Best practices for mobile customer service messaging
Customer service is an oft-discussed topic among business leaders.
It makes sense when you consider that customer service is where consumers interact with businesses the most — making it core to the overall customer experience (CX).
Suppose the customer service/support program at the heart of your CX strategy isn’t up to snuff. In that case, you will have an increasingly hard time as digital-native and conversation-savvy competitors enter the market.
Consider mobile-first customer service messaging as the solution.
Here’s everything you need to know about updating your customer service management strategies with mobile messaging, including:
Mobile customer service messaging definition and key methods
Why it’s critical to go mobile when it comes to modern customer support
Use cases showing mobile customer service in action across industries
Best practices for creating a successful mobile customer support program
Defining mobile customer service messaging
Mobile customer service messaging is any support your company provides its customers via mobile messages.
Mobile-first customer service messaging is delivered through a variety of channels. Reps may message customers on social media and instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp, if that’s where your customers communicate. However, the most popular channels for customer service messaging today, which we’ll explore shortly, are text messaging and in-app chat.
Customer service messaging via mobile-first channels is one of the latest developments for creating an omnichannel customer support experience.
Now, let’s explore what makes mobile an important frontier in omnichannel customer service delivery.
Why go mobile with customer support?
Conversational experiences that are flexible, seamless, and reflect real life are in demand.
Zendesk’s CX TRENDS 2023 report found that 71% of consumers want conversational experiences from the brands they interact with.
And leadership is listening.
The same report found that 75% of leaders plan to shift away from transaction-centered interaction and move toward conversation-based customer service.
One way to make customer service feel more human and natural is to deliver it where folks are already interacting with your brand.
With that in mind, it’s time to discuss the most effective channels.
Top mobile customer service messaging methods
There are two channels in particular that, thanks to a combination of accessibility and capability, dominate customer comms: SMS and in-app messaging.
Text-based customer service
Customer service text messaging is a widely-adopted method of delivering mobile-based customer support.
One of the foremost reasons for this is sheer popularity.
A survey by SimpleTexting found that more than half of people check their text messages at least 11 times a day. In 2022, 70% of consumers agreed to receive text messages from businesses — and 61% wanted to be able to text those businesses right back. On top of this, click-through rates (CTRs) for texts tend to be higher than for emails. It’s no surprise that the majority of decision-making participants said they planned to double down on their investments in customer service texting.
Texting is already a part of nearly every consumer’s daily life, so it’s no wonder that SMS for business customer service may soon be.
In-app customer service messaging
SMS-based customer service is an approachable way to start with mobile-first support.
While it aces the test when it comes to accessibility and popularity, where it drops off is in integration and richness of features.
To extend the functionality of your mobile-first customer service strategy and own your data within a fully branded experience, layer in a customizable and extendable in-app chat messaging experience using chat API.
At Sendbird, we’re creating and delivering the future of customer support through our in-app chat support platform that…
Feels as natural as using Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, yet integrates with third-party tools like CRMs and contact center solutions — even extending their functionality, such as with our Salesforce Connector
Supplements live agent interactions with hyper-personalized, yet scalable conversations enabled by ChatGPT AI-powered bots
Is fully maintained (and continually being improved) by our team, yet integrates into your app in a way that feels and looks native to your brand
To get started, integrate Sendbird into your existing workflow using our easy-to-follow SDK, tutorials, samples, and docs.
Or, adopt our all-in-one customer support help desk solution complete with chatbots, FAQ automations, ticket routing, real-time reporting and monitoring, and of course, all the third-party extensions you could possibly need.
Virgin Mobile UAE improved their CSAT with Sendbird Desk.
5 use cases for mobile-first customer support
Where does mobile customer service messaging work? Pretty much everywhere.
Finance
Questions and concerns around finances can be urgent and, sometimes, even uncomfortable for customers. Calm nerves and reinforce trust with fast and convenient answers via a highly-secure mobile customer support channel — like the in-app chat Sendbird provides.
