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51.2% of people research brands online before purchasing.
Of course, we all Google right? Or use other search engines to find what we need. But other than that, a lot of our time is spent on social media messaging platforms.
Under the common denominator of social media, there are a lot of customer favourite channels, thinks WhatsApp, Facebook and much more. Making 'social media' vital to many businesses (if not all) that communicate with customers online.
But with the average person having accounts on 6.7 different social networks, focussing on 'just WhatsApp' won't do the trick. And creating a cohesive and enjoyable user experience for your customers across all networks can present a huge challenge.
Managing customer inquiries, brand mentions, and marketing campaigns across all these channels quickly gets overwhelming and inefficient. That's why this blog emplores the benefits, features, and best practices for using a multichannel social media inbox like Trengo. By the end, you'll understand how centralising your social media channels can save you time, improve customer support, and enhance the overall customer experience.
Centralising social media channels
Managing multiple social media accounts can be chaotic and inefficient without an integrated social media inbox.
If you manage social accounts for your business, you probably find yourself navigating in and out of apps, and struggling to keep track of conversations, mentions, engagements, and comments.
This quickly gets frustrating for both you and your customers. So, what is the solution? A unified social media inbox.
What is a Social Media Inbox?
A social media inbox, or a centralised inbox for social media, is an inbox management tool that consolidates all your social media messages into a single, unified dashboard. This includes messages, mentions, comments, and engagements from various social media platforms.
A social media inbox helps manage this chaos by consolidating messages from various platforms into a single, centralised location, making it easier to manage interactions quickly and effectively.
Why do you need one?
Efficient social media management is important to any market or customer service strategy.
1. When you're not on top of all your channels, you'll lose conversations and opportunities
2. Engaging with potential customers through fast responses to social media interactions can drive sales and increase ROI.
3. Managing customer queries about their products, fast and with a personal touch can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, increasing overall customer lifetime value.
A centralised inbox for social media ensures that no message is missed, which leads to happy customers and better social media engagement and customer support.
The challenges of not having a centralised inbox for social channels
Without a unified inbox, you are going to face several tough challenges:
Missed messages
Important customer conversations can easily be overlooked when switching between multiple apps, tools and solutions when you're handling customer contact.
Inefficiency
Constantly navigating between different platforms wastes time and effort. Time your team needs to deliver the very best service. Plus, what happens when a customers reaches out via a couple of different channels?
When you're not working from one inbox, different team members can pick up the same conversations, wasting time and effort again.
Poor customer experience
Delayed responses can lead to missed opportunities and frustrated customers. Plus no one wants to keep repeating themselves to customer service. Think about it, when you message a business via Facebook, hear nothing and then you reach out via email, you'll have to keep repeating yourself.
Working from a centralised inbox will ensure this doesn't happen. Because all messages no matter the channel come in under the same customer profile.
What are the features of a good inbox for social media?
Let's look at Trengo’s inbox. This omnichannel inbox centralises all social media messaging channels. This way your team can go from chaos to in control. Because no matter the channel everything will land in the same inbox.
That's not all, your team can also easily collaborate in this inbox, like:
- Label conversations: does the WhatsApp message contain the word 'help' label this conversation as a support ticket. The whole team then knows directly where it's supposed to go.
- Assign conversations: is the conversation labeled 'support' then automatically assign it to the support team
- Full customer profile: each contact moment, no matter the channel, will be updated in the customer profile. Now the whole team knows exactly what the status is.
- @tag: collaborate on the right answer easily. @customersuccess or other teams to help formulate the best answers.
- AI and automation: and more! There are so many more features that help you handle high-volume social media messages in a jiffy.
Trusted by over 3,000 customers worldwide, Trengo's unified inbox ensures you never miss another high-value conversation.
Here are some of the key features that our customers love:
- Centralised inbox
The centralised inbox for social media provides a comprehensive overview of all engagements, allowing your team to spot opportunities quickly and efficiently. From the first point of contact to the last, having all interactions in one place ensures no message is overlooked. This also becomes essential for collaboration as your entire team can have access to the conversation history and your customers don't need to repeat themselves as they are handed from one team member to another
- Automation and AI features
Automation saves time and allows your team to dedicate themselves to more complex tasks. Trengo offers a variety of automation options.
