The new-day customer has changed, especially in the post-pandemic era, demanding prompt and engaging customer service. With the world turning digital on every front, brands now compete for customer attention along with loyalty and business. Consumers today want convenience and time-saving attributes above others. So, brands must engage with users on their preferred platforms and offer a seamless and uniform CX in real-time.

While this sounds challenging, thanks to an array of customer engagement tools, it’s not difficult. Modern-day customer engagement tools offer a gamut of features that help brands go above and beyond in talking to and servicing customers in ways not possible earlier. They can not only help businesses retain customers but also attract new customers more effortlessly and affordably.

There are numerous customer engagement tools varying as per their use, platform, and interactivity. Choosing the one best suited for your business can be a bit tricky. However, this article will help you get started by answering a couple of pronging questions and listing down some must-have engagement tools suitable for every business.

Why should you invest in customer engagement tools?

How to select the best-suited customer engagement tools for your business?

You cannot take a one size fits all approach while choosing the right customer engagement tools for your business. You have to consider several things like your business model, product, budget, and, most importantly, what your customers would want. Choose customer engagement tools that help you reach your customers on their preferred platforms for the best results.

Some other considerations to make while choosing engagement tools include.

Choosing engagement tools that fit your needs warrants research. But in the meanwhile, to help you get started, we have listed down some of the best customer engagement tools that will help you deliver an enhanced customer experience.

Chatbots

In the digital world, the customer wants instant answers at any given moment. Catering to such needs with huge call centers and 1000s of customer care executives is a monumental human and financial effort. However, you can plug this gap with chatbots, offering 24/7 customer support without breaking the bank.

Chatbots can be programmed to handle minor everyday queries, providing engaging 2-way conversations in real-time. Chatbots can also be the entry point for complex queries, collecting necessary information about the customer and their query before seamlessly transferring the call to a customer executive. The customer executive can use this collated information to offer a quick and satisfactory resolution. Moreover, using the collated data, you can market personalized offers and offer anticipatory support, improving customer retention.

Push notifications

In the smartphone era, with ample storage, you are no longer competing for space but attention. Customers do not hesitate from downloading apps, and all you need to do is remind them of your brand in a relevant and timely manner. And the right push notification strategy can make you unforgettable.

Push notifications enjoy an opening rate of 90%, which is 50% higher than email opening rates. Moreover, they also want a click-through rate that is 7x higher than emails. However, studies also show that one push notification a week can cause 10% of users to disable notifications and 6% of users to uninstall the app. So, you ought to be careful with push notifications. Not only do you have to be relevant, but you also ensure that you do not spam your customers.

Rich Communication Services (RCS)

A2P messaging is the fundamental pillar of every brand’s marketing outreach strategy, and SMS is the king of A2P messaging. However, with OTT platforms full of interactive features like chat, high-res videos, images and gifs, and suggested action buttons, SMS falls paler in comparison. With its character and feature limitations, SMS does not have the same effect on consumers. However, it still enjoys reach, penetration, and a higher open rate than email and other OTT platforms. So, if only there were some way to upgrade SMS.

RCS upgrades SMS with OTT-like features, making it more interactive, engaging, and trustworthy. Complete with OTT-like interactive features, you can offer a seamless, interactive, and engaging within the phone’s native messaging environment to app-weary users. With RCS, you can elevate a consumer’s drab-looking, text-heavy SMS experience to an interactive chat window with your brand’s logo and a verification mark, instilling trust and delivering a contextually relevant, engaging, real-time CX.

So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with your SMS aggregators and ask them about RCS today! To know more about how RCS can elevate your A2P messaging, contact us.

OTT platforms

An impactful customer engagement strategy is necessary to acquire and retain customers successfully. So, irrespective of your business type, you need customer engagement tools. Customer engagement tools are easy to use and ensure that you streamline and implement your customer engagement strategy effectively in a hassle-free manner. So, choose the right ones to deliver an unforgettable, seamless, and engaging customer experience today!