Partoo opens the door to Conversational Commerce with its new “Messages” product

Partoo, today, Tuesday 7 February, announced the launch of a new messaging product called “Messages”. The aim? To help shops improve customer relations and brand loyalty through a simple, single interface that centralises messages received by the shop from Google’s Business Messages chat.

Continuing to optimise the online visibility and reputation of more than 500 brands worldwide, the French company expands its portfolio of services by offering a new platform from which physical shops can easily manage all chats received from their customers or potential customers.

This new product is positioned in the spectrum of Conversational Commerce services to fill the demand for interactions that online users show towards their favourite brands. According to Google, 37% of companies believe that in the next three to five years, text message interactions will take precedence over phone calls as the most popular tool used by customers, also given the cost of managing them, which amounts to $1.3 trillion worldwide (comparable to Australia’s GDP).

Conversational Commerce, therefore, can be defined as the propensity of online users to interact with physical or online businesses through messaging applications (Google’s Business Messages, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.) or voice assistants (Siri, Google Home, etc.).

With the health crisis and the increasing complexity of customer journeys, consumers want to have more and more contact with their brands and be assisted at all times:

• Exploratory moment: when looking for a solution to their needs or requirements, 89% of users would like to engage with brands via message¹
• Moment of action: this is the moment when a user would like to go to a physical shop, in this step, 25%² of users say they do not go to a shop because they do not know about stock availability. This problem is easily solved by a message to the shop.
• Moment of purchase: at the most important moment for the shop, 53%³ of users say they would be more likely to make a purchase if they could chat with the brand to resolve any doubts.

Finally, the most impressive statistic is that 90%⁴ of users say they are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that offers messaging as a service.

From the smartphone, the user can ask a question and consult the answer at a later date. This is also an advantage for store employees who do not have to deal with the stressful situation of waiting for a customer in the shop and receiving several phone calls at the same time. Thanks to the asynchronous nature of the messages, everyone can set aside a suitable time for questions and answers.

Messaging, the essential building block of an omnichannel strategy 

In addition to improving after-sales service, messaging has many advantages:

• Direct product sales
• Order tracking
• Access to FAQs

The commercial potential is enormous. And as the Forrester study shows, 60% of brands think that the most important interest for a brand is customer loyalty. By being found in users’ preferred communication channels and increasing responsiveness, every brand can improve the brand experience and create engagement with the user.

Messages, the new product from Partoo

With Google accounting for 90 percent of all online user queries, it is only natural that Partoo would prioritise Google’s new chat function, Google’s Business Messages. This function allows users to contact a shop directly by message via the shop’s Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business. The action to message a shop is now present on Google search results, on Google Maps, in the Local Pack, on the keypad of Android phones, and store locators of brands.

The 3 main advantages of the Messages product:

1. Centralization: All messages received by the brand through the various profiles of the shops’ activities on Google are brought together in a single interface.
2. Simplicity: Messages from customers and potential customers can be answered with a single click from the interface.
3. Organization: sends notifications of new open conversations, reports on managed conversations, and makes it possible to keep track of all open conversations in a simple way. Brands can organise themselves to manage responses from central offices or delegate the task to individual store managers.

61% of the messages received express the user’s intention to purchase, according to Stellantis&You

Stellantis &You, the world’s leading automotive company, has trusted Partoo and is already using the Messages service with excellent results in terms of loyalty, customer experience and, sales.

Here are some of the results obtained from 23 September to 20 November 2021 on 183 European dealers:

– 3, 072 messages received

– 61% of messages express purchase intent (appointment requests, availability information, orders, and quotes)

– 24% of messages are dedicated to support questions (complaints, service centre questions)

– 15% are related to practical information (information on the point of sale, recruitment, etc.)

“The idea of developing messaging through Google’s Business Profile came to us when we realised, thanks to the analytics displayed on Partoo’s platform, that our dealers’ Google tabs are highly viewed, and 38% of the actions made on the tab are calls (compared to 32% of website clicks and 28% of route requests).

Wanting to reduce call centre costs, Google’s Business Message came to our aid, being a great tool for getting closer to our customers and prospects. Hence the need to rely on our partner Partoo and the new Messages service to manage all these interactions from a single interface, guaranteeing a fast response, consistent with the brand image and our values”. So comments Valérie Rzasnicki, Global Marketing & Digital Director of Stellantis &You. 

 Partoo’s medium-term goal is to centralise even more messaging services such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and, Instagram on the platform so that shops can continue to boost their sales and increase loyalty through messaging.

About Partoo

Founded in 2014, Partoo helps shops attract and retain customers through digital touchpoints. European leader in online visibility and reputation management for shops, with a team of 250 people with offices in Paris, Barcelona, Sao Paulo and, Mumbai. The scale-up supports 500 enterprise clients worldwide such as Carrefour, Leroy Merlin, Tecnocasa, Amplifon, KFC, Stellantis &You, BPER Bank, and more.

To find out more, visit www.partoo.co or watch the 2-minute video.

Get found…thanks to Messages!