In 2021, nearly 21% of live chat support messages went unanswered. With growing chat volumes every year, customers are confronted with long wait times and unresponsive agents.
The solution?
A tool that puts agent and customer convenience first, and gives businesses the chance to stay connected with their customers no matter the time of day. Asynchronous messaging is a way of live chat support that allows customers and businesses to interact in their own time without requiring them to be online at the same time.
To understand the asynchronous form of messaging better, it’s important to note the difference between synchronous and asynchronous messaging.
Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Messaging
Before we get into the difference, let’s zoom out a bit about how all messaging communication takes place.
For any exchange to take place, it requires two persons to converse over a messaging platform that captures the message from one person and sends it to another through its server, and vice versa. Now, the two types of messages – synchronous and asynchronous – are differentiated by how the server relays the message between the sender and the receiver.
If the conversation is strictly between two parties, such that the sender has to wait for a reply from the receiver before sending out another message, it is known as synchronous messaging. Both parties have to be present at the same time and should be communicating with each other concurrently.
However, when a third party or intermediary is involved, and neither of the two parties is required to be talking to each other concurrently, it is known as asynchronous messaging. Here, a conversation can be had without interacting in real-time. The sender can push a bunch of messages in one go, and the third-party messaging service relays that message to the receiver when the latter is back, and the receiver can reply to them at their convenience.
How Businesses Can Use Asynchronous Messaging
Asynchronous messaging can be the key to unlocking new levels of customer satisfaction for businesses and minimizing customer effort scores. Customers have the freedom to ask questions at their own pace without having to start conversations over every single time. It’s no wonder that it is referred to as the “fire-and-forget” form of messaging.
Asynchronous messaging allows customers to get into great detail with their problems, resting assured that a customer service representative will get back to them soon.
However, asynchronous messaging benefits businesses much more. Top live chat software providers today, like Freshchat, offer asynchronous solutions. This opens up several avenues of success for businesses, like:
- Decreasing unanswered customer queries: With synchronous messaging, when your contact volumes rise, agents are pushed to offer real-time support, one customer, at a time. This could lead to longer wait times, missed chats, and chat drop-offs. Instead, by opting for an asynchronous solution, support teams can talk to multiple customers in one go, in turn interacting with every query that comes their way.
- Increase global conversations: While it would be great to have contact centers across the globe to offer real-time support, the more cost-effective method would be to request customers to leave their questions in the chat, to which your agents can reply during business hours. This is a game-changer for global lean teams who use live chat as a way to connect with customers worldwide.
- Increase agent concurrency: Asynchronous messaging can replace high-touch channels such as phone calls that take up unnecessary agent bandwidth. The phone channel is an excellent example of synchronous communication. One support agent can only speak to one customer at a time. Swapping your phone channel with an asynchronous chat can drastically reduce time spent on each customer, reducing the load on each agent and making them more productive.
Freshchat for Asynchronous Messaging
All conversations with customers via Freshchat are asynchronous in nature. By combining the asynchronous capabilities of Freshchat with powerful messaging features, agents can offer a high-quality customer experience in real-time.
Top Freshchat features that step up asynchronous messaging:
- User Information: Freshchat provides background and context to every chat user. You will find information about their chat history, their demographics, their customer status. You can take it a level further with a ClearBit and CRM integration to get detailed information on each customer.
- Business Hours: This feature can be enabled when your agents are stepping away. Any chat users at their time will be prompted with a message that the agent has stepped away from their desks and will respond once they return. Businesses hours ensure that your customer is not left hanging without answers, and are more likely to ensure they are patient with your customer service representatives. The offline experience will set the right expectations with customers.
- Messaging Channels: Messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Apple Business Chat are all asynchronous messaging channels. A powerful tool like Freshchat can integrate with these channels to unify messaging in real-time. You can have conversations at the customer’s convenience right inside Freshchat in these apps.
Asynchronous messaging has become the way forward. With Freshchat you get access to advanced messaging solutions that can collaborate with your agents in offering the best customer service there is.
