Satya Ganni

Simple chat isn't the norm anymore. With how quickly tech is evolving to meet consumer expectations, it’s no wonder that you can’t download a chat or messaging app without getting a full suite of tools to make conversational experiences for just about anyone.

This type of chat is part of a new digital evolution. Previously, we had the rise of the web in the early 2000s, the introduction and acceleration of smartphones in the 2010s to now, and now we’re facing a new revolution influenced by conversations.

Due to COVID-19 and the rise of remote work, there’s been a rapid increase in mobile and web-based adaptation from platform to platform. With over 66% of remote workers making that choice due to the pandemic, it’s clear that chat is no exception to this rule.

We began with chat-only software and apps where the primary interactions were meant to entertain, and that was it. Companies like Public use chat to make “the stock market social,” promoting messaging as a means of social conversations and nothing beyond that.

Now, we’re able to explore this new wave of innovation in technology that’s pushing boundaries in how businesses and their customers communicate via chat and messaging.

Part of this is owed to recent generations and their attachment to smartphones and mobile devices. It’s no surprise then that 71% of millennials use chat apps on a daily basis, including Facebook Messenger, Apple iMessage, WhatsApp, Instagram Chat, and Snapchat.

The growth and impact of chat doesn’t stop there. More than 2 billion users are now accessing WhatsApp messenger, daily. On top of that, 29% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase with a live chat option on a website, and 43% of businesses have claimed that integrating live chat into their business reduced phone call inquiries.

While businesses are already accustomed to chat -- live support, chatbots, sales, engaging with users, etc. -- they’re still catching up to how chat technology is evolving from a simple feature to a main, full-featured platform where users can interact and stick around.

This is because businesses have been sticking to “old ways” of communicating with users for way too long. These old strategies -- from emails to classic phone call inquiries -- are no longer resonating with consumers.

Consumers are putting these expectations towards the brands they love. They don’t want to wonder where their messages went, how long they have to stick around for a response, or sacrifice more time than they expect catering to a business’s dated communication strategies.

In addition to WhatsApp, platforms like Facebook Messenger and Instagram Chat take up more than 50% of personal communication, while platforms like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams have taken up a whopping 80% of workplace communication.

Chat functions as a multifaceted “stream of conversation” for businesses. It serves a variety of industries and practices, from eCommerce payments, to order updates, to delivering cooking lessons, to targeted promotions and sales, to customer service and support, and more. This will expand from text chat to video and voice as well--effectively bringing people together even in times of crisis.

If businesses don’t adapt to adding these chat platforms to their user experiences, they’ll lose their customers to third-party channels.

Compared to how to chat software operated years ago, a full-featured chat and messaging platform is much more robust. They come with advanced SDKs and APIs, which serve as the “building blocks” for designers to use to craft unique messaging streams. This helps developers build customized chat experiences from scratch.

Everything a consumer needs (and wants) can now be found in a chat and messaging platform. They want simpler ways to browse and shop products, make transactions, ask questions, communicate with each other on entertainment apps, and more.

They’re no longer expecting just one feature from a business’s chat software. It’s come to a point where if businesses aren’t offering these conversational experiences, they’re less likely to get the same engagement and usage as their chat-smart competitors.

Businesses who add these chat apps into their organization understand the importance of conversational technology and how consumers are driving the ship for the chat software movement. They’re capitalizing on collaboration and human-based conversations.

Most will be hard-pressed to find chat software that doesn’t offer capabilities like sales channel engagement, digital payments and transactions, and live chat and shopping. It’s about how businesses adapt using these features that will affect how consumers see them.

On top of that, the real-time micro-interactions consumers are craving between them and the brand’s chat service are substantial in boosting a business’s credibility since 6 6% of consumers are “more confident about making a purchase when a company is active in messaging apps.”

Larger businesses are starting to jump on the bandwagon, too. Microsoft Teams grew from 20 million users to 145 million active users during COVID-19. On top of that, the 2020 Salesforce and Slack acquisition show how messaging has become a desirable feature for communication workflows for businesses.

Consumers are shifting to using messaging apps for personal communication, and relying on conversational apps to get business-related tasks done. This also helps in bringing consumers and brands across remote workforces together on a personal level.

Brands need to use messaging as the center point of a user’s experience. They need to start building their products, websites, and platforms around customer-driven conversations. They need to start implementing strategies shaped around what consumers want.

This is just one step towards a future powered by conversational experiences, and how chat software will start turning those ideas into profitable strategies.

To stay ahead of the game, businesses need to take chat seriously, and stop treating it as a one-note feature. They need to make it the center of the customer’s experience, so they can lock in customers that will come back again and again.

The businesses that don’t catch on will be left behind.

Satya Ganni

Austin, Texas Metropolitan Area

5K followers 500+ connections

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Austin, Texas Metropolitan Area 5K followers 500+ connections

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About

Experience

Userflow

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View Satya’s full profile

Other similar profiles

John Head

Charles Mah

Stephan Bajaio

Jeff Barr

Kin Lane

Jonathon Ende

Bruce Bennett

Travis Oliphant

Walter O'Brien

Eric Berg

Cleve Adams

Albert Kim

Yuri P.

Max Ciccotosto

Joel Dehlin

Michael Praeger

Sharran Srivatsaa

Gavin Fabian

Bettina Bennett

David Hadden

Explore collaborative articles

Others named Satya Ganni

Satya Pavan Ganni

Austin, Texas Metropolitan Area

5K followers 500+ connections

View mutual connections with Satya

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