Chat Services: Key for Business Growth

Abirami Elangovan Published On February 19th, 2024 Tech Talks

Did you know that in any project you look into, whether it is an e-learning platform, a logistics solution, or a healthcare domain, real-time chat services in the form of in-app video chats or in-app messages have become the cornerstone of today’s business communication? 

Well, it is, and even 95% of customers of this era appreciate brands that give them space for real-time and meaningful interactions. 

Thus understanding the importance of chat services and the benefits of chat software, businesses are relying greatly on in-app communication to streamline team interactions and collaborations and boost customer support,

You, as a web or mobile app developer, might find it difficult to build a communication app from scratch, so to alleviate this pain point of yours, there are video call APIs and chat SDKs that instantly integrate video, voice, and chat capabilities to any app.

So, shall we delve into the importance, benefits, and how customers prefer to use online chat services in the blog below?

What is a chat service?

A chat service is a software or an online service that allows users to engage in one-to-one and group chats with others in real-time over the internet. 

Using a real-time chat service,

• Customers can interact with customer support teams or help desks,
• Businesses can collect information about the customers for their CRM, and
• Teams can engage in healthy internal project discussions.

Now, let us look at how it works.

How does a chat service work?

Here are a few steps that detail the working of any basic chat software.

• Users need to either download the application or sign up for the communication app to use the chat service.
• They can either start messaging in real-time to their recipients or create groups to start a conversation.
• Users can also opt for video chat functionality, if provided by the communication app, and send video messages to the end user.
• These messages are transmitted over the internet in small data packets and are received by the recipient in real time without any delay.
• The recipient is also notified of the reception of text through push notifications. Similarly, the sender also gets to know about the reception via receipt indicators.

Well, the steps explained above reflect the basic nature of a chat service. In case, you use a chat API, you may read on to how chat API works blog for detailed insight.

Now going ahead, 

How does the customer use a chat service?

Earlier when chat services were not put into effect, customers had to reach out to businesses over telephones, emails, or through social media channels, which to the max delayed their responses.

However, with chat services, 

• Customers could instantly engage in a real-time conversation with the business’s support team to talk about the offerings, discounts, product launches, or whenever they needed support.
• Users would know about any new launches or would receive greetings via their chat platform.
• Over 40% of customers preferred in-app chats as it reduced their waiting time, and so on.

This way, real-time chats proved to be of great help to customers. But let me tell you that even the businesses had their share of profit by bringing in in-app chats.

How do businesses use chat services?

Below are some of the reasons why businesses use the app or managed web chat services:

1. Reduced response time: Knowing that customers prefer instant responses to their queries, businesses integrated in-app chatting services to quickly handle user queries.

2. Minimize phone calls: An instant message seems to be lightning faster than a phone call. And labor is involved behind phone calls, which does not seem to be a cost-effective option.

3. Enhance website traffic: By using in-app chats, many businesses saw their customer engagement metrics boost, leading to increased traffic and revenue.

4. Improve team coordination: With the help of in-app video calls and chats, many teams were able to streamline their workflow thus leading to increased productivity.

Now that we have seen how chat services are of great help to businesses and customers, we will see,

What is the prime difference between a text message and a chat message?

In simple terms, text messages are often used for mobile-mobile communication where a carrier network is present. These messages are usually sent as SMS or MMS.

Whereas a chat message requires an online chat platform or a communication app connected to the internet to send and receive messages. These chats can be initiated via tablets, mobile phones, and even computers. 

What are the benefits of chat services?

In-app chat service is very much tapped meaning they are known to boost up sales and understand customer patterns leading to increased revenue. But is that all that it offers? Well, the answer is no and we will see the other merits below.

1. Saves a bulk of money

By adapting to real-time chats you are paving the way to reduced labor or agents who work shifts to handle customer calls. Plus, if you are integrating chat APIs, then you are saving a fortune from building the application from scratch.

2. Access from anywhere across the globe

With the increase in digitalization and the tendency to bring businesses across borders, simple in-app chats have helped in bringing remote employees together thereby boosting interactions.

3. Faster issue resolution

Customers these days prefer instant issue resolution and real-time interactions have made that happen.

4. Enhance customer satisfaction

Video chats and in-app messaging have helped customers to resolve their queries faster and with more confidence than phone interactions which seem to eat a lot of time. 

5. No need for multilingual agents

When chatbots were used, the responses were sent to users based on their language preference, which was a big cost, but now with a language translation option, even this issue was made simple.

6. Round-the-clock support

Customers these days expect businesses to extend their support 24/7 and be active at all times. Hence, with in-app chat services, businesses made it possible for customers to reach them at any time. 

So there you go with the prime benefits of using a chat service. 

How can MirrorFly manage your chat services?

With the help of this article, we are clear on two parts; the importance of in-app communication for business, and the benefit of using a chat API to quickly integrate chat functionalities. 

So, if you agree with us and are looking for the right chat SDK provider for building a messaging app, you always have MirrorFly. With over 150+ customizable SDKs and 100+ UI kits, you can build a highly scalable white-labeled messaging app just the way you need. 

And the main highlight of using MirrorFly is that it provides three chat services that you can choose as per your requirements.

• Real-Time Chat: This category enables users to engage in real-time text-based communication and our chat APIs let developers instantly add in-app messaging experience to any web and mobile app.

• Voice Call: This part facilitates users to send voice messages over the internet in real time. Again, voice chat capabilities like group voice calls and more can be added quickly using our voice SDKs.

• Video chat: This type of service enables users to have a face-to-face real-time conversation over the Internet. Video calling features like group video calls, mute/unmute, and language translation can be added using video SDKs. 

Thus, by opting for a chat service, you can boost in-app customer engagement and retention, and finally drive sales.

Wrapping Up!

I do understand that this article has been a mile-long one to explore and hence I bid bye with a note that chat services are vital for any business. As customers are expecting lesser turn-around-times, chat services in various forms are adopted by businesses to stay ahead of the competition. 

And in case you are interested in building an in-app chat application for your enterprise, MirrorFly comes as the easiest way to add multi-platform chat SDK into any communication app. 

Thus if you have any queries or wish to add insights, leave a comment in the section below. 

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