Right place, right time. Chatbots vs async messaging vs live messaging
Customer experience is paramount to the success of any e-commerce business, especially as every brand moves to online selling and it becomes more difficult to create differentiation from your competitors.
Delivering an exceptional customer experience requires effective communication, and there are three key digital channels of customer communication that most brands deploy in combination. These digital CX channels include:
Chatbots
Asynchronous messaging
Live messaging
Each communication method has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it's important to choose the right communication method for each situation. In this blog post, we'll explore the pros and cons of chatbots, asynchronous messaging, and live messaging in detail to help you determine which communication method is right for your business.
Chatbots
A customer service chatbot is a computer program that is designed to provide automated customer service. It uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence technologies to engage with users in real-time, understanding and responding to their queries.
The chatbot functions as a virtual customer service agent for the organization it was created for, and can answer simple questions quickly and accurately, freeing up the time of human staff members who may be busier dealing with more complex requests.
Chatbot Pros
Chatbots offer inhouse and outsourced CX teams a powerful tool to increase customer engagement and loyalty. For e-commerce brands, chatbots provide their customers with the convenience of 24/7 availability, real-time responses to time urgent questions (e.g. when a customer is trying to place an order), the advantage of being able to handle multiple chats at once, and the cost efficiency of providing automated responses.
The chatbot is able to provide round-the-clock support, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Other use cases for chatbots include order status updates, shipment tracking updates, troubleshooting common product issues, providing users with quick access to information such as account balances, product descriptions, and even help article links for self-service solutions. Some companies are even using chatbots for product demonstrations or walkthroughs. Overall, the use of customer service chatbots not only increases efficiency but also drives increased customer satisfaction due to faster response times and easier navigation through the process of getting help.
Elaborating on that last point, e-commerce brands save time and money in providing customer support through chatbot technology because it is programmed to answer basic client queries, eliminating the need for manpower spent on simple tasks that can be solved by automated responses. Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular in CX, as they facilitate better communication between CX teams and customers while enhancing the overall customer experience.
Chatbot Cons
Customer service chatbots are not always as effective as live agent chat because the technology is still relatively new in the grand scheme of things and has yet to reach its full potential, particularly in terms of natural language processing.
In addition, customer service chatbots often lack the ability to fully understand the customers' individual needs due to their limited understanding of context and emotion. That said, artificially intelligent bots are improving all the time. At Rush Order, we're watching incredible developments with OpenAI's ChatGPT and similar technologies to see when and how they become useful for improving CX. We expect help desk and CRM solutions from Kustomer, Zendesk, FreshDesk, etc. to jump into the AI fray at some point. The time will almost certainly come when chatbot functionality starts to meet and sometimes exceed the speed and effectiveness of live agents in a significant proportion of CX use cases.
Check out "Everything you need to know about customer service chatbots" for more tips and helpful information as well.
Asynchronous messaging
Asynchronous messaging, sometimes referred to as "async messaging", is a type of communication that allows people to contact each other without the need for both parties to be present and actively engaged in the conversation at the same time.
Email is often cited as one of the most common examples of asynchronous messaging in customer service, but web forms (that often generate an email response) and social media messaging platforms are also common examples. Asyncrhonous video messaging tools like Loom are another less common but highly effective example Rush Order is also finding success with across our outsourced CX solutions.
In general, regardless of the specific channel, async communication involves wait times, allowing both participants to freely start and resume the conversation when they are ready.
Asynchronous messaging pros
Asynchronous messaging is one of the most popular customer experience communication methods used today, and that has been the case for a couple decades now. Email, web forms, social media messaging, and other similar platforms allow your customers to message you when it's convenient for them--without the need for real-time interactions by your CS agents. Whatever issues customers have, they can take their time to explain them and the same goes for CS agents hoping to provide thoughtful feedback.
As an online business, it's important to stay responsive and reply as quickly as possible, but still leave room for more careful responses. This enables customers to feel heard and valued without feeling rushed or overwhelmed with immediate demands on their time.
Asynchronous messaging can be used in customer support settings to provide customers with an efficient way to ask questions and receive answers without having to wait in real time for a response from a CS agent. It also helps businesses manage customer inquiries more effectively by allowing them to prioritize responses based on urgency. Asynchronous messaging can help drive customer satisfaction by providing customers with quick and convenient access to support when they need it.
Asynchronous messaging cons
The main disadvantage of asynchronous messaging is quite obvious... Response times from both CS agents and customers can be slower due to delays in sending and receiving messages. Since the message sender and receiver do not need to be online or connected at the same time, any information they exchange may take longer to arrive than if real-time messaging is in use. This could be an issue if the sender needs a speedy response from the recipient, in either direction when it comes to customer support. This is why live messaging can be so effective when, for example, the CS agent is waiting for a last minute shipment address change from a customer.
Live messaging
Live messaging includes real-time / simultaneous communication between your CX team and your customer.
Live chat has become the new normal for many customer service departments, as many customers begin to prefer it. This may actually be a case where the world has come full circle. If you think about it, live messaging began decades ago with the advent of live telephone customer support. We've now come full circle where live agents are messaging customers in real time, but via a text based channel, which customers are also increasingly preferring over a voice based (i.e. telephone) channel.
Live messaging pros
Live messaging has stood the test of time as it allows for real-time interaction to efficiently resolve customer queries, some of which may be time sensitive. Not only is live messaging capable of quickly and accurately addressing customer needs, but it can also be used to build rapport and loyalty with customers.
Live messaging cons
On the flip side, live messaging requires more manpower as live chats need to be staffed in order to be effective—if one live chat agent is overly busy, multiple customers may have delays in their support experience. Implementing live messaging can thus require higher ongoing costs that must be taken into consideration. However, satisfied customers have been linked with improved customer retention and loyalty over time. Ultimately, making use of live messaging is an excellent short and long term investment.
Better yet, combining live agent messaging with chatbots can often provide the best of both worlds, where the easiest issues are removed from the queue, leaving live agents to only service customers who truly require live help from an expensive human agent. The last cherry on top for a truly excellent combined customer experience strategy is to leverage cheaper agents. You can take Rush Order's outsourced CX calculator for a test drive to see these savings in action for yourself.
Deploying the right CX messaging tools at the right time
All three of these customer experience tools have pros and cons that should be considered when determining which is the best fit for your ecommerce business. Chatbots can provide automated responses 24/7 but may not be able to handle more complex inquiries. Asynchronous messaging allows customers to message you on their own time, but it doesn't allow for real-time interaction. Live messaging is a good option for building rapport with customers, but it may require more manpower to staff.
Overall, utilizing a combination of chatbots, asynchronous messaging, and live messaging gives your e-commerce business the opportunity to provide excellent customer service that meets customer expectations and keeps them engaged with your brand. By leveraging all three tools effectively, e-commerce brands can create seamless experiences for their customers, regardless of the time of day and how each customer prefers to communicate with you.
Implementing the best mix of these three tools is critical to creating the best possible customer experience at the right cost for your e-commerce business. Contact Rush Order today for a free consultation to determine which communication methods are best for your business, as well as how those methods should be implemented and managed.
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