Asynchronous Communication: How to Make It Work for You

When a rival takes off like a rocket ship, take note of how they grew faster than you. Did they get more funding or win an elusive account? 

The answer is much simpler. They mastered the art and science of asynchronous communication. It helps companies cut wasted time and get more work done faster.

Business communication makes or breaks every company. Too little, and projects stall and get derailed. But too much, and you distract your team from making any real progress. It’s all about finding that balance.

Giving your team the ability to work without expecting them to respond immediately unlocks a whole new level of performance. Let’s dive deeper into the benefits, limitations, and best practices of asynchronous communication to improve how remote teams work.

What is Asynchronous Communication?

Asynchronous communication is a method of exchanging information where you don’t need an instant response. It’s all about sending information without expecting someone to drop everything and reply immediately.

For example, it’s like leaving a note instead of calling a meeting. You might email a manager about customer service metrics or drop some feedback on a shared document for a coworker, knowing they’ll get back to you when it works for them. No pressure, no interruptions.

This approach has been highly beneficial for remote workers. It lets people focus on work without constant interruptions. Instead of endless status meetings, you trust team members to manage their time and deliver results.

As more companies widen their talent pools across different time zones, asynchronous collaboration has become crucial. It’s not just convenient — it boosts team productivity and keeps team morale high. The fastest-growing companies aren’t just using async tools — they’re building them into their company culture.

But there’s a catch. Switching to an async mindset isn’t as simple as installing a new app. Changing company culture takes real commitment and intentional effort.

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous

Synchronous communication is real-time communication where participants expect an immediate response. This can occur in various formats, including face-to-face meetings, Slack channels, video calls, and weekly standups. The key characteristic is the expectation of instant interaction.

However, the distinction between synchronous and asynchronous communication is not as straightforward as it might seem. Modern business communication platforms blur these lines. For example, chat and instant messaging can be real-time and asynchronous, and emails — traditionally considered asynchronous — can become near-synchronous depending on workplace expectations.

The optimal approach for many businesses usually involves a blend of both synchronous and asynchronous communication methods. Strategically combining these two methods allows teams to improve productivity, boost creativity, and make collaboration better.

The Limits of Synchronous Communication

You’re most likely already practicing asynchronous communication in a few ways. However, the default is to deal with issues and requests as they happen.

The rise of remote work has changed how teams communicate, but not necessarily for the better. A recent study by TechSmith found that 50% of employees feel that synchronous communication, such as meetings and responding to messages, makes them less productive. Another stat that’s even more alarming is unwanted interruptions can cost businesses up to 1 million dollars.  

Relying solely on synchronous communication impacts your business more than stealing your team’s focus. It’s also hurting your company in several ways:

• Rewards presence over productivity. When fast response time is the expectation, your team prioritizes being present instead of doing their work. A Microsoft study found that employees spend 50% of their time responding to emails, chat messages, or in meetings. 
• Adds unnecessary stress that drives turnover. Being always available creates anticipatory stress, a constant state of anxiety. SHRM’s Employee Mental Health Research Series found that:
  • 44% of employees feel burned out at work.
  • 45% of employees feel emotionally drained from their work.
  • 51% of employees feel used up at the end of their workday.
• Creates communication silos. When the context of a decision only exists during a live meeting, it becomes privileged. Instead of knowing where to look for answers, your distributed team asks the same questions and cannot proceed at their own pace.
• Limits your team’s flow. ‘Flow’ is the state of deep focus that only comes from a long uninterrupted period. The average cubicle worker is interrupted more than 70 times per day, causing a loss of working hours and costing U.S. businesses $588 billion per year, according to Reuters.
• Alienates people in different time zones. Synchronous communication requires everyone to be present at the same time. If your team works across time zones, only some can be present. It also limits team members from managing their own time.

Benefits of Asynchronous Communication

On the other hand, asynchronous communication gives your team the freedom to work around their ideal schedule.

