Engage Customers Via Text with Podium Webchat

May 3, 2018  by Jason Schneider in Business Strategy, Industry, Retail Technology   

Empowering consumers to text a business from its own website allows both the consumer and the business flexibility to respond, helping initiate offline, in-person interactions.

With the new product, businesses are able to more easily capture contact information of leads visiting their site and manage all inbound communication channels from one central location. Both customers and business owners will be able to take their online conversations on the go, giving each the flexibility they want.

“By introducing this new feature to our platform we are offering local businesses the opportunity to interact with customers in a way that fosters stronger relationships across the board,” said Eric Rea, co-founder and CEO. “We’ve found that many consumers prefer having the option to communicate with businesses via text. With Webchat, businesses can talk with their customers in a way that’s more convenient for both parties, which drives brand affinity and loyalty.”

Maintaining staff size while offering a better customer experience was one of the main goals in developing Webchat for local businesses. The platform eliminates the need to hire a dedicated staff for live chat interactions, since neither the consumer or business owner needs to be online in order to communicate with one another.

Instead, consumers can share their information with businesses so both parties can continue the conversation on a channel that’s more convenient for them, such as Facebook Messenger or text messaging.

Podium Webchat’s user-friendly interface allows business owners to easily manage and respond to all webchats from a single dashboard, consolidating SMS/text, Google Business Messaging, and Facebook Messenger conversations into one place: Podium Inbox. This gives businesses a simple platform through which they can more easily facilitate multiple channels of communication with potential customers.