Recently, some users found that the service account was collapsed. Service IDs are no longer notified in the chat message interface, but are collapsed in the "Service Account Messages" folder. This grayscale test of the WeChat service account also caused complaints from netizens. I can't help but wonder: the WeChat service account itself is biased towards service interaction, shouldn't it be displayed intuitively, why did WeChat make such changes?
Recently, WeChat has tested the adjustment of the service account function, and folded it into the "service account message" in the chat interface, which means that users cannot see the service account message in the first place. Because of this, netizens have a lot of discussions, and many netizens can see complaints and feedback from netizens in Xiaohongshu and WeChat open communities.
What makes everyone puzzled is: the WeChat service account itself is biased towards service interaction, and we often receive instant information through it, such as express notifications, bank notifications, hospital appointments, etc., but now it is folded into the "service number message", shouldn't the message push be displayed intuitively? Why did WeChat make such a change?
Before vs After Change
1. The difference between a subscription account and a service account
When registering an official account, there are two options: a service account and a subscription account, and the subscription account registration subject can be an individual or an enterprise, which will be more inclined to the dissemination of information, and can be sent in groups once a day; The registration subject of the service account is the enterprise or organization, which focuses more on providing services for the enterprise, such as the customer service of banks and enterprises, and can only push messages four times per month.
Compared with the subscription account, the service account has more advanced interface permissions and can achieve more functions, such as WeChat payment, WeChat store, etc.
And at the exposed location, the service account will be directly displayed in the chat interface, which plays a strong role in informing users and making it easier to attract users' attention; The subscription account is collapsed in the "Subscription Account" folder, which needs to be clicked by the user to view.
2. Is it necessary to fold the message push?
1. Chat messages and service messages share one interface
It doesn't make sense for a service account and a chat message to share the same interface. And as we pay more and more attention to the service accounts, it causes the main chat list to be redundant. According to the existing observed data, the proportion of service account messages invading the first screen is gradually surpassing that of chat messages, and even bringing negatives, users may miss reading personal messages, resulting in some social relationship impacts.
However, there will be another situation in the service account notification, if the user has the corresponding behavior, but the service account does not pay attention to it, it will be directly sent to the service notification, which is the same as the notification entrance of the Mini Program.
Chat messages and service messages coexist on the same page, and the main body is easy to be blurred, and the folding of the service account may be a step for WeChat to highlight the main body. In fact, it is not the first time that the service account has changed in terms of user experience, in May 2022, WeChat has made adjustments to the service account.
Users can set "Message Do Not Disturb" on any service account, and all service accounts they follow will enable "Message Do Not Disturb" by default with one click, and notify users in the form of a small red dot. If you need to cancel Do Not Disturb Messages for a service account, you can find the number and cancel it separately.
2. The choice of user habits and product needs
Schrödinger's user experience, the service account still can't be bypassed in "Do Not Disturb".
It can be seen that the adjustment of the service account is to reduce the disturbance of users, which should be a change to improve the user experience, but why is it complained by so many users? This has to start from both the operator and the user.
For operators, in the past, some important notices could be pushed and viewed, and a large part of the service account was an important window for corporate publicity, but now folding it obviously reduces the reach of the message. But for users, in addition to marketing information, such a folding will make them miss important information notifications, which is very inconvenient.
From the perspective of user habits, many users are viewing some important notifications in the chat message list every day, such as bank card transaction reminder messages, the service is bound to the bank service number, and this channel can facilitate users to receive their own transactions in a timely manner without opening the SMS service.
If it is folded, the user may not have the habit of looking at the "service account message". After all, among the service accounts that you follow, how many of them are used every day, and you are afraid that they will be submerged in the message list like the subscription account.
There is a certain cost to the formation and change of user habits, but from the perspective of the product, user habits may not be real user needs, and product needs are not the same as user habits. If you talk about demand, most people's reaction must be "don't change it".
At this time, user habits and product requirements have become a point where the product needs to be balanced.
3. Not everyone likes folding
For the folding of the service account, there are voices for support and voices against it.
Strictly speaking, the service account is the first enterprise-friendly function, because it can appear directly in the user's message list, so many enterprises are both subscription and service accounts.
But because of this, service accounts are being abused, marketing messages are increasing, and users are being disturbed too much.
Nowadays, folding seems to have put this kind of marketing information in the hut of "service account messages", and it also makes the chat message list cleaner, and for users, it also gives them a sense of peace.
But users who are unwilling to fold said: If the service account is folded, can it still be called a service account?
It turns out that there is already a layer of Do Not Disturb function, and now it is folded again, which is equivalent to superimposing the "Do Not Disturb" buff again, and turning on Deep Do Not Disturb, but now users need to do not disturb all the service accounts? Apparently not. Bank account reminders, hospital appointment reminders, etc., also need instant reminders.
The original account has a higher weight in front of the user, and now the weight is reduced, which makes the original "service account" sent once a week even more meaningless. So what is the value of this service number?
Some users like it, and some users will scold, and it is difficult to balance the two, so it is better to give the choice to the user. Since it is on the same chat message page, it is better to give everyone a customized choice like folding a group chat, and manually set it to distinguish the reminder intensity, such as the default strength is a weak reminder, and for the advertising and marketing of the service account, choose to fold; Special messages are manually changed to strong reminders, such as account movements, etc.
III. Conclusion
Maybe WeChat is to find the original intention of the service account and be an entrance to provide one-stop services.
If the service account can provide customers with meaningful services, rather than just marketing, then the service column will become a column for daily needs. Users click on the functions they need, and those that they don't need will be eliminated by turning them off.
But that's not the case these days, and with the increasing number of marketing and promotional messages, categorization may be a better user experience than scattered sources of information. It's just contrary to the current usage habits, and it will be like educating and cultivating users, bringing opposition to jumping out of the comfort zone.
At this point, it is advisable to give the user the right to choose, which can increase folding, but also allow for selectivity. You can choose which ones are folded and which ones are not, but the logic can also be that they are all folded by default, allowing you to choose which ones to be "put out".
In the content part of the article, thank you @红夜 @青苔 @Accompany @大鱼炖海棠 @都是生活 and others for their wonderful answers to the contribution of Tiantianwen~
Resources:
WeChat Open Community: https://developers.weixin.qq.com/community/homepage
WeChat quietly launched new regulations, and it is difficult to migrate the service account with the subscription account! ：https://www.woshipm.com/operate/5842889.html#toc-2
Part of the material source: Selected topics asked every day
"Everyday" is a mutual aid Q&A module under the Everyone is a Product Manager Community, which is committed to learning and exchanging knowledge in the fields of product, operation, and marketing.
This column is run by everyone is a product manager@Ginny collated, edited and published, welcome everyone to actively ask questions and communicate together.
The title image is from Unsplash and is licensed under CC0.
The views in this article only represent the author's own, everyone is a product manager, and the platform only provides information storage space services.