Fast Moving Consumer Goods require Fast Responses with Omnichannel Powered Chatbots
Chatbots are the launch pad to greater customer engagement and high-value sales leads. By now business owners, be it large scale FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) or SMEs in this segment would have known this fact. However knowing and not implementing the strategy is altogether a different ball game.
It’s a wonderful way of communication not only with customers, but it also presents a wider opportunity of communication to one of the important segments – your B2B agents and not forgetting the many layers or intern-departments of employees. Making it easier for internal Human Resource related engagement, as well as real time feedback when your employee or agents require support with vital information in order to answer the customers queries.
The FMCG segmentation covers wide areas of businesses. From beauty and personal care products, to baby and childcare products, healthcare and wellness, fashion, and the widest range in food and beverage, household and even confectionery. As these are fast moving goods, there is no such thing as “my business has been great, let’s call it a day-type of business”. In this line, for the brands it’s all about vying for the same audience to market and sell as many of these products are of necessity. How would your company stand-out? At times like these, don’t you wish for the largest of nets to haul the catch in by droves?
Chatbots is the answer to the question above . Acting as feelers, invincible nets to haul in potential clients from across multiple channels. Made possible by Omnichannel cloud contact center with chatbot solution that is integrated to any social channels including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter. It has been proven to be a valuable tool for businesses when it comes to customer engagement and generating high-value sales leads.
Here are 4 ways on how chatbots can serve as a launch pad for these goals:
📳 1. 24/7 Availability & Instant Responses:
Do you have a great product or service however, low awareness and lack of manpower to support customers’ inquiries? Especially for SMEs where you have reached a capacity where you are ready to expand the border. Your products and services might be able to garner support from local market, regional to international audiences. Even pitting against the Global brands.
Chatbots can provide instant responses and support round the clock, enhancing customer engagement by being available whenever customers have questions or need assistance. This availability can lead to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Take for example the Beauty and Personal Care segment here in Malaysia, which has been reported to have a revenue of US$2.9bn in 2023, and 15.5% from this total revenue is generated by online sales, as reported by Statista’s Beauty & Personal Care – Malaysia.
As a collective segment, indeed the revenue reported is substantial. However, breaking it down, for many local SME businesses, they simply can’t afford to drop or miss any calls should a customer try to reach out for more information or to follow on simple info on the last-mile-delivery. Due to fierce competition from international and local brands. Here is where chatbots can assist for an instant response.
📈 2. Personalization, Lead Qualification, Data Collection, Interactive Content, Lead Nurturing:
Advanced chatbots can use data and AI to tailor responses to individual customers, creating a more personalised experience. This personal touch can increase engagement and make customers feel understood and valued. Which segmentation can benefit greatly from the above?
The Food and Beverage products within the FMCG sector is certainly a blue ocean whereby brands either international or local brands vie for customers. It’s certainly challenging to constantly keep the customers focused on your brand and product only. Hence, many brands require subscription to advertising and mini-events based marketing strategy. Advertisement spend either above the line or below the line type of strategy, in order to create strong brand awareness. These exercises do not come cheap either, and the results might not be instant.
How about local Malaysian SMEs in these sectors? Yes, there are success stories, if one walks through the aisle or even online you can now find many local brands with homemade recipes of different sauce types of paste for easy-to-cook dishes or viral success stories such as “Khairul Aming ready-to-eat sambal”. These are but a few in comparison to the many good local products out there. However, it pales to the comparison of international brands dominating the local market.
Chatbots are a way where your products can stand a chance against the international giants. SMEs should leverage the available platform by engaging in Chatbots to assist your businesses flourish, thereby helping in Personalization, Lead Qualification, Data Collection, Interactive Content, Lead Nurturing.
Ever evolving, the Chatbots of today can engage with website visitors and pre-qualify leads by asking relevant questions. This helps businesses, especially SMEs to identify potential customers and B2B agents who are genuinely interested in their products or services, allowing different sales teams to focus their efforts more targeted and efficiently.
