Retail businesses today are under pressure from all directions—rising costs, shifting market dynamics, and the constant need to stand out in a crowded landscape. While still useful, traditional communication methods like email and SMS are no longer enough to provide a competitive edge. Today’s consumers expect more: personalised experiences, round-the-clock availability, and flexible ways to connect with their favorite brands.
To meet these expectations and drive greater value with fewer resources, retail businesses need to maximise the capabilities of their communication solutions to deliver truly meaningful engagement.
Smart Messaging, BT’s cloud-based communications platform, can help retailers do just that.
Smart Messaging: Flexible, Rich, Personalised
With 43% of all retail across the UK conducted through smartphones and tablets (according to Retail Insight Network), retailers have no choice but to offer consumers the omnichannel flexibility they demand. Smart Messaging facilitates this by offering a centralised experience across multiple channels:
“We give businesses the flexibility to meet customers on their preferred channels, be it SMS, RCS (Rich Communication Services), WhatsApp for Business, Facebook Messenger, and others,” notes Matthew Allister, Messaging Product Manager at BT.
Beyond flexibility, Smart Messaging allows retailers to leverage some of these richer channels, like RCS, to supercharge customer interactions, delivering a two-way messaging experience with media sharing, brand logos, read receipts, and more.
But what about personalisation? 76% of today’s customers expect more of it, wishing retailers would know their individual preferences and act upon them. Smart Messaging also offers a Customer Data Platform (CDP), designed to cater to these expectations:
“The CDP allows businesses to track and import customer data from their existing systems and ongoing customer digital interactions to bring it all together and create insightful customer profiles,” Allister says.
The profiles give a 360° customer view, from behaviours to conversion rates, opening the door to more personalised and informed engagements that strengthen the customer experience and drive results.
Leveraging Communications to Stand Out
With Black Friday fast approaching and competition peaking, it’s high time that retailers optimise customer interactions, whether directly with marketing campaigns or indirectly with ongoing personalised support.
How can businesses cut through the noise this time of year and truly do more with less? Here are couple of ways to that with Smart Messaging:
Personalised Engagement: The ability to manage customer profiles can be leveraged to send personalised promotions and discounts over a customer’s favourite messaging channel.
“If a customer frequently buys sportswear, for example, their CDP profile can be used to trigger the distribution of targeted offers on new sportswear collections,” Allister suggests.
Real-Time Assistance: With an AI-enhanced chatbot, retail businesses can offer customers access to immediate assistance, 24/7, covering everything from personal shopping advice to order updates.
“Managing these using an automated chatbot helps deliver great customer experiences while reducing the load on customer service teams.”
Visit the BT website to learn more about how Smart Messaging can be harnessed to meet the evolving demands of the retail market.
