Communication is truly at the core of everything you do within the business world, from sales and marketing, to managing a company, its operations and its employees. The ways in which we communicate have changed dramatically in recent years, beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic. Business leaders sought out new technology that would facilitate collaboration and communication by bridging the gaps that were created by social distancing, quarantine and the work-from-home movement. The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred Digital Transformation at all levels, with great emphasis on business communication technology, such as instant messaging apps and collaboration platforms.
Sales Teams and the Client Acquisition and Client Retention Challenges
Few business spaces have seen a tremendous need for user-friendly business messaging apps like we’ve seen in the sales and marketing space. Sales teams have endured intense struggles surrounding client acquisition and client retention in this (post?) pandemic business world. They’ve been left to seek out business communication tools for messaging colleagues, but these IM apps must also allow them to engage with clients and customers. And therein lies the problem. A client is hesitant to install yet another messaging app in order to connect with a single sales rep. Subsequently, sales professionals must meet clients where they are in terms of messaging technology, but this can pose problems in the realm of regulatory compliance.
Let’s say a banker needs to text a client, but this will result in non-compliance and violation of record-keeping laws. In fact, the banking industry is one of the most heavily-regulated in existence. But it’s just a couple messages, right? That can’t be too harmful…can it? Actually, nearly a dozen major banks learned the hard way that this scenario holds great potential to be financially devastating. A total of 11 banks were fined a combined $1.8 billion dollars for using WhatsApp and other consumer-grade messaging apps to communicate with clients. This led to record keeping violations and precedent-setting fines in the hundreds of millions of dollars range for each financial institution.
The need to communicate with and engage customers or clients is clear cut. Sales professionals need an instant messaging app that’s regulatory compliant and, ideally, allows them to meet the client where they are in terms of their messaging platform.
SayHey Messenger® is an example of one business messaging mobile app that allows for in-office communication with colleagues and there are also external messaging capabilities. The external messaging feature lets a salesperson send and receive SMS messages to a client or customer from the SayHey Messenger® interface. So you meet the client where they are and you remain fully compliant when it comes to data retention and record keeping requirements.
How Do You Increase Client Retention and Client Acquisition With Instant Messaging Apps?
Now that we’ve overcome the challenges of messaging clients and staying fully compliant with record keeping laws and regulatory requirements, let’s shift our focus to client acquisition and retention. Business IM apps deliver lots of benefits when it comes to a salesperson’s client acquisition and retention efforts. Here is a look at a few of these advantages.
More Frequent Communication – The fast, easy nature of instant messages allows for more frequent communication with customers and clients. More engagement increases your chances of closing the sale and keeping a client on-board for the long term.
Align With the Way We Naturally Communicate – Text messages align with the way that we’re naturally inclined to communicate. For example, we usually speak and think in short bursts; one idea at a time. IMs are just like this, with each text conveying an idea or concept. It’s easy to communicate this way and it’s also easy to absorb and digest as the message recipient. Texting is a useful mechanism for client acquisition and retention.
More Likely to Be Read – Text messages are far more likely to be read when compared to long-form messages such as an email. What’s more, our mobile device is rarely beyond arm’s reach, which makes texts highly available, so to speak. This bodes well for client engagement and more engagement leads to more conversions and better client retention rates.
Clients Read Them Sooner – The average timeframe for reading a new email is 90 minutes. Compare to SMS text messages, which have an average read rate of just 90 seconds! Again, this improved engagement allows for improved client acquisition and retention.
Pull in a Client With Greater Ease – It’s far easier to pull in a client for a re-engagement call or meeting when you use instant messaging since these texts are more likely to be read (and read quickly, in most cases!)
Less Pressure on the Client – Texts and instant messages tend to feel a bit less formal and more relaxed than an email or even a phone call. For this reason, they tend to carry less pressure than what you might experience with another communication channel. Low pressure sales techniques are often more effective, leading to more closed deals and a better chance of retaining a client over the long term.
Consider these text message versus email stats on response time, response rate and open rate.
Additionally, you can use instant messaging apps for business communications with colleagues, leading to a more connected sales team. A team structure offers lots of benefits from a strategic perspective and from a practical perspective.
The right business messaging app can be a tremendously advantageous sales tool, giving you a competitive advantage in even the most competitive fields.
Streamlining Communications With a Business Messaging App
SayHey Messenger® is a unique and regulatory-compliant business instant messaging platform that solves many of the challenges that companies face when it comes to communication. The team at 7T developed SayHey Messenger® as a method for patching the holes in your company’s messaging situation.
The SayHey Messenger® app features:
- Data sovereignty for control and ownership of all messaging data;
- Fully compliant instant messaging for regulated businesses;
- Seamlessly integrates into existing company software platforms;
- Admin portal for moderation, auditing, and inclusivity;
- SayHey Spaces for company-wide broadcasts and team collaborations;
- Engaging, intuitive user interface for incredible adoption rates;
- Send compliant SMS messages to external users with full data retention; and
- Custom UI with your logo, colors and branding elements for a style that’s all yours.
SayHey Messenger® offers two deployments: a SayHey Messenger® Business deployment with a mobile app platform (for iOS and Android) and web app portal. There’s also SayHey Messenger® Enterprise deployments, which entail storing all messaging data in the client’s private cloud environment and the platform is fully integrated within the client’s existing software platforms, including mobile applications. This allows users to access their instant messages without leaving the screen, leading to greater productivity, higher user adoption rates and better efficiency.
Consider using SayHey Messenger® as your business messaging platform. And the best part? We can deploy this business messaging solution in a matter of days. Contact us today to learn more about SayHey Messenger®.
