Social channel interconnection is a must-have element in an intelligent engagement strategy.
Facebook (including Facebook Messenger) and WeChat reached a critical milestone earlier this year. Together they have more than 3B monthly active users – just over 1B monthly active users use WeChat, and more than 3.3B monthly active users are on Facebook and Facebook Messenger. Facebook (with WhatsApp and Messenger) and WeChat simply run a duopoly.
Figure 1: Facebook, WeChat, and other top social messaging networks (Source: Statista)
The duopoly may have its flip side, but it also helps enterprises standardize on platforms for social engagement. There is sufficient market research to highlight social messaging platforms as a powerful tool for engagement, and in particular for driving speedy customer service.
A 2017 American Express Customer Experience Barometer report cites speed of response (41% of respondents) as a top customer experience need. A recent survey by SproutSocial (a social engagement platform) found 34.5% respondents listing social media as the #1 choice for reporting problems or issues with products or services.
Enterprises aren’t there yet
A whopping 40% of enterprises don’t even have social channel support (see Figure 2, below). And empirically, the evidence is even stronger. For example, as a consumer, I still have to reach my 1-800 # to get to my Xfinity service, my bank, and even a retail store such as Lowes!
Figure 2: % of contact centers adopting social channels for customer care (Source: ICMI)
Challenges exist—particularly in terms of back-end integrations to deliver real-time responsiveness.
Intelligent enterprise social channel interconnect can help. Already, some of the world’s leading banks and brands are delivering critical notifications to their consumers as SMS. And it is fairly simple to integrate an enterprise back-end with SMS communication.
By providing interconnect to social platforms such as Facebook and WeChat as well as smaller ones such as Line, Viber, and Telegram, we are simplifying enterprises’ ability to engage with their audience and deliver real-time communication integrated with their back-end systems.
To get a quick view of how this works, just look up “SAP Intelligent Notification 365” on your Facebook Messenger and register with your mobile number. Type “help” for further instructions, or connect with us here.
This article originally appeared on The Future of Customer Engagement and Commerce.
