Brands Transform Instagram Experience with Webex Connect

Webex Connect enables brands to turn Instagram into a channel for conversational commerce and customer service

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Brands Transform Instagram Experience with Webex Connect
CPaaSUnified CommunicationsInsights

Published: January 27, 2023

Jonny Wills

Senior Editor

There are more than 1 billion active users each month on Instagram, with over 500 million accounts using the app every day. It’s a channel many businesses already utilise to post updates and stories to connect with their followers.

However, one of the drawbacks of the Instagram experience that many brands deliver is that in terms of call-to-actions for posts and stories, customers can only really be directed to websites and apps. This type of unengaging and inflexible interaction requires customers to leave the channel, which can negatively impact the customer experience and cause drop-off.

With Webex Connect, a cloud communications platform built for the needs of the enterprise, integrating Meta’s new Messenger API for Instagram, brands can turn the channel into a platform for conversational commerce and customer support.

Go beyond posts and stories

Fundamentally, the API enables brands to have scalable conversations with their customers using Instagram Direct Messages (DM).

Ramy Riad, Head of Future Messaging at Webex CPaaS Solutions, explains: “With Webex Connect’s Instagram API, brands can turn the social channel into a platform for customer engagement through two-way messaging. Users can now see an item they are interested in, whether that be through a post from an influencer or a brand’s direct account, and then enter the DM channel to find out more details, browse other items, see store locations, check stock availability, or book an appointment.

All this is done in-channel through two-way messaging, delivering rich conversational interactions to increase sales and improve brand awareness.”

Along with commerce use cases, the API is helping to turn customer conversations into positive business outcomes that improve the customer service experience. It allows brands to immediately respond to customers’ direct messages, providing an always-on experience and to reply to story tags and public comments with private direct messages.

Ramy continued: “Taking advantage of Webex Connect’s NLP and AI capabilities, brands can automate frequently asked questions while connecting agents into the chat to solve more complex queries. Brands can give customers the answers they want through one of their favourite channels while reducing the strain on contact centres.”

Rich conversational interactions

There are a number of features that brands can leverage to design rich conversational interactions with customers and improve the DM experience:

  • Messaging: enabling businesses to send text, rich media, and more.
  • Quick replies: presenting a set of buttons in-conversation for customers to reply with.
  • Private replies: replying to Post comments with a single message on Instagram.
  • Ice breakers: starting a conversation with a business with a list of frequently asked questions.
  • User profile: personalising conversations and creating unified experiences.
  • Story mention: notifications for when a customer mentions a business in their story.

Ramy adds: “The Instagram API lends itself well to the socially active brand that wants to provide an always-on experience, improving marketing and customer service interactions through conversational experiences.”

Why Instagram on Webex Connect?

Webex Connect is designed to reduce the time, cost, and complexity of delivering outstanding customer experiences. The communication platform’s programmable APIs and SDKs, visual flow builder, high-performance runtime engine, and low-code tools come together to enable the quick and effortless creation of end-to-end journeys that power customer communications.

Acting as a central orchestration layer between channels and enterprise systems, the platform leverages seamless integrations to power the automation of end-to-end customer journeys across Instagram and other channels. It’s future-proof, meaning businesses can start with Instagram and then easily integrate more channels and capabilities as they grow and design solutions to meet rising consumer expectations.

How to get started

While brands can leverage Meta’s Messenger API for Instagram directly from the tech giant, the easiest way to get started is to partner with a company that is an official technology partner and has the know-how and experience to get the channel up and running.

Ramy concludes: “We are an official Meta solutions partner and have been for a number of years. Our Future Messaging team works directly with technology partners to stay up to date with the latest developments and helps businesses to implement the next generation of messaging channels, including Instagram.”

If you want to get started with using Instagram for customer service and commerce, you can get in touch with one of Webex CPaaS Solutions experts via its contact page, or more information on Webex Connect can be found here.

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Brands mentioned in this article.

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