In the simplest terms, business messaging is a way for businesses to communicate with each other and their customers. This can include anything from notifications about an order to delivery updates or questions about a product or service. Business messaging can be a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes. It can help you keep your customers informed and updated on your products or services, and it can also help you to build better relationships with your customers.
Additionally, business messaging can help you to improve your communication with your team and with other businesses. If you’re looking for a way to improve communication within your business, or if you’re looking for a way to better communicate with your customers, business messaging may be the solution you’re looking for.
Business messaging is a term often used to describe the use of chatbots and other automated messaging tools for business purposes. While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, chatbots and other automated messaging tools are typically used for more informal communication, such as customer support or marketing, while business messaging is more often used for more formal communication, such as between employees or between a customer and a business.
Types of asynchronous communication:
Advantages of business messaging:
Consumers prefer messaging, but when they search for a brand the phone number is usually the first thing they see. As your company defines your digital strategy, think of business messaging as a holistic initiative rather than a channel-specific one. Consolidate multiple, disparate communication modes into a centralized location that powers messaging across the website, mobile apps, or popular consumer apps. If done well, messaging can yield cost savings of 20-30% over the voice channel while driving experience and resolution scores that are at least 20% higher.
Here are the top consumer messaging apps you should consider adding to your lineup.
A powerful new way for businesses to connect directly with customers through a completely integrated and native Apple Messages experience on their iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch.
A mobile conversational channel that combines entry points on Google Maps, Search, and brand websites to create rich, asynchronous messaging experiences.
Facebook’s dedicated messaging app where consumers connect with friends, family, and businesses. The platform supports text messaging, voice, and video calls, and is also becoming a popular advertising, commerce, and customer service channel for brands.
A Facebook-owned, cross-platform messaging tool that allows over 2 billion users worldwide to send text and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share multimedia content. Many WhatsApp users prefer it over device-native messaging apps to connect with friends and family in other countries.
Messaging benefits customers, contact center agents, and brands in a multitude of ways. If it’s not part of your operation today, you’re probably leaving money on the table.
Messaging channels such as SMS and third-party messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat and WhatsApp have been widely embraced in the global market, making them ideal for service organizations. By transitioning to messaging platforms, customer service and support leaders will reduce dependency on native mobile app experiences, reduce cost, increase digital and self-service effectiveness, and achieve a persistent experience for customer engagement.
—Philip Jenkins, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner Customer Service & Support practice, Gartner
If you’re new to messaging, follow these guidelines to create the seamless experiences your customers expect.
The first step is to decide which messaging apps to use and where in your customer journeys to offer them. Look to your customer data for insights. Are more of your customers using iOS devices or Android? Which channels or messaging platforms are they using the most? For example, if more queries come through your native mobile app than your website, start by offering in-app messaging. If more are from iOS devices, start with Apple Messages for Business.
Next, ask yourself these questions: Where can we resolve issues immediately? Where can we improve processes? Where can we add value? Pinpoint where in your customer journeys people are asking for help or running into roadblocks, and offer messaging support at these pain points. It’s all about making it easier to connect. Once you’re up and running, be sure to run an awareness campaign to spread the word.
Success starts with strategy—so decide what you want to achieve. Is your goal to divert traffic from higher cost channels? Improve agent efficiency and increase volume? Bring in new traffic and boost sales? Cost savings is always top of mind, but consider other key metrics you want to move the needle on, too.
Clearly defining your goals can also help to determine the best entry points on common customer journeys. Start with the queries you can easily solve, such as FAQs or simple account inquiries. A partner like [24]7.ai can help guide you in the right direction if you’re struggling to identify or prioritize your goals.
Don’t just add messaging for the sake of it—create satisfying experiences and solve the problems that matter for your customers. Open every conversation with an intelligent AI chatbot that can predict intent, authenticate users, and collect basic information using natural language processing. Ensure seamless escalation with the full conversational context so agents can pick up right where the bot left off.
Keep text content brief, clear, and accurate, and use visual aids wherever you can—including images, videos, and interactive forms. Quick replies let users on both sides save time by tapping instead of typing. Bear in mind that every messaging platform has unique UI elements. Centralizing messaging content into a single orchestration platform allows you to re-use content across channels, increasing efficiency. [24]7.ai has the added advantage of automatically adapting content for each platform.
Synchronous chat and asynchronous messaging use many of the same technologies, but the experience is different. Mindset is key, so be sure to prepare your contact center team for this new approach before you deploy. Update your agent console to support asynchronous communication and provide new skills training—make sure agents can multi-task, prioritize, and are familiar with the platforms you’re deploying.
Be sure to set performance goals and adjust KPIs for this new mode of communication, too. You may need to change the way you measure average handle time, or look at the number of concurrent chats or resolved chats per hour instead. It’s also important to monitor performance and provide ongoing support and training. We suggest starting with minimal traffic while your team ramps up and increasing volume once you’ve ironed out any wrinkles.
Tracking metrics lets you improve overall results and align your people and processes with organizational objectives. While many of the traditional metrics that are used to gauge program and agent performance can be reused in messaging, consider additional metrics that will allow you to benefit from the continuous (asynchronous) nature of this mode of communication.
Evolving from pure chat or blending synchronous communications with chat and the asynchronous messaging model can reduce required staffing hours by an average of 20%.
Compared to live chat, asynchronous messaging agents can manage more concurrent conversations and complete each conversation faster on average. With fewer turns, transfers, and escalations, conversations take less time and are more satisfying.
Compared to chat, asynchronous messaging results in:
Asynchronous messaging conversations are very nearly one-and-done.
Asynchronous messaging resolves more issues that stay resolved.
Table 1. Sample Messaging Scorecard
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For modern brands, business messaging is no longer a luxury—it's a necessity. Its proliferation is undeniable. Within the next two years, messaging is destined to profoundly change the way businesses and customers interact. Companies that fail to recognize this or adopt business messaging risk being left behind while those who do will attract new customers, and keep existing customers happy. Messaging has become a key ingredient to business success.
Ready to see what messaging can do for your business? Request a demo or contact us today.
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