Do you know what conversational messaging is and the benefits and drawbacks it has for businesses? Discover everything you need to know.

This year has seen conversational messaging become an increasingly popular way to provide customers with a personalised experience. From being able to get real-time answers in the moment of need, businesses have the opportunity to create meaningful connections and build trust with their customers by responding quickly and effectively – something that every customer appreciates.

Saascoms has developed an award-winning  AI Chatbot and conversational tool, Omnireach, which can streamline digital conversations by either allocating to ‘live’ agents based on decision science/workflows or self-serving via AI Chatbot responses. Our AI-driven technology can detect customer sentiment, allowing the customer to be dealt with appropriately.

In this article, we explore both sides of conversational messaging, from its potential pitfalls to its many benefits.

Benefits:

1. Personalised Experience

Conversational messaging helps you connect with customers on a more personal level! Tailor your customer service to their specific needs and give them an instant response when they have questions or concerns. This powerful technology helps you make meaningful connections that can result in lasting relationships for the future.

2. Improved Customer Satisfaction

Your top priority is delivering exceptional customer service, and one great way to do that is with timely conversational messaging! Responding quickly and effectively to customers demonstrates your dedication to providing the best experience possible – one that can grow long-term loyalty and build relationships.

3. Increased Efficiency

Chatting with customers is an efficient way to boost business productivity! Conversational messaging allows businesses to handle multiple conversations at once – minimising response times and maximising output. Make conversing easier on your team today by taking advantage of this useful feature.

4. Reduced Costs

Human conversations are costly for businesses, but using automated messaging can be a clever way to cut costs. By utilising chatbots and other conversational tools, companies can effectively reduce the need for human customer service staff without sacrificing quality – making cost savings an attainable goal.

5. Build Customers’ Trust

Building trust is key to making meaningful connections with your customers, but it’s not always easy. People need reassurance that you’re real and care about their needs—and they want the conversation started quickly! Showing how much value you place on customer service through speedy responses makes a great impression and encourages people to do business with your brand online.

6. Convenience

Your customers don’t want to feel ignored. Give them the opportunity to have a conversation with you whenever and wherever they choose! Chat when it fits their schedule and get real-time support for any of their needs. With conversational messaging, your customers are never left alone on the proverbial doorstep.

Challenges:

1. Limited Customer Interaction

While modern conversation messaging can provide customers with convenient, efficient service – it isn’t always the right choice. Some clients still really appreciate being able to connect directly with a human who they trust and feel understood.

2. Risk of Misunderstandings

Conversing with someone through conversational messaging can be tricky. Without facial expressions and body language, it’s hard to understand the tone of an individual’s message, leading to potential confusion or misinterpretations on either end. This type of miscommunication is not only frustrating for customers, but it also has the power to disrupt relationships between businesses and their clients – something that we all want to avoid.

3. Privacy Concerns

Talking to chatbots can be a great way for customers to get help quickly and efficiently. However, we know that trusting your data with anything other than the humans you already trust raises some important questions about privacy and security. That’s why businesses have an obligation – both ethically and legally – to take all necessary steps towards protecting their customer’s personal information so they feel comfortable conversing freely with bots.

4. Technical Limitations

When it comes to customer conversations, technological boundaries can create a barrier. Chatbots might not be as helpful or understanding as human representatives, so if you need insight and support from your customers, remember that people continue to make all the difference.

Despite the challenges

Saascoms successfully addressed the acknowledged hurdles of conversational messaging by developing a solution that took these obstacles into careful consideration.

Saascoms developed an award-winning AI Chatbot and conversational tool, Omnireach, which can streamline digital conversations by either allocating to ‘live’ agents based on decision science/workflows or self-serving via AI Chatbot responses. Our AI-driven technology can detect customer sentiment, allowing the customer to be dealt with appropriately.

Limited Customer Interaction – Omnireach has multiple contact points from SMS, email, live chat and Social channels via the Chatbot, which can offer higher interaction opportunities.  All these channels have a fail-safe of human contact if needed via live agent access.

Risk of Misunderstandings – Saascoms language conversion software can detect sentiment and intent via natural language processing.  Saascoms works with you to continually understand how and why your customers are interacting and, via machine learning, refine the chatbot process.

Privacy Concerns –  Saascoms can validate ID&V before sensitive information is discussed or processed.  Omnireach provides transcript reporting and compliance/audit search functions.  Saascoms are hosted within Ms Azure UK and have both ASCB and UKAS ISO27001 accreditation and a G Cloud 13 approved.

Technical Limitations – Saascoms solutions have been developed specifically to ensure ease of use for the end user. Saascoms understands your requirements and how to make the process as simple as possible for your customers.

In Conclusion – Conversational messaging chatbots offer significant benefits such as 24/7 availability, instant responses, cost savings, consistency, and scalability. They can enhance customer experiences by providing quick and accurate information. However, they also have limitations, including a lack of human touch, limited understanding of complex queries, language barriers, technical constraints, and the need for ongoing maintenance.

To maximise the benefits of conversational messaging chatbots, while minimising the drawbacks, businesses must carefully evaluate their use cases and customer needs. A hybrid approach that combines chatbots with human support can provide the best of both worlds, leveraging the efficiency of automation.

Make contact to arrange a demo or to learn how we can create a customer service strategy that meets your business objectives, providing an excellent customer experience.