Conversational commerce continues to be an opportune format in SMB marketing. For those unfamiliar, it utilizes messaging channels for customer acquisition and support. The thought is that many consumers – especially younger ones – are already active in messaging apps and see phone calls as passé.
More evidence to that effect emerged this week from Agentz, an automated text and voice customer service assistant for SMBs. The firm reports that it clocked a 37.2 percent increase in user engagement in 2021. This brings the total share of users opting for automated customer service to 25 percent.
“Even more remarkable is that less than 1% of those engagements resulted in the consumer requesting live help,” Agentz channel partnerships lead Kerry Baldwin said in a release. “This proves that technology can elegantly handle many types of customer inquiries, easing the workload for understaffed SMBs.”
“Understaffed” is the key word, as SMBs are dealing with Covid-inflicted staffing shortages. Some of this will be temporary while some will be more sustained – a function of the famed ‘great resignation.” The latter signals the need for permanent software implementations to ease the burden.
Converging Factors
In addition to Covid-born variables, Agentz attributes a few converging factors for elevated demand for automation. These factors are both technological and cultural, while impacting both supply (SMBs) and demand (consumers).
– SMBs are increasingly comfortable trusting automation to answer questions and schedule appointments on their behalf.
– Transferring missed calls to an automated SMS conversation is the feature most in demand by SMBs, who continue to miss upwards of one-third of their calls
– The ability for businesses to provide the same self-service experience across SMS, Facebook, Google My Business, website, and voice is increasingly valued.
– Consumers expect help around the clock: Agentz data shows that one-third of automated conversations are after hours.
– The cost of automated systems like Agentz are the equivalent of about 3 percent of one employee’s salary (and they never call in sick)
Another key trend is democratization. Automation has been around for decades, including voice response systems. The technology has not only improved to include AI-fueled caller-intent analysis and “responsive voice,” but it has broadened to include text support – a key generational factor, as noted.
“The heavy investment in automation tools has historically been at the enterprise level, leaving a real opportunity for us to tackle the underserved SMB audience,” Agentz Founder Ketan Shah said. “We’ve democratized automation technology with the SMB in mind.”
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Applicable and Prevalent
Back to the broader conversational commerce trend, messaging apps have leaned into these demand signals. In fact, SMB customer support has become the primary business model for messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Apple Business Chat. Even Walmart wants a piece.
Beyond a sizable consumer addressable market, conversational commerce is applicable and prevalent across SMB business verticals (as well as national brands like consumer apparel). It can be used to do everything from confirming your dentist appointment to leaving a review for your plumber.
For all these inherent qualities – and the environmental and temporal factors detailed above – we project continued growth in conversational commerce. We’ll keep watching for signs and report back here. Meanwhile, for more on Agentz latest data release, see the full report here.
