, and support issues responded to, which can significantly accelerate the path to purchase.

Messaging in-app can be a visual medium, as well. By showcasing product photos, videos, or webpages in your chat, you can create a catalog within your conversation–one that’s relevant to your user. You can integrate buying, sending receipts, shipping updates, back-in-stock alerts, reviews, and returns all within the same conversation.

Messaging doesn’t just drive sales at the moment–it connects you with customers in an ongoing way that enables follow-up and re-engagement.

Integrate with payments systems, notifications systems, e-commerce systems, inventory management systems, or any other type of database. With Sendbird, you can put a fun and friendly messaging experience in front of any of your transactional systems.

Support customers at scale

Exceed customer expectations by optimizing your support team’s efficiency with messaging-based support conversations.

In-app messaging allows customers to communicate with your business without waiting on hold or repeating support issues to multiple agents. Messaging history makes it impossible for users to lose connection with you and have to start their process over.

In-app chat also doesn’t have to mean service representatives are available 24/7. Customers can start a conversation with a self-serve bot and seamlessly transition to an agent when one becomes available.

Traveloka switched from Zendesk live chat to Sendbird’s messaging-based support channel inside their app, which has become their #1 customer communication channel.

You can integrate customer data into any messaging conversation for a personalized customer conversation — by connecting with your CRM. Connect with your support desk and marketing automation platform to make the most of existing tools.

In addition to messaging-based support, iFood has also added messaging to its consumer and driver apps to allow both parties to communicate with one another. Before in-app messaging, consumers and drivers communicated via text and phone. These two options could have been more reliable as they could fail due to the wrong phone numbers specified in the account profile. With app-based messaging, iFood decreased customer support calls related to never delivered orders by 33%.

Re-engage customers through personalization

A large fintech company achieved a 5% CTR powering marketing messages with Sendbird, compared to 2-3% CTR through push notifications and SMS.

Re-engaging lapsed users is a major benefit of in-app messaging because messaging conversations enable businesses to send personalized and timely messages that drive action. You can send proactive messages across the customer journey to deepen engagement or accelerate sales that might not have happened before.

Customers can opt-in to message, periodically reconfirm interest, and can opt out at any time.

Send transactional and in-product message

Messaging allows businesses to send operational messages to onboard users, product tips, or targeted messages that nudge users to engage with new features in your app.

You can also send payment reminders to customers that drive action or in-context surveys together insights about what users think about your app.

Customer can easily access their messages in organized areas when they need to.

Socially engage users

At PicPay, users who are socially engaged on features like messaging are making 2x more transactions and 2.4 times more likely to be retained on the platform, in addition to having 53% higher average ticket spend. PicPay is literally turning conversations into transactions.

Messaging conversations also allow you to create groups of users, customers, and business users based on interests, topics, and events to facilitate a new kind of customer conversation from community and loyalty to a brand.

Build the exact messaging solution your business needs

Sendbird is a headless messaging service with an optional flexible UI, so you can power an advanced messaging experience inside your app, and customize it to look exactly how you want — colors, fonts, screens, whatever your application needs are. And because this is your app, it will natively integrate into any use case or workflow.

Sendbird integrates deeply inside your app’s fabric so that the messaging conversations channel is truly yours — customized in ways that make your unique workflows, use cases, and brand come to life.