- Automated workflows: Trengo’s social media inbox management includes automation features like Flowbot and auto-replies. Flowbot supports your team with high-volume conversations, while auto replies ensure no prospect or customer is left waiting.
- AI assistance: AI capabilities in Trengo’s unified inbox help manage social media messages by providing automated responses and assisting with inbox organisation.
- Full customer profiles
With all engagements centralised, customer data enriches itself automatically. Trengo pulls information from customer profiles to create tailored messages on any channel, improving personalisation and helping your team target leads more effectively.
- Reporting and analytics
Trengo’s social media inbox offers great reporting features that help you improve and adapt your engagement strategy. Whether it’s tracking the number of messages received per platform or monitoring the average response time, you have full control over the data displayed. You can also easily export reports to share insights with your team or stakeholders, making it easier to make informed decisions and strategy adjustments.
- Integrations
Trengo seamlessly integrates with your existing tech stack. Whether it’s live chat on your website or WhatsApp templates for scalable communication, Trengo brings everything together to ensure stress-free social media management.
The benefits of using one inbox to rule all channels
Using a unified inbox for all your social media channels saves you time, stress and money. Here's how.
Save time and increase efficiency
Managing multiple social media accounts from one place with a centralised inbox for social media significantly reduces the time spent switching between different platforms. This makes it easier to respond fast and efficiently and means your team doesn't waste hours digging around in several places looking for the customer information they need.
Improve customer support
A unified inbox enhances social media support by ensuring no message is missed. With all communications consolidated, your team can provide better and faster responses, addressing customer inquiries in real time. Since 53% of brands struggle to manage customer interactions due to data lags, a centralised inbox is an excellent tool for maintaining high customer service standards.
Enhances customer experience with analytics and insights
With Trengo’s integrated social media inbox, you can leverage detailed analytics and reporting features. These insights help you understand customer behaviour, track engagement, and identify trends.
For example, suppose you are a travel brand and notice a surge in social media messages and engagement following a campaign promoting summer vacation packages. In that case, you can analyse this data to see which posts, messages, or promotions generated the most interest.
You can then use this information to adapt your future marketing strategies. Using data to inform your decisions can improve the overall customer experience and increase satisfaction.
Make use of engagement via social media
Having all social media interactions in one place allows your team to handle all contact coming through social media effectively. Whether responding to a direct message on Instagram or addressing a query on TikTok, a centralised inbox ensures that all interactions are managed smoothly.
This is particularly important as customers go through product discovery and research phases. These are now increasingly happening on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, with 40% of Gen Z consumers using these platforms for search before Google.
Inbox tips and tricks
Using Trengo’s social media inbox can have a huge positive impact on your social media management. Here are three expert tricks to maximise your social media inbox management.
1. Organise your inbox
Keeping your inbox organised is essential for smooth social media communication. Use labels and tags to prioritise messages based on urgency or category. For example, you can create labels for 'High Priority,' 'Customer Support, and 'Upsell.' This allows your team to identify and respond to the most critical interactions quickly.
2. Use automated responses
Automation can be a game-changer for handling high volumes of social media messages. Set up auto-replies to acknowledge receipt of messages, especially during off-hours. A Flowbot (like Trengo's) can handle initial customer queries, quickly answer common questions, and free up your team to focus on more complex issues.
You can customise automated responses to include personalised elements, further improving customer experience. For instance, if a customer inquires about booking a holiday package, your auto-reply could consist of their name and provide a link to your booking page or a FAQ section tailored to travel inquiries. This level of personalisation can make automated messages feel more engaging and customer-centric.
3. Monitor engagement regularly
Regularly checking and responding to social media messages ensures you stay on top of customer interactions. Schedule specific times for your team to review and respond to messages throughout the day. This practice helps maintain a consistent and proactive engagement strategy.
With a reporting tool (like Trengo's) you can track response times and engagement rates. Set benchmarks for your team to achieve, such as responding to all messages within two hours. Analysing this data can help identify patterns and areas for improvement, ensuring your team meets or exceeds customer expectations.
Make sure no social media message gets by you
A centralised social media inbox like Trengo's can transform your management, saving time, improving customer support, and enhancing the overall customer experience.
Organising your inbox, using automation, and regularly monitoring engagement ensure no message is missed and every customer interaction is dealt with quickly and to a high standard. Organise and prioritise all messages, no matter the channel. That's the way to make sure you turn every customer conversation into profit.
