3 killer disruptions across mobile messaging market in 2017

vectramind''s synapse is one of the leading SMS aggregators and enterprise mobile solutions 

Mobile messaging today has become the the hottest emerging marketing channel. Ask any transformation-driven company which technologies they're exploring for delivering quality customer care, and many will probably tell you that mobile messaging applications look most appealing. 

Mobile messaging apart from being an extreme cost effective tool, is also an excellent medium of customer care . As apposed to email, which might be missed by a consumer, 80% SMS are read withing 10 minutes of delivery. The sheer convenience and almost real time tool makes it the most effective channel to ensure loyalty and c customer acquisition. 

 Analysts predict that 35 percent of customer support will take place on mobile devices by the end of this year, which is certainly possible. But it is no certainty because several technical hurdles stand in the way. At the end of the day, mobile messaging is still in its early stages. It’s relatively unproven in customer-care circles. And coupled with that challenges remain  in adopting mobile messaging specially when it comes to security and systems integration.

However All of this will change in 2017, however, and here are three technological disruptions and  innovations that could accelerate mobile messaging apps for customer care this year:

No 1 : Chat bots By now, we’re all familiar with chat bots, those automated (sometimes animated) personalities on websites that respond to frequently asked questions we pose about products or services. The next step in the evolution of mobile messaging apps will be to assimilate these capabilities for customer care. There are two basic ways in which this could materialize. The first is a model that WeChat, Line and KakaoTalk are using, where brands use those platforms to create their own, customized self-service hubs for FAQs. This basically enables organizations to lighten the load on call-center agents for inquiries that can just as easily be handled by an automaton.

No 2 : Artificial intelligence Most of us use some form of AI in our daily lives whether we realize this or not.  Many consumers first experienced AI on web and social media sites that watched how they window-shopped online and suggested products they might like to view. Reccomendation engines are another example of AI application

More recently, AI has shown up as core technology in intelligent assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana and Google Assistant. For mobile messaging apps to deliver great service at scale, they will have to integrate AI capabilities and serve them up on just about every mobile and connected device. AI can play a huge role in helping to tear down the language barrier confronting many customer-care organizations today.

No 3 : Augmented reality All efforts at automation and AI aside, human interaction and intervention may still be necessary to completely resolve a customer’s problem. Bots and AI have limitations, and many customers still prefer speaking with live support agents instead of automated IVR's and Chatbots

Also  getting on the phone to address an issue can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Emailing back and forth with a representative takes far too long. Even an instant message conversation can be frustrating, especially if customers feel like the agent is following some sort of service script that sounds completely irrelevant to their issue. This is virtual reality comes into the picture 

Sometimes the problems are more complex in nature and difficult to resolve, particularly given hardware failures. Such situations might need the intervention of a  visual interaction, and integrated AR capabilities within messaging apps could certainly fit that bill.