What is a Unified Messaging System (UMS)? Definition, Benefits and How to Choose

Email, text messages, phone calls, social media, live chat…the number of communication channels available to customers and business owners today is ever-growing—and so are the number of challenges they bring.

An anxious customer can reach out to the company using three different channels, resulting in three different support reps spending time answering the same question. A support rep can focus too much on responding to incoming chats and neglect to check their email as frequently, leading to long wait times for customers reaching out via email. Situations like these use company resources inefficiently and result in poor customer experiences that ultimately damage your brand and reputation.

How can any business effectively manage so many different channels while still delivering consistently positive customer experiences? The secret to success is a unified messaging system (UMS).

What is a Unified Messaging System (UMS)?

A unified messaging system (UMS) is a specific type of software that compiles customer messages from all communication channels into one, easy-to-use platform. With a UMS, all texting and messaging from your customers are automatically funneled into one combined inbox. In fact, even missed phone calls can be pulled in thanks to message conversion technology that automatically turns your voicemails into written messages.

Unified messaging systems are specifically designed to streamline multi-channel communication management. Rather than having separate conversations on every channel, a unified messaging system gives your employees one login and one combined inbox to work from as they respond to customers. This layout ensures no messages fall through the cracks while helping your employees keep track of conversations and customers more easily across company communication channels.

Some unified messaging platforms combine the centralized messaging software of a typical UMS with artificial intelligence (AI) to take unified messaging a step further. For example, Podium’s AI-powered inbox not only consolidates all customer communications into one system but also leverages AI to automatically draft and deliver responses to customer inquiries.

5 Key Profit Benefits of a Unified Messaging System

Standard unified messaging systems and more advanced UMS options, including Podium, optimize communication between businesses and their customers, resulting in huge cost-saving benefits. Here are five ways a unified messaging system can cut costs and boost your bottom line.

Improved Customer Experience

By making it easier for customer-facing teams, like sales and marketing, to manage incoming messages, a unified messaging system enables your employees to deliver more satisfying customer experiences to keep customers coming back for more. A UMS enables team members to consistently provide high-quality communication across channels. It also makes hand-offs much smoother since the history of the conversation is available to any employee who may jump in to help with the customer’s query.

This arrangement means no more repeating questions to each new support rep a customer may interact with and no more messages getting missed because one channel suddenly becomes busier than another. Delivering a seamless experience to customers will improve their perception of your company and build brand loyalty, resulting in more closed deals and greater profits in the future.

Enhanced Agent Productivity

It’s hard to meet performance goals when team members are disconnected from each other. A unified messaging system facilitates collaboration between teams and departments, which naturally results in increased productivity. Employees don’t have to waste time logging in to each platform to respond separately within each channel and then juggle trying to pass that conversation on to someone in another department.

Instead, everyone is working within the same platform, making it easy to tag other employees in customer conversations, assign tasks to team members, leave notes about specific customer interactions so others can quickly get up to speed, and do more in significantly less time. This arrangement allows everyone who interacts with customers to be more productive with their time and get more done each day.

Streamlined Workflows

In the professional world, time is money. The more time spent on a task, the more money your business loses. A unified messaging system drastically improves efficiency by streamlining workflows across teams. Plus, with everyone operating in one platform, it’s easier to identify slowdowns and inefficiencies in current processes and make adjustments to improve even more. In a UMS, everything happens in one place, reducing the amount of time and resources spent on transitions and hand-offs.

Improved Response Times

Customers want answers quickly. The faster you can respond and solve their issue, the higher their satisfaction rates will be. With a unified management system’s combined inbox, it’s clear which messages have been answered and which messages still need a response. The unified messaging view helps team members prioritize incoming messages and respond more quickly because they can see everything in one place—no need to switch platforms to respond. All messages and all customer information are available in one centralized place, so your employees can respond faster on all company communication channels. More satisfied customers means more potential revenue. Additionally, the reduction in time spent improves operational efficiency, saving you money.

Simplified Management

Not only does a unified management system make it easier for your employees to manage your customers, but it also makes it easier for you to manage your employees. A centralized system makes it easier to track and manage performance both on an individual and team basis.

With greater insight into how your employees interact with customers, you can make data-driven decisions regarding current processes. That information can even help you determine the types of communication channels you should use moving forward.

For example, if you’re wondering if your business should use text messaging or not, you can quickly analyze how many messages came in through text versus other channels to determine if it’s worth keeping or if it’s time to explore another communication option.

How To Choose The Right Unified Messaging System

Choosing the right unified messaging system is important if you want to reap the full benefits of using a UMS. On the business side of things, think about scalability and security. Can it grow with your business and adapt to future needs? Is it a cloud-based UMS, and is the host a well-known vendor with a good reputation?

It’s also important to consider your employees in the decision. It won’t matter what the unified messaging system can do if it isn’t user-friendly and easy for your employees to implement.

That’s part of what makes Podium’s Inbox so compelling. Despite being equipped with powerful tools and AI features, it has a simple interface that anyone can quickly and intuitively navigate.

One of the best things you can do to make an informed decision about a unified management system is to try it out for yourself. Watch a demo of Podium’s Inbox to see it in action and don’t forget to check out our new AI Employee to learn how it can help automate your customer communications even further.