Why Messenger is the best VOC Solution for Bricks & Mortar Businesses
You know customer feedback is essential to running your retail chain, restaurant group or similar multi-location business. You want to be able to benchmark outlet performance and determine why one outlet is performing better or worse than others. You know that once a customer has left the premises dissatisfied, the chances of them returning are slim to none. That’s why you invest in mystery shoppers and have probably tried in-store machines or online surveys to try to get feedback straight from your customers’ mouths.
But do you still feel you’re not capturing enough feedback? That’s probably because:
- your online survey gets really low engagement and/or completion rates are low;
- the in-store machine captures so little information that it’s hard to pinpoint what the issues are and it doesn’t let you follow up with customers;
- you can’t afford to do mystery shops more than once a quarter and you know that, although very useful, mystery shoppers are not real customers.
Why Messenger is the best way to capture feedback in bricks & mortar businesses
There is a new way to capture structured store-specific feedback in chain stores. We recently launched a feedback solution that captures customer feedback via the messaging apps consumers love using, starting with Facebook Messenger. There are three core reasons why Messenger is the perfect tool to capture feedback:
1. Survey Engagement Rates are Higher
We have seen engagement rates of up to 20% in both retail outlets and restaurants. Those rates have been achieved with the help of incentives (e.g. prize draws), but the incentives are very much in line with what is being offered for the completion of online surveys. The reasons engagement is higher are:
- Messenger has nearly 150 million monthly active users in the USA alone (around 1.3 billion worldwide). It is the way consumers communicate with each other and they are comfortable using it. They also know they can easily block you if you send them spam.
- Messenger has built in engagement tools that work very well in physical locations. Messenger Codes work the same way as a QR code but they work seamlessly with the Messenger app, instantly starting a conversation with our feedback bot. See the GIF to see how that works. Customers can also just search for your Messenger name in the app, which is equally as efficient. No typing long URLs here.
- Messaging apps were designed for the small screen so there is no difficulty completing the survey in-store.
2. Data Quality is Excellent
Volume is one thing. Quality data is quite another. You want to be sure you’re making decisions based on sound information. Messenger really excels here and if you are using the right tool to display the data and asked by the right questions, you will quickly uncover all sorts of things you did not know about your business.
- Messaging surveys are delivered in a conversation like way, one question at a time. This is much more engaging than a long list of questions. Customers are only thinking about the question at hand rather than scanning the next 3 questions on the list.
- Messenger’s quick reply feature is much more engaging and flexible than radial buttons and beautifully facilitates asking questions like NPS, CSAT and more.
- Messaging lends itself to short interactive experiences. That’s why we keep our surveys short (max 7 or 8 questions) and include dynamic questions, which change based on the customer’s previous answer.
3. Closing the Feedback Loop is Quick and Easy
Asking a customer for feedback and putting that feedback to work to make your business better is great. But acting on an individual’s feedback and following up with is how you delight customers. This is your opportunity to turn detractors into promoters and drive more business to your outlets by building customer advocacy.
- Unlike practically every other channel where you have to capture a phone number or email address, on Messenger you are permanently connected to the customer (unless they block you or delete your conversation). That makes following up with a customer very easy and efficient
- Feedback is captured in real-time using messaging apps. Just think what that means. A customer finishes their meal and completes a survey. Before they have even stood up your restaurant manager has received a notification and can see the profile picture of the customer. She arrives at the table just as the customer is leaving and turns a negative experience into a positive one. That is what the customer will be telling their friends the next day in work. Not that their steak was overdone.
- Messaging is asynchronous, which means it can be live if both parties are available, but works equally well if messages are exchanged intermittently. That works very well in busy retail and restaurant environments, where your staff are busy when customers are on their downtime and your customers are busy (i.e. working) when things quieten down in the store. Using a tool like ServiceDock, your team can respond to customers when they have the chance. Customer will only get a notification on their phone rather than being disturbed by a follow-up phone call that might only serve to exacerbate the negative experience.
Conclusion
Messenger has nearly 150 million monthly active users in the USA alone (around 1.3 billion worldwide). That’s heading towards half the population, so no matter what the demographics of your customer base are, many of them will have Messenger on their phone (ServiceDock also offers a web messenger option to those customers who do not use messaging apps).
Whether you are a retailer, restaurateur or a service provider, customer experience is now a key battleground and messaging apps can play a key role in you beating the competition. If you want the best voice of customer solution for bricks and mortar businesses you need look no further than Messenger for the consumer facing element.
ServiceDock is the first Customer Experience Management platform using Messenger to capture customer feedback across multiple locations.
Originally published on the ServiceDock blog.
