Customer feedback is more crucial than ever. It tells us what customers love, where they are frustrated, and how we can improve.
But let’s face it: traditional feedback methods—think online surveys—are falling short. With low response rates, fake responses, and slow data processing, these methods just are not cutting it anymore. It is time for a change.
Enter messaging apps and artificial intelligence (AI). These tools have the potential to transform how we collect and act on feedback, making the process more interactive and effective. Let us dive into why this matters and how businesses can leverage these platforms.
The Problem with Traditional Surveys
Traditional surveys have their fair share of problems:
1. Non-responsiveness. Customers often ignore email surveys. Emails get lost in spam folders, people are tired of filling out surveys, or they just delete them without a second thought. With email open rates around 31 % in North America, it is hard to get reliable data this way.
2. Fake responses. People can manipulate traditional surveys. Some submit multiple, made-up responses using different identities either to skew the results or to collect incentives. This makes it hard to trust the data.
3. Delayed data handling. By the time we collect and process feedback through traditional methods, the information is often outdated. Decision-makers need real-time insights, not data that is weeks old.
These challenges create a disconnect between businesses and their customers. This leads to missed opportunities for improvement. To bridge this gap, we need more engaging, responsive, and reliable feedback methods.
…traditional feedback methods…are falling short. With low response rates, fake responses, and slow data processing, these methods just are not cutting it anymore.
The Rise of Messaging Apps
Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are changing the game for customer communication. With high engagement rates and widespread use, these platforms are perfect for collecting feedback. Consider these stats:
- WhatsApp. This app has over two billion users globally. In the U.S., over 100 million people use WhatsApp, with a 9% growth in 2023 alone. In the second quarter of 2024, more than five million iOS users in the U.S. downloaded WhatsApp.
- Facebook Messenger. With 194 million users in the U.S., Facebook Messenger is a major player. Globally, over 1.3 billion people use it. In 2022, Messenger saw 262.5 million downloads, underscoring its popularity (SEE CHART).
Clearly, messaging apps are not just popular: they are powerful tools for engaging customers. Their widespread use, interactivity, and familiarity make them an ideal channel for collecting customer feedback.
Customers are already accustomed to using messaging apps in their daily lives. Due to this, they are more likely to engage with surveys delivered through these platforms. This familiarity reduces the barrier to participation, leading to higher response rates and more reliable data.
Furthermore, the real-time nature of messaging apps allows businesses to capture immediate insights. This feature makes them a perfect fit for feedback that needs to be timely and actionable.
Let’s explore how the strengths of messaging apps help overcome common challenges faced in traditional survey methods.
How Messaging Apps Solve Feedback Challenges
1. Higher open and response rates. Messaging apps are part of customers’ daily routines, which means higher open rates. Did I mention that WhatsApp boasts of a 98% open rate? A survey deployed via WhatsApp is almost guaranteed to be seen (and people are more likely to engage with it). This leads to more accurate and representative feedback.
2. Reducing communication friction. Messaging apps are intuitive and easy to use. Unlike emails, which require more effort to open and read, sending a quick message through WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger feels natural. This reduces friction and makes customers more likely to respond.
3. Tracking and reducing fake responses. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger help reduce fake responses by tracking each survey to a unique phone number or user profile. This feature makes it difficult for individuals to submit multiple, fabricated responses. This ensures that each piece of feedback comes from a verified and unique user.
By filtering out multiple responses from the same number or profile, you can curb duplicate responses. These platforms enhance data quality and provide businesses with more reliable insights.
…the real-time nature of messaging apps allows businesses to capture immediate insights.
4. Addressing non-responsiveness at critical touchpoints. Traditional methods often miss the mark when it comes to capturing customer sentiment right after a key event, like a purchase.
By using messaging apps, businesses can connect with customers at these crucial moments. For example, sending a quick WhatsApp survey immediately after a purchase encourages customers to share their thoughts while the experience is still fresh.
5. Capturing responses from niche audiences. Messaging apps open up access to new customer segments that traditional methods might miss. Some companies use WhatsApp to reach senior citizens, busy professionals, and other hard-to-reach groups for collecting valuable feedback.
The non-responsiveness to online surveys amongst such audiences is very high. High engagement platforms like messaging apps solve this. For example, one consumer packaged goods (CPG) company collected 300 responses from a low literacy segment in just five days using WhatsApp surveys using audio questions.
6. Multilingual capabilities. Apps like WhatsApp support multiple languages—40 on iOS and 60 on Android—making it easier to connect with diverse audiences. This is especially important in multilingual regions where customers may speak different languages. This helps improve responsiveness by making surveys more accessible and comprehensible.
7. In-the-moment feedback. The immediacy of messaging apps is perfect for capturing feedback in real time. A Gartner study found that 88% of the customers (preferably the younger generation) start customer service interactions via multiple digital channels. Messaging apps enable real-time feedback collection, helping businesses respond quickly to customer needs and reducing churn.
8. Rich multimedia feedback. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger allow customers to respond with photos, videos, voice notes, and more. This adds a richer layer of feedback that simple text-based surveys cannot provide.
Forms asking for video testimonials are notoriously difficult to get responses to. Messaging app users are very familiar with capturing and sharing images and videos on these platforms. Using messaging platforms improves response rate for such needs.
9. Real-time interaction with CRM-powered surveys. Automated surveys on platforms like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp can interact with customers efficiently. They provide instant feedback and can streamline the collection and processing of survey data.
Imagine sending out a Customer Effort Score survey right after a customer service interaction: businesses can get immediate insights into customer satisfaction.
WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger allow customers to respond with photos, videos, voice notes, and more.
The future of customer feedback is all about using channels that customers are already comfortable with.
Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger offer a powerful way to overcome the limitations of traditional feedback methods. By adopting these tools, businesses can boost response rates, gather more reliable data, and reach a broader audience.
It is time to make customer feedback interactive again and leverage these powerful platforms to truly understand and connect with customers.
