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Aug 16, 2021 Melissa Gilbertson

What is Asynchronous Messaging in Customer Service?

Customer service is far from easy. Your call center is likely struggling to keep up with an onslaught of customer queries. That’s why you need to find cost-effective and successful solutions that can help quickly resolve these large volumes of requests while still meeting your customers’ expectations for remarkable customer service.

Thankfully, technology is now giving us new ways to interact with our customers and provide a frictionless customer service experience that delights them at every step of their journey with your brand. 

With that in mind, can we take lessons from how we communicate with those close to us, and apply it to the customer experience (CX)

With the evolution of asynchronous messaging capabilities, customer service departments now have a method that enables them to better connect with their customers - all while cutting costs and providing an improved customer experience. 

What is asynchronous messaging?

Asynchronous messaging, sometimes called async messaging, refers to a method of communication in which both parties do not need to be consistently active in the conversation. 

Asynchronous messaging gives participants on both sides of the conversations the freedom to start, pause and resume the conversation on their own terms. Rather than waiting for an immediate response, users can send a message and then continue with unrelated tasks while the responder replies at a time that is convenient for them.

This is in contrast to synchronous messaging, in which both parties are chatting at the same time.

Asynchronous messaging typically takes place through messaging platforms such as SMS, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, WhatsApp, WeChat, Google Business Messaging and a wide number of other platforms. 

What is the role of asynchronous messaging in customer service? 

Many users have no idea what asynchronous messaging actually is by its name, but they use it frequently in their day-to-day lives. Whether it’s talking to family or friends via text, emails, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, people love the convenience of talking to others in their preferred channel and at the time that is convenient for them. 

It’s becoming increasingly clear that customers want to talk to brands in the exact same way.

Traditional methods of contact customer service, such as phone calls, emails and live chat are still incredibly important, but brands need to offer more solutions than ever before to reduce customer effort and improve the customer experience.

Asynchronous messaging is a communication channel that customers use in their personal lives, and it only makes sense that it would be their preferred method of communication with brands as well. 

With asynchronous messaging, customers can send messages from their mobile device at the time that is most convenient for them. Even better, while they wait for a response from your customer service team, they can continue with other tasks. 

This has two primary benefits. Firstly, your brand is able to remove the customer expectation that they should be helped immediately. They aren’t expecting a response immediately and they’re happy to wait for the right answer. Secondly, it gives your customer service representatives the time they need to deliver the correct response for improved customer service outcomes.

How can Advantage Communications help?

Here at Advantage Communications we have the only built-from-the-ground-up asynchronous messaging solution at scale in the marketplace. That means we can engage customers on their preferred channels whether it be SMS, Facebook messenger, web chat and many more.

Our Advantage Messaging solution uses automation and augmentation to reduce customer service agent effort, while contact center artificial intelligence (AI) technology monitors asynchronous messaging interactions to provide agents with feedback on the best things to say for superior customer service outcomes. 

The result? We have achieved the below results for our clients using our asynchronous messaging solution:

  • 20 percent increase in Net Promoter Score
  • 95 percent better compliance
  • 23 percent increased revenue
  • 14 percent improvement in QA scores
  • 12 percent lower average handle time
  • 43 percent reduction in hold time
  • 65 percent less agent training time
  • and a 50 percent reduction in QA costs.

Interested in learning more? Get in touch with Advantage Communication today. Our team of customer experience and customer service experts would love to answer your questions on how asynchronous messaging can be applied to your brand’s customer experience offering.

 

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Published by Melissa Gilbertson August 16, 2021
Melissa Gilbertson