BirdEye, the leading customer experience platform for local businesses of all sizes, announced it has accelerated the release of its new product, Interactions, and will offer it for free to businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As business owners adjust to stay-at-home orders and navigate the uncharted waters of running a company during the social distancing period, communicating with customers is more important than ever. Combined with customers’ increasing affinity to text instead of call, Interactions provides business owners the tools to communicate with customers the way they prefer, capture leads, earn sales, and ultimately achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction.

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“Whether 1, 10, or 10,000 locations, regional businesses are vital to the economy — they account for more than 50% of the United States’ economic activity — so it is important that we all do our part to support them during the COVID-19 response,” said Naveen Gupta, CEO of BirdEye. “We accelerated the general availability of Interactions so businesses in distress can take care of customer issues quickly and keep their customers informed of reduced working hours and remote services. Interactions provides local businesses the modern customer communication tools that historically only larger enterprise businesses have been able to afford. We are leveling the playing field.”

Interactions is a messaging platform that enables businesses to connect and respond to customers through text messaging, web chat and Facebook Messenger from one streamlined inbox. To make direct communication easier, customers can text any time and businesses will  instantly receive mobile or desktop notifications to respond faster. To streamline the process, conversations can be assigned to experts within the company to resolve issues faster and answer questions more efficiently.

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“In response to the Coronavirus situation, we have had to limit customers in the store, but like all other businesses right now, we are looking for ways to continue to generate sales and help our customers through this time,” said Todd Thompson, Mefford Jewelers, BirdEye customer. “BirdEye’s Interactions product has provided us exactly what we need to stay in touch with our customers to let them know about our new hours and processes.”

BirdEye is an award-winning customer experience platform that offers businesses tools to be found online, become the obvious choice and provide the best customer experience. With the addition of Interactions, it puts customer communication front and center.

“As a medical practice, Interactions has been very useful in addressing quick questions and reducing phone traffic,” said Katy Clayton, M.S., CCN, Stone Oak Women’s Center, BirdEye customer. “Patients get fast answers to insurance questions, appointment requests, and prescription refill requests. After receiving a web chat or text message appointment request, our office calls or texts patients back to schedule at a convenient time. It has streamlined the patient experience because they are no longer sitting on hold for an appointment, our phone line is not clogged with requests and we don’t interrupt their day.”

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Key Interactions Features

• Inbox: View and respond to messages from customers through Webchat, text messages and Facebook Messenger — from a single place.
• Business Texting: Communicate with all your customers through text messaging.
• Mass Text Messaging: Easily send text messages to 200 customers at once. Up to 1,000 texts per month, per business location.
• Webchat: A chat widget for your website that enables you to connect with visitors and support customers as needed.
• Livechat:  Chat in real-time with customers while they are on your website.
• Chatbot: Our chatbot, Robin, uses AI to automatically respond to frequently asked questions about your business.
• Teams: Assign messages within a team, or from one team to another, to better collaborate and get the best answer for the customer, easier & faster.
• Custom templates: Create reusable text templates that save you time when responding.
• Receptionist: Receptionist responds to missed calls and converts them into repeat business, e.g. setting up appointments.

BirdEye will offer Interactions for free for 60 days to distressed businesses that sign up in April 2020. Industries affected include restaurants, galleries and theaters, hospitality, transportation, travel, casinos, gyms and fitness studios and non-profit organizations.

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