How deep linking can enhance customer relationships during a crisis

The Covid-19 pandemic is making the future look pretty grim. Businesses are struggling to keep their heads above water, and a recession looks inevitable.

However, many companies are rising to the challenge by trying something new. Small businesses that have never had much of a digital presence are moving online, and many conferences are transitioning to digital formats.

Enterprises are also turning to mobile platforms such as apps to create a direct marketing channel to their customers, offering up personalized app experiences and services to drive engagement and build positive relationships.

Paying attention to consumers

Customer relationship management, or CRM, is important for companies because organizations can learn about their users’ preferences and optimize their processes to offer better experiences.

CRM often takes place through customer service encounters and marketing channels, among others. In some cases, these initiatives could determine whether consumers will stick to a company’s services or switch to a competitor’s instead.

And while maintaining these relationships can go a long towards keeping customers loyal, it’s particularly crucial during a crisis, when layoffs and pay cuts become a painful reality. In such difficult times, people tend to reduce costs, which could lead them to stop using a service, limit purchases, or buy nothing at all.

As soon as the dust settles, though, businesses will want to woo back their customers, and one of the ways they can do this is to shift from a growth mindset to a retention mindset.

“This is the time to focus on customer relationships and retention, and less on growth,” says Mada Seghete, the head of strategy and market development and a co-founder of Branch, a mobile measurement and deep-linking platform.

Mada Seghete, head of strategy and market development at Branch / Photo credit: Branch

The startup offers a platform for mobile measurement and deep linking, which enables companies to boost customer retention and create better user journeys.

The value of deep linking

So what exactly is deep linking? Simply put, it refers to a hyperlink that connects users to a specific piece of content on a platform. For example, if you receive an email from an ecommerce site and click on a promotion for shoes, deep linking ensures that you are directed to the page within the app that features the promotion, instead of just launching the app in general.

It sounds straightforward, but these small improvements make a huge difference.

One of Branch’s clients, for instance, saw the click-to-open rates for its app rise from 50% to 90% after using deep linking. Another client who implemented it across all its channels saw an improvement of over 20%.

Deep linking is also critical to ensuring a smooth online experience, as a disjointed user journey can put people off and drive them to take their business elsewhere

“There was an example circulating on Twitter about a customer who stopped his subscription to The Wall Street Journal because it kept asking him to log in,” shares Seghete. “It wasn’t able to recognize that it was the same user over multiple browsers, which was frustrating for him.”

More than its deep-linking feature, Branch also uses consumer data to help brands develop customized user experiences, such as offering discount codes if someone has had items in their cart for a while or optimizing the landing page for a particular user.

The company also helps convert mobile web users into app users. Mobile consumers make twice as many purchases through apps compared to the mobile web. As such, Branch helps businesses get more people on their apps by using custom content on the site or by prompting users to download the app when they click through on mobile web.

Branch helps companies convert users from mobile web to app / Photo credit: Branch

As the Covid-19 pandemic spreads, personalized experiences help bolster customer loyalty.

“Build loyalty with your customers through interesting content, being helpful, sending them notes, telling them you understand that they’re going through a hard time, and giving them deals and discounts to help them get through this,” advises Seghete.

Companies may need to make some tough calls that affect short-term profits, but showing understanding and care to consumers during this period could really help in the long term, she adds.

The silver lining

While it appears that the Covid-19 will leave businesses in the lurch, they don’t have to take this sitting down.

Aside from adopting new approaches, companies are also helping out where they can. They’re also improving their processes and recalibrating their resources preparing for when the pandemic has run its course.

Though there’s a lot of uncertainty now, Seghete believes that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

“Focus on your customer relationships, on fixing your flows, and just be ready for when we are out of this,” she says. “After this is over, we will experience a period of unprecedented growth, and this is the time to invest in being ready for that.”

Branch is a mobile measurement and deep-linking platform that provides solutions to unify user measurement and experiences across different devices, platforms, and channels.

Find out more about Branch on its website.