A culture of asynchronous communication has several noteworthy advantages:

1. Curbs interruptions for higher productivity. Knowledge workers like engineers, designers, and writers need prolonged deep work cycles to perform their best.
2. Places results above responsiveness. Rather than assessing your team for response time, measure the outcomes. Even for complex topics, an app like Loom makes it easy to record short screencasts.
3. Emphasizes strategic thinking. The pace of async communication gives employees more space to think deeply about their answers. This means fewer back-and-forth conversations and better output. Responses can be more rational and thought-out versus uninformed and ad hoc.
4. Establishes clear expectations. There’s no more sitting around waiting for a response or getting upset when a teammate doesn’t get back to you right away. Instead, everyone knows when to expect a response and can go on with their workday until then,
5. Improves knowledge sharing. Decisions from meetings become company-wide updates rather than being available only to attendees. This enhancement speeds up checkpoints across various projects. Templates minimize the guesswork for capturing takeaways from meetings.
6. Evens the playing field for remote and in-office staff. You’ll get more comprehensive input from remote workers who are excluded from the perks of an office. It also reduces the odds of unplanned ideas thriving in the office.
7. Forces you to plan out work effectively. When team members are only available at specific times, it forces you to plan in advance. A few extra minutes upfront saves hours of meetings later.

How To Build a Balanced Communications Strategy

A lasting workplace communications strategy balances time for work and collaboration.

Unlearning your previous communication habits takes time and dedication. You need the right tools, clear expectations, and new workflows. This is crucial for a remote work environment, though everyone benefits from balanced communication.

Here’s how you can go from a culture of chaos to a healthy blend of sync and async communications:

1) Audit your communication tools and practices

Businesses use more team communication tools than ever, from virtual phone systems to chat and video conferencing. Unfortunately, spreading communication across dozens of channels leads to confusion.

Transition to asynchronous communication by first taking stock of all your communication tools. This includes:

• Phone
• Live chat
• Email
• SMS and text messaging
• Video meetings
• Project management
• Document collaboration
• File sharing

For each of these channels, write down how your team typically treats them.

Do they use chat mostly for real-time conversations? If not, how long do they wait for a response before following up or getting frustrated?
Get a solid understanding of your team’s current communication practices so you can optimize them with the right tools.

Communication Style	Scenario	Methods	Response Time
Synchronous	– Emergencies (e.g., data breaches) – Team-building	– Office phone system – Text messaging – Video conferencing – In-person	Live
Semi-async	– Regular meetings and updates – One-on-ones	– Shared docs and video or in-person	Before the meeting
Asynchronous	– Project questions	– Workplace chat – Email – Knowledge base	4 – 48 hours

Seeing all your company’s communications in one place drives home how few conversations need to happen in real time.

The ones that require a real-time approach, such as emergencies, team-building, or complex decisions, should only make up 10% of your team’s time.

3) Develop a culture of async-first

Now, it’s time to bridge the gap from how you engage today to your ideal workflow.

Where can you add clarity to response time or change habits to embrace asynchronous communication?

For example, instead of using chat as a synchronous tool, provide more context to messages so they can respond without your presence.

A graphic shows an example of low context asynchronous communication and high context asynchronous communication.

Along with using the right platform, we’ve rounded up proven ways to communicate asynchronously.

• Delegate as if you were going on vacation. For example, what meetings can be turned into an email or shared doc? Ask your team to do the same and list alternatives for live scenarios.
• Over-communicate project plans. Avoid being vague and tailor each message to define expectations, give a clear timeline, and provide links to resources to reduce back-and-forth conversations. Anticipate knowledge gaps and address them before they hold up a project.
• Document and share conversation results. Ask for a ’roundup’ of any decisions made. Store these in a virtual workspace that everyone can access. Assign an owner to each item on your to-do list. AI-powered video conferencing tools can immediately provide a meeting summary that can be emailed to attendees or others you need to loop in.
• Set office hours for live availability. Time block moments in the day when they need to be available on chat. Otherwise, set a reasonable time to respond to each channel and let them sign off or turn off notifications.

Related: What Is Cloud Telephony & How Does it Work?

