Viber, the global leader in secure messaging and voice communication, has introduced two new features to enhance brand-user interaction. The company has launched a Business Inbox and a searchable Commercial Account as part of its superapp strategy to deliver personalized experiences to both consumers and businesses.
The Business Inbox allows users to have dedicated spaces for brand-user interactions and keep all business messages in one folder. The feature can be customized to pin specific brand conversations, move them to the main Chats screen, or pin them to the top of the Chats screen.
The Commercial Account, on the other hand, hosts all business information, services, and Chats on Viber under a single searchable entity. Users can proactively search for these accounts and see a brand’s title, logo, verification badge, description, and contact information. Brands can add three addresses, a website, a phone number, and a description to provide users with all the necessary information.
“Users are seeking efficiency and clarity in the way they communicate. Consumers want to have convenient access to communication with a business. More importantly, as trends show us, users are appreciating the power of mobile messaging. Knowing and responding to these personal and business communication needs of our users has resulted in growth in the usage of new features and solutions. This growth tells us we are on the right track in always prioritizing our customers,” according to David Tse, Senior Director APAC at Rakuten Viber.
These two features aim to improve customer experience and increase trust between businesses and users. Business messages from verified brands will go to Business Inbox by default, and Commercial Accounts display all business information in one place.
“The recent updates to Viber provide a strong foundation for the introduction of additional features as part of the company’s superapp strategy. This strategy aims to improve the utility of the app for users and expand the ways in which brands can connect with their audience in a natural way, resulting in increased value for both parties. By adding more features, services, and communication channels, Viber is able to offer more value to both users and brands in a streamlined manner,” said Cristina Constandache, Chief Revenue Officer at Rakuten Viber, who joins the media roundtable with the Philippine press launching the new features through a video call.
These two features are now available globally, including in the Philippines. Viber said that they have a dedicated team who manually checks the legitimacy of organizations before they appear in the app’s Business Inbox.