Healthcare
Having a HIPAA-compliant chat platform is critical to hosting private and personal communications, whether about administrative tasks or patient care.
Retail
Answer questions, make personalized suggestions, and reduce friction throughout the e-commerce journey to increase conversions, retention, and referrals.
On-demand services
Expect the unexpected when it comes to delivering goods or services. If anything goes sideways, instant mobile customer support provides a path for a resolution to reduce cancellations and negative reviews.
Professional services
No matter your profession, with mobile customer service, you can always connect with customers and leads in real-time to close deals quickly, improve satisfaction, and build lasting relationships.
7 best practices for effective mobile customer service
Upgrade your mobile customer service messaging strategy with these tips.
Lighten the load using community and self-service
The 2022 Digital-First Customer Experience Report from NICE found that 81% of consumers are seeking more self-service options. Only 15% would classify themselves as “very satisfied” with the self-service options available to them currently.
In other words, give the people what they want by providing self-service customer support channels such as:
A searchable knowledge base
Smart chatbots that field the simple stuff
A built-in community (the first element of a social plus app) where your customers can interact and help one another without rep input
Go async to resolve issues faster
No matter how large your customer support team is, it probably can’t be online all the time. That’s when async customer service messaging comes into play.
Async messaging means a customer can send a message at any time, and one of your reps can send a response back as soon as they’re able.
A mobile customer service platform that supports async messaging means more agents have a chance to respond, shortening response time — and isn’t that the ultimate metric of success in customer service?
Let go of FIFO
We advise not to rely on the first in, first out (FIFO) ticket basis.
If you have any kind of volume of support messages, it’s better to develop a system for prioritizing and routing inquiries.
Many customer service platforms do this by starting every conversation with an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, which can categorize and prioritize queries, attach them to existing customer accounts where possible, answer simple questions, redirecting people to the right human agent whenever necessary.
With a system like this, you can free up time for agents to respond to more complex issues and high-value customers.
Reduce channel and rep transfers to improve the support experience
It used to be common for a customer service rep to need to transfer an inquiry to a different channel, and even a different agent, once a case reached a certain level of complexity.
Unfortunately, when that happens, there is often a delay, and context can go missing. This results in decreased customer satisfaction — especially if the issue they came to you with was already frustrating.
But with a robust customer service messaging platform like Sendbird, agents should be able to handle everything a case has to throw at them with features including:
Messaging templates
Audio, video, and image capabilities
Group chats
Chat history and search
Translation
Read receipts and push notifications for new messages
And plenty more
Build customer relationships through proactive outreach
A customer who’s opted in to receiving mobile messages + a detailed profile of their preferences and interactions with your brand = the perfect combination for delivering proactive messaging about promotions and new offerings.
Using a powerful mobile customer service platform, support and marketing teams can work closely to deliver personalized and proactive customer interactions that deepen relationships.
Promote your customer service messaging to boost usage
When it comes to customer support, consumers often look for an answer quickly.
That means they won’t take much time to consider all the messaging channels you offer. The first one they see is probably the first one they’re going to engage with. To provide the best experience possible, you want to ensure mobile is that channel.
Once you've got your mobile customer care strategy nailed down, promote it! Make your in-app messaging feature obvious using a pop-up or a simple clickable icon at the bottom of the screen.
You want to be as available as possible and impress upon customers and leads that you’re committed to fast service as part of an excellent overall customer experience.
Don’t stop — keep pushing for omnichannel coverage
Implementing mobile-first customer service is an impeccable step in your march to becoming a leader in your industry.
But to cement the top spot in your space, you must keep striving for greatness.
A feasible way to do that is to keep layering relevant customer support channels into your CX strategy.
Deliver impeccable mobile customer service with Sendbird
With Sendbird, effective, easy-to-integrate, and customizable mobile customer service is at your fingertips with our in-app chat support solution.
Sign up to try Sendbird’s customer service software for free, check out a demo, or contact sales. Sendbird is ready to supercharge your app so you can deploy customer journeys that generate better engagement, conversions, and retention.
