The modern customer contacts your business on multiple channels, expecting a seamless experience across each one. 

When these channels aren’t unified, it’s hard for your support team to keep up. Your customer may be talking to multiple representatives about the same issue, or worse — an agent might assume someone else is handling an issue, leaving the customer unanswered. 

This leads to a poor experience for your customers and your agents. Unified messaging simplifies communication and radically transforms how businesses interact with customers. 

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of unified messaging and how it raises the standards for customer service. 

What is unified messaging?

Unified messaging, or a unified messaging platform, is a software system that connects all of your communication channels in one place. Communication channels include email, voicemail, live chat, SMS, social media, and all the other ways your customer can interact with your business.  

Customers often use a combination of messaging platforms to get in touch with you — especially if they have a pressing issue. They’ll move from email to chat and social media until they get the help they need.

With a unified messaging solution, customer support agents can log into a single interface to see all their messages in one, universal inbox. This gives them the full context of the customer they are engaging with so that they can provide a better experience and quickly resolve that customer’s issue.

Agents can then easily manage and respond to customers from one workspace, regardless of the channel. 

Why is unified messaging important? 

When your team has access to a unified communication platform, they can offer a truly omnichannel experience to customers. In 2020, 80% of companies invested in an omnichannel experience.

The modern customer journey isn’t always predictable — 67% of global customers use at least three different channels to engage with your business on a variety of devices. Regardless of the channels they use, they still expect cohesive conversations and a smooth customer journey. 

Having multiple, siloed communication channels create roadblocks, filling that journey with friction and broken conversations. For example, customer support agents may have no idea when a customer last interacted with the business or whether they are currently speaking with another agent. This lack of context creates an unpleasant experience for the customer. Based on our findings, 65% of customers have stopped doing business with a brand after just one bad experience. 

At the same time, segregated communication channels can impact your agents’ efficiency and create a high-stress environment. It’s not feasible or efficient to jump between different platforms and search for a customer’s history every time you interact with them. 

Unified messaging also allows team members who are assigned to a particular channel to access customer conversations across different mediums. When teams align in this way, they can offer a better customer experience

For example, when sales and marketing see that a customer is engaging with customer support, they can avoid trying to upsell at the same time. Communication becomes more tailored when agents have a full overview of the customer.

Freshchat is an example of a unified messaging system that empowers you to streamline the customer experience. 

Here are some of the ways that unified messaging software helps to overcome these challenges:

Departments like customer service can quickly see whether a customer is already engaging with a member of the team and avoid sending conflicting messages or duplicating work. Every team member can have access to that customer’s entire history, benefiting from vital context and allowing them to provide a cohesive experience. 

Access to ticket history and event timelines allows an agent to understand the customer better. For instance, the customer may have recently made a complaint and have a hostile attitude toward the company. With insight into their history, support teams can lead with empathy and deliver superior service. 

When your unified messaging platform integrates with all your communication applications, communication between customer-facing teams such as sales, marketing, and customer service, drastically improves. 

Customer hand-off becomes much more seamless, resulting in fewer customers falling through the cracks. Communicating with different business units no longer feels like you’re dealing with separate companies altogether. 

Unified communication virtually eliminates silos as your teams begin to work more collaboratively and view interactions from the perspective of the customers. No matter who comes into contact with the customer, the customer still receives a high standard of service tailored to their needs. 

That’s why your business must implement a unified messaging feature to overcome internal communication problems. 

What are the benefits of unified messaging software?

A unified messaging platform provides a superior experience for your customers as well as your team of support agents. Here are some of the many benefits it offers. 

1. Creates an enhanced customer experience 

More than 65% of people have higher expectations for customer service than they did three to five years ago.

Unified messaging services eliminate the need for customers to repeat themselves to different customer support agents. Their full conversation history is available to all agents, regardless of the channel customers choose to interact with them on. 

Having all the customer information at their fingertips empowers your team to provide contextual, personalized support, making customers feel more valued. This level of service can improve client satisfaction, raising your agents’ CSAT scores with each customer interaction. 

And with messages displayed on a single screen, it’s much less likely that conversations will get missed. 

2. Improves agent productivity and collaboration

A unified workspace enables your team to collaborate much more effectively. 

For example, Freshchat’s Team Inbox allows agents to assign conversations to other team members who are better suited to helping a customer with a specific issue. Your agents can even leave private notes in a conversation, keeping their colleagues in the loop at all times. This feature prevents conflicting messages from being sent to the customer and keeps communication consistent. 

In a high-stress environment like customer support, your team needs a platform that makes their job easier so that they can focus on what they do best — delivering superior customer service. Team Inbox offers an intuitive interface full of features that help agents resolve issues more efficiently and increase their productivity. 

3. Offers seamless and convenient customer communication 

Unified messaging meets customers where they are, offering something they increasingly prioritize (and expect) — convenience. We found that 70% of customers are more likely to buy from businesses that offer convenient communication channels

With unified messaging, you can talk to customers on their preferred channels, allowing them to feel in control of the resolution process. 

4. Improves response and resolution time 

Customers look for a quick, straightforward response when they have an issue. 

With unified messaging, customer-facing teams save time as they no longer have to switch between screens or search separate inboxes to gather information about the customer. Every interaction is available at a glance, speeding up resolution time. 

How Freshchat can help 

Freshchat offers a unified messaging platform that helps your customer-facing teams have smarter, more intuitive conversations with customers. 

Freshchat’s unified messaging makes it easier to deliver support to customers on their own terms by offering integrated experiences across popular messaging channels such as live chat, Whatsapp for Business, Instagram, Google Business Messages, and LINE. 

With a universal inbox, support teams no longer need to hop from one channel to the next. Instead, they can access all their messages within the interface. Freshchat gives agents all the context they need about the customer in one place using native and third-party app integrations. A context-first inbox with a customer timeline enables your team to provide quicker, more personalized assistance.

Using our comprehensive chat support tool, Swedish Fintech company Klarna greets customers with context, saving them the hassle of authenticating with every interaction. 

Klarna support agents begin each conversation with complete user information to avoid asking customers questions they’ve already answered. Instead, they cut right to the chase and provide rapid, helpful responses. Freshchat’s unified messaging has dramatically decreased their client’s average handle time, delivering the best customer experience possible. 

There’s no need to feel overwhelmed by messages, either. When customer communications arrive in a single mailbox, Freshchat allows you to assign them to agents based on their skill level or expertise. By automating this process, you don’t have to keep a constant tab on what comes in and where it should go.  

Implementing Freshchat’s messaging system will get you closer to inbox zero. Stay on top of all your customer interactions with Freshchat, and create frictionless customer journeys. 

Unified messaging creates a seamless cross-channel experience

Today, a siloed approach to customer conversations no longer works. Instead of looking at customers through the lens of individual channels, businesses must use unified messaging to gain a holistic view of every customer. 

Having access to all different types of communication channels means your team can provide more effective support and deliver the high standard of service customers expect. 

A unified messaging solution like Freshchat empowers customer-facing teams to create a superior, cross-channel experience. Sign-up for a free trial today and see how Freshchat’s modern messaging can transform your customer experience.