Micro-Moments and Real-Time Chat

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Micro-moments have been known for years and they are evolving ever since. In addition to development, they are applied in the real communication team. Although they are now generalized, they still cause ambiguity. The article explains what they are and how we can apply them.

What Are Micro-Moments?

Think With Google defines micro-moments as:

“Micro-moments are critical touchpoints within today’s consumer journey”

The customer’s journey is the sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company and brand.

In the same way, micro-moments are touchpoints at which consumers are acting on a need, including:

• To learn something
• To do something
• To discover something
• To watch something
• To buy something

From a smartphone or tablet, we can meet our needs very quickly. These short bursts of action are rich with intent and decisiveness. Google believes there is a high value for brands in these micro-moments.

Customers don’t make decisions by following a defined path to purchase. One particular driver of this trend is connecting media sources.

Consider the following stats about how customers search for information:

• 82% turn to their mobile devices when they’re about to make a purchase in a brick-and-mortar store.
• 65% they’re looking for the most relevant information while searching. Regardless of the company providing that information.
• 90% don’t have a specific brand in mind when they set out to buy something.
• 51% have discovered a new company or brand while browsing for information.

Create a Micro-Moments Strategy 

Start off with the data. It will tell you about the customer journey before they reach you. For example, Google Analytics can tell you where visitors spend most on your website. Also, Google Search Console can show the most effective keywords. Lastly, Answer the Public gives you insights into questions your users may ask about you.

According to Google, people are searching at the exact moment they need something. They are looking for places that can meet their immediate need. Thus when making on-the-spot decisions, they are more loyal to their need than to any particular place. In other words, there is a real opportunity to get attention from customers.

Similarly, Google defines micro-moments as the intersection between intent, context, and immediacy. In other words, you must recognize when they happen in your industry and provide useful content to fulfill them.

There are some practices curated from the Nielsen study about making content:

• Instead of just selling, use an interesting narrative.
• Include people early on in your video to draw viewers in.
• Readers should understand your story even without sound.
• Make sure your product or value proposition is clear within the first 3 seconds.

Picture 1. Example of a perfect micro-moment

Harnessing Micro-Moments

We can use the application of micro-moments in the classic marketing see-think-do-care model. The story begins when a customer sees an ad. For example, he sees a banner with a burger on a portal.

The second element is THINK. The task of marketers is to determine a favorable moment to remind the customer of a product. Providing instant solutions is one of the ways how to get customer’s attention. For example, show them the delicious burger at lunchtime. That will be a subtle reminder of their need.

The last step is AFTER BUYING behavior. We want our customers to recommend our burger to friends. We want them so satiated and happy that they wish the cake of burgers for their birthday.

Implementing Live Chat

Towards Google,

“You’ll need to do more than show up. You need to be useful and meet needs in their micro-moments. That means connecting people to what they are looking for in real time. Also, it means providing relevant information when they need it.”

Still, there is a question of how fast is enough. As we are talking about micro-moments, users expect a response within an hour. Hence Live Chat is one of the best options to reach customers immediately. It enables direct and fast communication.

For example, you might have a visitor looking at your burger banner or hanging on your website. So instead of letting him aks his colleague where would they eat, approach them via Live Chat with:

“Hey, want a burger?”

Related: How to Make Your Chatbot More Human?

Connecting Micro-Moments  

In the end, micro-moments are a key fragment of the consumer journey. They create new forms of engagement. They also change the value of “touchpoints” across media. Showing the importance of connecting media channels, they can completely change the story. For instance, if this burger hadn’t shown up on my screen in a crucial time, the most probably this article would have been about something else.