Just noticed Quickr has introduced a “Chat” feature.
I guess everyone knows what Quickr is; it is a platform where everyone can sell anything to anyone, mostly used for selling used goods. On this context, will Chat click?
When we think from the angle of people who are selling or buying something from Quickr, Chat provides an easy way to communicate with the other party in one place. Means, you don’t have to share some details in phone, some in Email etc. and finally confused what is shared with whom. This acts as a single inbox where all these details can be viewed, not just with one person, but with multiple people, all neatly categorized by product.
This makes sure these messages don’t occupy my mail box where searching for these details among many other Emails is difficult. I feel this is the first reason why someone will use Chat ahead of other channels.
Second reason is, Quickr chat allows photo uploads. This can really be a very useful feature for buyers and sellers of used products.
For example, if you are buying a used washing machine, you may want to ask the seller to click picture of the machine from certain angle. With mobile app for chat, this will be easy for anyone to do. If used properly, this can be as good as really seeing that product in front of you.
Third and the most important benefit, a buyer can use this chat experience to improve their listing. For example, let us say someone selling a television speaks to ten different buyers on chat. These people are asking various details which the seller responds. Now, he can look at the common questions asked by most people and include them in his listing itself for the benefit of others. This can be a simple copy, paste.
If Chat feature is not available, such a discussion can still happen, but Chat makes it very simple and easy to access in one place. It makes the process easy as the chat can happen from anywhere: computer or mobile phone or tablet. This connected experience will speed up the communication and bring the deal to closure quickly.
I have observed that people living outside India use these websites to buy things for their folks here who may not be technology-savvy. In such cases, chat will help a lot in having a conversation without any time zone issues. As this can be synchronous as well as asynchronous mode of communication, people can post messages and others can either reply immediately or take care of it when they have time.
It will take some time for Indian users to accept the chat offering. But once they use this feature once, especially on a mobile device, this has the potential to become their first choice for all future sales and purchases.
தினம் ஒரு ’பா’ 