The platform allows gathering of valuable data about customer preferences, pain points, and behaviours. All this information can be readily available all within a single platform. This information can be used to refine marketing strategies, improve products or services, and enhance the overall customer experience. Allowing SME in the Food and beverage businesses to up-your-game in terms of services, as usually due to budget constraints the hiring runs are a lean budget hindering the hiring of the right persons’ for such tasks. After all Malaysian is a melting pot of diversity, when it comes to accepting new tastes and flavours it is an acquired taste.
In replacement of a human, the chatbots can provide interactive content, such as quizzes, surveys, and product recommendations, that engage customers in a dynamic way. This not only educates customers but also guides them toward making informed purchasing decisions. Freeing human based agents, to troubleshoot the more complex inquiry which needs human intervention.
Of course not forgetting nurturing of leads by providing relevant information, sending follow-up messages, and guiding potential customers through the sales funnel. This automated nurturing process can result in higher conversion rates.
💬 3. Handling Repetitive Tasks:
When it comes to healthcare products, to the layman consumers there is a plethora of choices out there in the market. How many of you have come across paid-promotions in regards to health-related products while scrolling through Facebook or Instagram? With Google’s help, many users have proceeded to read-up, self prescribed medication, and of course through the word-of-mouth sharing among communities here in Malaysia. However, most times I find that googling the main company itself does not provide much information and there’s only a number to WhatsApp for further inquiries. This also is subjected to the employee to reply within her working time. Which could be frustrating, when I want instant answers in order to proceed purchasing the product.
Hence, if you are a budding entrepreneur with your own brand in the healthcare sector, chatbots solution is perfect for you. It helps by handling routine and repetitive tasks. Being new in the market, if your product starts to get noticed, there will be many FAQs. Replying FAQs is a tiring process, however being new in the market you want that direct engagement to build confidence in your brand.
With deployment of Omnichannel powered Chatbots, it is capable of providing quick and accurate responses to common customer queries. Example of self-serve FAQs. Saving many SMEs business from CX agents employment set-backs and utilising talent for better task management to maximise revenue. This immediate assistance can help to enhance and lead to better user experiences and prevent potential customers from bouncing off your website.
Established pharmacy chains are finding it difficult to maintain walk-in sales. As consumers, prefer purchasing through online platforms. Walk-in’s to pharmacists are usually purchases of medication due by doctor’s prescription only. This is because with the advancement of technology, customers are now able to speak to a pharmacist live via a chatbot, if not live, dropping of a text which the pharmacist can visit and reply at any given time. Customers are able to ask more questions in regards to prescription, supplements, duration of perhaps a medication programme or even any on-going campaigns. Not requiring customer to physically visit a store. Where the convenience of online is there. Work best for customers who might be embarrassed to ask more questions, or answer symptoms in-store wise when the pharmacist have to querry in order to advise accurately. Hence this is a viable solution for SMEs in the healthcare segment.
⚡ 4. Multi-Platform Reach & Scalability:
Last but not the least on information, Chatbots can be deployed on various platforms such as websites, social media, and messaging apps, increasing their reach and potential for engagement with a wider audience. Laying a foundation, when your business is ready to be taken regionally, and onwards to global markets.
Easy to deploy, integrating with omnichannel solutions such as cloud contact centres if need be. It’s certainly the perfect compliment to your growing business. Chatbots can scale easily to handle larger volumes of customer interactions without the need to hire and train additional human agents just for this specific task. Instead you can mitigate human employment for a better job role to maximise your human capital usage within a confined hiring budget.
It’s important to note that while chatbots can be powerful tools, a thoughtful approach is required to design, implement, and optimise them effectively. The user experience should always be a priority, and the chatbot should seamlessly hand off complex queries to human agents when necessary. Hence a reliable business partner with experience is important. Malaysia based Accordia Global has more than 13 years of experience within this segment. Helping companies in their CX solution needs. We help businesses to understand customer’s needs through technology.
