Profoundly different from a common chat, web messaging enables asynchronous and two-way communication between the customer and the brand, strengthening the relationship and improving the customer experience. The dialogue started with the smartphone can continue with another device, maintaining the conversation. Let’s find out what it is and explore its potential with Genesys and ComApp
Customer engagement is one of the pillars of customer centricity and the key to the success of many brands. Engagement means precisely this: to involve your interlocutor throughout the customer journey by providing them with various opportunities for contact and interaction. In this way, companies can win new customers, strengthen existing relationships and build loyalty.
Moreover, we live in the age of omnichannel. Customers want to contact brands at any time, with all their devices and on any channel, from a WhatsApp chat to a phone call, from an email to a video call. Enterprises face a daunting challenge, as they must provide adequate responses to interlocutors’ requests and ensure a pleasant and consistent experience across all channels.
What Is Web Messaging
Among the various customer engagement tools, companies should start with web messaging. What is web messaging exactly? It is intended as an (online) channel of continuous and asynchronous textual interaction between the company and the customers. To avoid misunderstandings, let’s say that web messaging and web chat are different concepts. The chat is the text version of the classic call to the call center and assumes a synchronous relationship between the operator and the customer.
It, therefore, has queues and waiting times. Also, once the conversation is closed, there is no way to resume it on other channels. While taking the form of a chat, web messaging is an asynchronous communication channel. Users can contact brands at any time and with different devices, waiting for an answer that will arrive with times depending on the type of service: in some cases, the interaction must be instantaneous; in others, the answer can come a few hours later, or even on the first following working day.
There is a profound difference – explains Alberto Pasi, Solution Lead Digital & Conversational AI of Genesys– between one service and another. A request on the status of a shipment must be answered immediately. Still, there are complex services, such as the mortgage opening, in which the conversation does not require immediacy and can even be spread over several days. In these cases, web messaging is perfect because of the persistence of the conversation».
The conversation started today with the smartphone and can continue in a week with another device. The user doesn’t have to repeat anything because the conversation is persistent and recorded, and both parties (agent/customer) have access to the historical information. In the concept of web messaging, omnichannel is integrated. Web messaging replicates the dynamics of private conversations with various WhatsApp, Messenger, and similar tools, hence a marked naturalness of the dialogue itself.
Furthermore, although some channels are by definition open 24 hours – think of the case of WhatsApp -implementing web messaging on the company website, in e-commerce, or in apps means that the company has full control over it and can also, possibly, define service availability times, as well as create a virtuous relationship between agents and chatbots to serve their customers on different messaging channels better.
How To Improve Customer Experience With Web Messaging
To improve engagement and provide an excellent customer experience, companies need to plan the activation of messaging channels properly. Otherwise, there is a risk that the operation will be counterproductive: perhaps the media are not manned or monitored, the detection of KPIs needs to be included, and, consequently, there is no way to meet the expectations of the interlocutors.
First, the company must design the conversations with its customers as best possible. In the white paper Practical guide to web messaging, Genesys suggests, for example, using list selectors at the start of the session to immediately understand the subject of the call and direct the conversation toward the most qualified agents. This way, you get more customer satisfaction and economic sustainability because specialization reduces call handling time.
It is then necessary to integrate the CRM for the benefit of the agents and the CX, correctly define the KPIs according to the objectives, and, above all, constantly enhance the data of the conversations. Within these are the needs of the customers, the market trends, and the conditions that the structure struggles to satisfy.
Analyzing conversations can lead to delivering new internal training sessions, reorganizing the contact center, modifying processes, creating FAQs on the most frequently asked questions, or opting for automation (bots). Above all, enhancing the data leads to the personalization of the service, hence more customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Create A Virtuous Synergy Between Web Messaging And Automation
As anticipated, customers sometimes expect an immediate response to their requests. Questions about a practice’s progress, the warehouse stock, or the current account balance must be answered instantly, even in the middle of the night. Marco Tommasucci, Sales Specialist & Key Account Manager Finance of ComApp (Gruppo Present), explains that today the association between web messaging and conversational AI is almost obvious because companies want to extend the services beyond the manual coverage of the same.
Although web messaging is an asynchronous communication channel, the customer should not have the impression that his message has no sequel. And I’m not necessarily talking about an instantaneous response. In many cases, it is sufficient for the automation to signal that it has taken charge and take time until the agent in charge is available».
Tommasucci underlines how chatbots can autonomously manage some requests but are usually unable to solve problems. Yet, these can accompany the customer up to the solution, which will come from an operator in the flesh later. In this way, the company creates that synergy between ‘human and virtual colleagues’ in which everyone wins: the agents are less burdened by routine requests.
They can concentrate on the interlocutors’ problems while the company obtains savings on the one hand and it improves the customer experience on the other. To be successful, however, the implementation of chatbots must be gradual and always driven by data.
How To Measure Engagement? Again, Make Way For The Data
Finally, how to understand the level of customer satisfaction? As mentioned, one of the first activities connected to web messaging is the definition of KPIs, some of which refer precisely to the customer experience. For example, through online surveys or post-interaction, it is possible to directly ask for the user’s opinion, adopting standard indicators such as the well-known Net Promoter Score.
The next and more in-depth step involves data analysis and adopting the voice of the customer solutions, which is useful for understanding customers’ needs, intent, and sentiment. It is then possible to arrive at extremely in-depth analyses of the funnel data to understand the real effectiveness of the company towards the needs of its customers.
By correctly analyzing the data, the company can start a path of continuous improvement aimed at perfecting the relationship with the customer, accelerating request management times, optimizing the collaboration between chatbots and agents, and, ultimately, differentiating itself on the market and winning the challenge with competitors.
Read Also: Web Analytics Tools To Improve Site And ECommerce Performance
