MESSAGE BASED CONVERSATIONS
July 23, 2024
For the past thirty years, I have been helping customers create better engagement experiences, and in all this time, I have never seen the types of efficiency boosts that we are now witnessing in contact centres that have embraced message-based conversations. In this blog, I will first explain what message-based conversations are and what channels are involved. I will then discuss the shift in people's needs, where they traditionally preferred phone calls but now favour sending messages. Research shows that a growing percentage of younger people do not make or take calls, creating a tremendous challenge for contact centres.
The good news is that by embracing a multi-channel messaging solution like our Engage solution, you can not only meet the needs of people but also bring unprecedented levels of efficiency to your contact centre. Message-based conversations allow for a revolutionary way of communicating, hitting the sweet spot of great customer experience and incredible team efficiency.
Message-based conversations involve the use of various messaging channels, such as SMS, WhatsApp, WebChat, and Facebook Messenger, to facilitate communication between customers and contact centre agents. These channels enable asynchronous communication, allowing both parties to interact at their convenience.
Traditionally, people preferred to make phone calls for customer service inquiries. However, there has been a significant shift in communication preferences, especially among younger generations, who now prefer to send messages rather than make or take calls. This shift poses a challenge for contact centres, as they need to adapt to these new preferences to maintain customer satisfaction and engagement.
The era where customers are content to sit in a holding queue while waiting to be connected to an agent or to wait for minutes while an agent finds the right information is over. People value their time more than ever and hate wasting it. Nothing feels like wasting time more than waiting in phone queues or being passed from one person to another. Message-based conversations allow customers to resolve issues while they are busy doing other things. For example, a customer can text in to request an account balance and go on with their day. The contact centre agent can then spend the time to gather the information and message the customer back. It is incredibly efficient for all involved.
Have you ever struggled to hear someone over the phone due to a bad connection, language barrier, or accent? Consider the simple example of reading your email address to someone on the other end of the line. Not only is this incredibly time-consuming, but it is also prone to errors and frustrating. Message-based conversations break through these language barriers. For instance, think how easy it is to send your email address to a friend over a text or SMS message. With message-based conversations, accents and bad connections are totally eliminated. Finally, with advanced features like real-time language translation, you can even communicate with customers in their language of choice.
Because of the dynamics involved in message-based conversations, agents can handle dozens of conversations simultaneously. Engage was built for large contact centres and designed to make it simple and easy for agents to know what to focus on and what to do next. Enhanced features like badge-based notifications, internal chat, conversation participants, conversation transfers, and automated responses bring a level of efficiency to your contact centre unlike any other.
When you embrace message-based conversations, it is important to allow customers to communicate on the channel of their choice. Engage brings together channels like WhatsApp, SMS, WebChat, and Facebook Messenger to create a simple and unified solution, enabling customers to communicate in the way they are most comfortable with. This in turn boosts engagements and leads to speedier problem resolutions. As a matter fact the success rates we are seeing in contact centres who have embraced message based conversations is absolutely mind blowing!
Message-based conversations are transforming customer service and accounts receivable management contact centres. By embracing this communication revolution, contact centres can meet the evolving needs of their customers while achieving unparalleled efficiency. Our Engage solution is designed to help contact centres leverage the full potential of message-based conversations, ensuring a superior customer experience and improved operational performance. Contact us if you would like to learn more about Engage and how message based conversations can revolutionise your contact centre results.
