Communicate with Customers Before they Make a Purchase

Communicate with Customers Before they Make a Purchase
October 26, 2023
Written by
Stu Crew
Twilion

Billions of customers start their purchasing journeys by doing online research using Google Search or seeing an ad on their Facebook timeline. It’s no surprise that over 47% of digital ad spend is on Google and Meta platforms to capture the eyes of these potential customers.  

But are you converting ad impressions into sales and engagements with your company? Google’s Business Messages and Facebook Messenger represent key channels that many customers are already familiar with, so they should be part of your engagement experience.

We are delighted to announce that Twilio Flex now provides native integrations* for Google’s Business Messages and Facebook Messenger, configurable directly from the Twilio Flex Console and requiring zero code. This simplifies the addition of Google’s Business Messages and Facebook Messenger into your customer communication strategy by enabling your teams to quickly switch between channels in Twilio Flex’s single user interface.

  1. No-build setup
    Facebook Page and Google Business Account linking, channel address setup and Studio and TaskRouter routing are all configured by Admins in Twilio Console
  2. Rich experience
    Flex UI v2.4 adds native Agent UI support for these channels, including the ability to send and receive attachments
  3. Live and historic data
    Supervisors can monitor tasks in real time on dashboards and review completed activity stats in Insights reports.
*Integrations are in Public Beta

Google Business Messages will end of life on July 31, 2024. We recommend SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger as alternative channels for user-initiated conversations. For additional information, review our changelog.

Engage directly from Google Search and Map results

Google (and Google Images) currently holds 92.58% of the total search engine market share. In a competitive digital landscape, you can differentiate your business by enabling customers to engage directly from the search results.

Google’s Business Messages provide customers a way to ask a virtual agent questions and receive responses quickly. Your team is able to use Twilio Flex to re-engage within 30 days of their initial outreach using rich text and images to provide additional value to their experience.

Take the friction out of engagements by meeting customers where they already are.

 

Google Search and Maps screenshot

 

Communicate directly with customers from Facebook Ads or Pages

Facebook is used by over 3 billion people worldwide. It enables your business to promote product offerings and provide a place where customers can gather to build valuable brand communities.

A key aspect of building a brand community is communication, with 74% of online adults saying they feel more connected with a business when they can message the business directly. Twilio Flex allows you to connect directly with your customers through Facebook Messenger to remove friction from engagements and to encourage dialogue.

Communicate from inside Flex

Transform your digital engagement with omnichannel

Having the flexibility and control to meet your customers where they already are – in this case, searching and browsing on Google or Facebook – is the first step toward differentiating your customer engagement experience. Communication channels need to complement each other to provide consistent value during every interaction with your customers.

Google’s Business Messages and Facebook Messenger are amazing channels to use to drive engagement early in the customer journey. Pre-sales interactions can be used to answer customer questions, simplify discovery, and start a conversation that can evolve over time.

It’s also possible to customize the agent and customer experience on these channels using Flex’s Interactions API to create custom workflows. This allows for developers to customize  all Flex Conversations channels through a single API, meaning any customizations you’ve already made can be applied to these new channels.

To learn more about adding digital channels to your contact center or Sales workflows, read our documentation on the Flex Conversations API.

Availability

Google’s Business Messages and Facebook Messenger integrations are currently available to customers globally as Public Beta with Twilio Flex through the Conversations API. Twilio Flex customers can add these channels on their own by reading through the documentation or reaching out to our Account teams for assistance.

Interested in learning more about how Twilio Flex can transform your digital engagement? Talk to our sales consultants today to learn more.

Stu Crew is a Principal Product Manager at Twilio who has nearly 10 years of experience in the contact center industry with a background in user experience design. Stu's current focus is on using his expertise to enhance agent experiences and satisfaction in Twilio Flex.