4) Know when it’s best to use synchronous communication

With any culture shift, there’s a chance not everyone will be on board.
Real-time conversations are essential for brainstorming, building rapport, and dealing with sensitive subjects.

While your goal is to minimize their frequency of them, there are four scenarios where real-time, synchronous interaction is preferred:

1. One-on-ones: Conversations between managers and their reports help employees stay on track. Instead of an aimless discussion, discuss it with a few pointed one-on-one questions.
2. Building rapport: Despite the benefits of asynchronous communication, it lacks the influence of verbal and non-verbal cues and celebrating accomplishments.
3. Project kickoffs: Walk through a plan when you need to keep everyone on the same page. For example, when you’re educating your sales team before launching a new product.
4. When making urgent or high-stake decisions: When responsiveness is vital, you’ll need to avoid miscommunication. Real-time conversations can ensure everyone is on the same page. (But don’t forget to document and share it internally as appropriate.)

An easy rule to follow is that real-time meetings are necessary for topics that depend on an emotional response. Otherwise, build autonomy into your team’s workflow.

5) Bring asynchronous communication to your customers

Asynchronous communication improves your employee experience, but you can also use it to strengthen your customer experience (CX).

The most common customer touchpoints involve phone calls and live chat. These are synchronous and real-time, requiring you to staff up to customer demand.

Gartner found that only 14% of customers can fully resolve concerns via self-service. The rest? They land on your website and require assisted live contact. This inefficiency is expensive — upwards of $8.01 per live interaction compared to $0.10.

Here are some ways to deliver asynchronous communication work practices for customers.

• Simplify your navigation and help docs. Many websites have cluttered navigation that makes it hard to get help. Additionally, help documents should be super easy to consume, avoiding jargon and complexities. Listen to your inbound call center conversations to get a feel for the verbiage and skill level.
• Optimize self-service resources for search. Search is the first touchpoint for people, so it’s best to produce extensive documentation that search engines surface to users. Ensure that support documents are accessible, use FAQs, and include videos and images. Audit your site performance so pages load in less than two seconds.
• Offer automated customer solutions. Solutions like chatbots and IVRs can help you both deflect live help volume and assist people. Today’s contact center solutions meet rising customer needs and conserve your resources.
• Deploy proactive messaging to known call drivers. When you know an issue impacts many customers, push out simple messaging about it. This includes updating your website, adding a message to your phone system, and revising support articles. However, a mass email might startle more customers than help, so choose wisely.

Related: What Is a Contact Center? Definition, Features, and Uses

Examples of Asynchronous Communication Tools

The right software makes it easy for you to enable asynchronous conversations. The following software provides asynchronous communication:

• Nextiva: best for business communication and VoIP solutions
• Asana: best for project management
• Google Drive: best for document sharing and collaboration
• Loom: best for video recording and tutorials
• Slack: best for team chat and file sharing
• Microsoft Teams: best for team communication in Microsoft-integrated environments
• Trello: best for visual task and workflow management
• Dropbox: best for cloud storage and file sharing
• Confluence: best for team documentation and collaboration on projects
• Notion: best for building a knowledge base

Within the above communication tools, lean on features that don’t require live interaction.

Enhance Office Communications With Nextiva

Not everyone will instantly adopt the new style of business communication until you do.

Focus on progress, not perfection. Find small ways to introduce more async communication into your team’s daily workflows.

Resist the urge for a daily huddle. Instead, scribe your thoughts and data points in a shared document and ask for feedback.

Your actions matter. If you message at all hours, expect instant responses, and don’t respect boundaries, neither will your team.

There are plenty of people out there who would love to tell you that asynchronous communication is the future of work. But, in reality, it’s just another style of work at your disposal. It’s up to you to decide when and how to use it best.

A feature-rich unified communications platform alleviates the uncertainty of synchronous communication. With the advice mentioned above, you can fully embrace an asynchronous communication culture.You hired your team to do their job, not to be full-time emailers, chatters, and meeting attendees. Use asynchronous communication to give them the time and space to do their best work.

FAQs

Companies need to pair async tools with a modern communications service to counter these drawbacks.