Using Instagram to generate revenue alongside a great support experience

Do you know how many of your customers are on Instagram? Chances are a lot of them.

The Pew Research Center found that 71% of Americans aged 18–29 and 48% aged 30–49 are active on Instagram. These younger customers are not only active on the platform, but also use it to discover new brands, engage with brand content, and develop long-term brand loyalties.

Selling on Instagram

Last year, Instagram expanded their sales options allowing any company to set up in-app checkout, and their Shopping tab features collections of products.

Selling through social media provides a unique opportunity to reach customers who might not otherwise hear of you, and Instagram has proven to be a particularly useful platform for this.

Using Instagram to promote and sell products results in a broader sales funnel and increased revenue--but if you ONLY use Instagram for marketing and sales, you'll be missing out.

Allow us to explain.

Customers are looking for support

Why would customers seek your brand out on Instagram instead of on your webpage?

They want connection. They want interaction. They want to be able to ask their friends if the product is as cool as it looks. But most importantly, they want to be able to talk to someone at your company with their questions.

Over 70% of Instagram users discover new brands on the platform. Additionally, 70% of customers have already used social media to reach out to customer support or flag an issue they are having with a business.

Converting these users into loyal, buying customers requires answering their questions and demonstrating your credibility on the channel of their choosing.

This is where social support commerce comes in. We define this as providing superior, seamless customer service by integrating customer support systems into the social media channels where commerce is already taking place.

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Using Instagram to drive customer service-attributed revenue

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Social support commerce

Utilizing smart tools and smooth integrations, you can interact with customers on Instagram all the way from brand discovery to checkout and through to satisfaction with the delivered product.

For example:

• When a customer comments on your post with a question, one of your customer service heroes can jump on to answer and work with the customer through the point of sale

• If a customer puts an item in their Instagram cart and then stalls, you can have a customer service hero pop up to ask if they have questions about the product

• If a customer is having trouble with the checkout process, you can work with them to close out the sale

• When a customer checks out through the platform, you can develop a customer profile that will reflect all of their preferences for reference across channels

• If a customer comments asking where their order is, your service staff can open up their history and give them a concrete answer right away

• If a customer has a complaint, you can respond with empathy and open up a Direct Message to resolve the issue

• When a customer is happy with your product, you can encourage them to share with their network

• You can find customer posts bragging on your product and work with them to become brand influencers and advocates

Challenges and solutions

Social commerce has not always made support integration simple. As a company, make the most of this trend by using intuitive and streamlined tools so that your customer service heroes can keep up with loyal customers across multiple channels and social platforms.

Gladly offers a platform to help your heroes offer personal service at scale, tracking customers’ past orders and conversation history across all channels (digital and voice), including Instagram messaging.

Social support commerce offers a huge opportunity for gaining brand recognition, converting browsing customers into buying customers, and gaining a reputation for responsive and personal customer service.