Thanks to a plethora of communication apps, we are now able to communicate with almost anyone in the world at any time, assuming they have a proper internet connection. With so many channels to choose from it can be hard to remember what conversations we have had and where. And for businesses, keeping track of what conversations they have had with their numerous clients across these many channels can be even more problematic. However, the startup Blinger.io, an omnichannel customer support and sales platform, has seen a great opportunity to simplify this problem using modern technology. In order to understand more about this company, we spoke with Marketing Director of Blinger.io – Nadya Yatsenka.
Nadya Yatsenka
Can you give some background on what this service does and what it means for businesses?
Blinger.io is an omnichannel platform enabling companies to communicate with customers via messaging apps, e-mail and live chat in a unified interface. It’s a real breakthrough and a paradigm shift in customer communication since the trend of growing popularity of communication in messaging apps makes companies create omnichannel experiences for customers, and shift from providing support in traditional channels only towards messaging apps, which are the most comfortable channel for the end user nowadays.
How do you foresee the relationships between businesses and their clients changing over the next 5 years?
More and more companies will provide omnichannel experience to their customers, focusing on communication via the channels that provide little to no response delays, such as messaging apps and online chat. The relationships will become more personal. Another reason for the companies to shift towards support and sales in messaging apps is the growing interest of marketing and sales departments towards this channel. Business communication via messaging apps provides the company with contact information of the customer, hence there are no lost leads or customers, and the company can resume communication at any point in time in the future. Interaction with the customers will become more convenient, for the customers – due to the choice of the channels they prefer, for the companies – due to the proper infrastructure built to facilitate capitalizing on the omnichannel trend.
What advice do you have for businesses that want to improve their level of engagement with customers through these messaging channels?
It’s very important to properly structure your customer support department and agents’ workflow together with agent grouping to streamline the process and ensure meeting and improving SLA. Messaging apps are a very convenient channel when used properly and with the right goals in mind. We suggest making the interaction as human as possible, avoiding chatbots, at least at this stage of their development.
Obviously Blinger,io makes it possible for a business to communicate across many messaging channels, but is there a messaging channel which is currently the most popular form of communication between businesses and clients (Eg Facebook messenger, Whatsapp…), and if so why do you think this has become the most popular?
The most popular messaging apps for business at the moment are Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger. This happened due to these two apps having the largest user base and due to their convenience for the end user. Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger are the top 2 messaging apps in the world at the moment by the number of users.
What is the main focus for Blinger.io over the next 6 months?
Over the next 6 months the main focus will be on releasing a completely new product. As for the existing product – we’ll be improving it even further and working on expanding our geography of clients. The main goals are growth and scaling.
