Conversational Messaging – The Ultimate Guide

“Connecting with customers in a valuable, relevant manner is as old as marketing itself. But we’ve seen a shift recently in how, exactly, customers want to connect with brands. Strong brand connections are about whether or not the brand helps customers present themselves in a way that’s consistent with their own value.” – Gartner

Every business comes down to two stakeholders: the provider and the customer. In the past, they communicated by phone or mail, later by email and call centers. Today, that communication happens across far more channels, thanks to conversational messaging.

So what exactly is conversational messaging? Why should companies add conversational apps to their sales, marketing, and support stack? What are the most popular conversational channels, and what kinds of messages can brands send through them?

This guide answers all of that.

Boosting Traditional Customer Support with Conversational Messaging

The average brand takes 12 hours and 10 minutes to respond to a customer service request (SuperOffice). That’s too slow, and 62% of companies don’t respond to customer emails at all.

88% of customers expect a response within 60 minutes, and 30% expect one within 15 minutes or less (Toister Solutions). Fast responses make customers feel heard and valued.

That’s why 75% of customers rank fast response time as the most important part of a good experience, ahead of consistency and clear messaging (CMO Council). Slow service also costs you: many customers spend more with businesses that respond quickly, while 70% will actively discourage friends from buying from a brand that treated them poorly.

Today’s customers expect fast answers, proactive service, and 24×7 availability on their preferred platforms. Old-fashioned email and voice support can’t keep up.

Enter conversational messaging. 56% of consumers prefer instant messaging over a phone call, and conversational text messaging makes that possible, blending automation with human agents for the best of both.

What Are Conversational Apps?

Conversational apps combine text messaging with graphics, real-time responses, and automation in an interface customers already know. Brands can have personalized, one-on-one conversations without the customer ever leaving the app.

This works across WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Slack, Telegram, and more, so customers can reach a brand on whatever channel they’re already comfortable with.

Beyond plain text, brands can send attachments, audio, video, GIFs, photos, product carousels, forms, and buttons. That includes less welcome messages too, like refusals, rejections, or policy changes.

Benefits for Customers

• Personalized, conversational experiences
• Convenience and fast answers
• Low friction
• Contextual conversations

Benefits for Brands

• Lower cost
• Reach more customers at scale
• Share information securely and on time
• Support customers at any stage of their journey
• Guide customers toward a sale
• Useful across sales, marketing, and support

4 Most Popular Conversational Apps and Channels

Conversational messaging works on any channel, but it performs best as part of an omnichannel strategy across several of them.

AI-Based Chatbots

Also known as conversational AI, a chatbot resolves queries, provides 24×7 support, and delivers personalized experiences automatically. It also integrates easily into a brand’s website for a consistent experience.

Oracle CEO Mark Hurd predicted in 2018 that 85% of customer interactions would be automated by 2025 (Forbes).

Chatbots are already proving this out. One events company’s chatbot took over 64% of requests from its human support team and drove 55% more conversations than the year before. A U.S. railway company added a chatbot to its ticket booking page and saw booking rates rise 25%, online revenue rise 30%, and engagement rise 50%.

For smaller teams new to chatbots, a low-code bot builder platform like Gupshup makes it easy to build one, embed it on your site, and start having rich, contextual conversations right away.

SMS for Business Communication

Text messaging has been around for almost three decades, and everyone with a phone knows how to use it. Despite limits on message length and graphics, its reach makes it ideal for conversational text messaging.

A few numbers back this up:

• 37% of devices are still SMS-only (Mobile Squared)
• 75% of consumers under 44 prefer contacting businesses by text (StartupBonsai)
• SMS has a 98% open rate (Campaign Monitor)

The right platform makes this easy. With a messaging API, brands can send and receive SMS programmatically through an SMS gateway, without worrying about carriers, deliverability, or pricing. It’s also cheaper than regular carrier-based SMS.

With such a platform, brands can build an SMS channel across multiple countries, sending notifications, cross-promotions, surveys, reminders, and OTPs. They can also track message status, queue deliveries, verify receipt, and review interaction history in real time.

WhatsApp for Business

WhatsApp has over 2 billion monthly active users and delivers over 100 billion messages a day, making it the world’s most popular messenger app and a powerful channel for conversational messaging.

Companies can connect through two options: the WhatsApp Business App, free and built for small businesses to answer questions and share catalogs, or the WhatsApp Business API, built for medium and large businesses that want to add WhatsApp into their tech stack and automate it with chatbots, no coding required.

Through the API, brands can send links, images, documents, audio, video, templates, and formatted text, and even run multichannel or multiparty interactions integrated with a CRM. Common message types include:

• Notifications and alerts
• Purchase updates
• New product updates
• Auto-replies and away messages

Unlike the Business App, the API isn’t something you download. Companies apply directly with Meta, or work with a trusted provider like Gupshup to integrate it faster.

RCS

RCS, or Rich Communication Services, is a next-generation SMS protocol that blends SMS’s global reach with the rich, interactive features of apps like WhatsApp and Messenger. It supports both person-to-person and application-to-person messaging.

With RCS, brands can send emojis, video, audio, and high-resolution images, all from directly within the customer’s messaging app.

The easiest way to launch RCS is with an out-of-the-box RCS Business Messaging solution. A single API handles sending and receiving across channels, with intelligent routing, smart dashboards, and template translation built in.

Beyond these four, conversational messaging also runs on MMS, Apple Business Chat, Twitter Direct Messages, and Instagram Direct.

How Are Conversational Apps Different From Live Chat?

Live chat means real-time conversations with a human agent through a website widget. It’s fast, but customers have to wait for an agent to become free, and during busy periods like Black Friday, that wait can get long.

If either side closes the chat window, the session usually ends, and the history isn’t always saved. Customers who come back have to start over.

Conversational messaging avoids both problems. It lets customers message a brand through SMS, WhatsApp, or Messenger, with an AI chatbot handling routine questions and looping in a human agent when things get complex.

Because it’s always-on, customers never wait for an agent. They message whenever suits them and get a quick, relevant reply. Since most people already text friends and family this way, it feels personal rather than transactional.

Previous conversations and visitor history stay saved in the platform, so every interaction picks up with context instead of starting cold. Many chatbots also improve over time as they learn from more conversations.

With a no-code messaging API or bot builder platform, brands deploy a conversational app once and scale it up or down as demand shifts, without adding headcount.

Conclusion

73% of buyers say customer experience shapes their purchasing decisions (PwC), and 58% will walk away from a brand that doesn’t meet their expectations.

Conversational messaging delivers on that expectation. It lets brands reach customers on their own terms, resolve their needs quickly, and build the kind of loyalty that turns customers into advocates.

Gupshup helps businesses of every size do exactly that, through our conversational messaging platform, APIs, bot builder tools, and bot development services. Over 39,200 brands already use Gupshup’s WhatsApp API, SMS API, and other solutions to run conversational messaging without writing a line of code.

Explore our website to see how Gupshup can do the same for you.