The future of business cloud communication

The future of business cloud communication is marked with revolutionary customer engagement & a

reduced number of offline exchanges between the customer and the business. As a matter of fact, that future is not very distant & the wheels have already been set in motion with organizations striving to provide an enhanced & seamless customer experience with cloud-based communication platforms as a service - CPaaS.

CPaaS is a cloud-based platform that allows developers to use communication features like messaging, voice & video in their applications & operate in a de-cluttered ecosystem without having to build the complex backend infrastructure. The groundwork, including the servers, networking, storage, middleware, O/S and runtime is managed by providers while companies only need to handle the applications and data. Keeping that in mind, Communication Platforms as a Service (CPaaS) is a great opportunity to provide a differentiated and smooth customer experience, without the complexity of backend engineering.

CPaaS automates communication & engagement with customers by providing:

—Voice/video call or chat on the app that customers can use to instantly connect with a representative 

—Schedule reminders of appointments through SMS

—Trigger mobile alerts or notifications at any point in a business process or application

—Video help-desk for direct connection to experts in industries such as healthcare & banking

Organizations are taking communication between businesses and consumers a step forward and simplifying it. The ready-to-use infrastructure in the cloud allows easy deployment of customer communications & reduces communication costs. Businesses that don’t have the knowledge, time and resources for creating their own communications platform can simply choose the features they need from CPaaS and pay accordingly.

This model plays an interesting & innovative role across multiple industries, let’s review some potential applications:

Media and Brands

Customers can view live product launches through the brand app or can be offered the same through SMS. It is both convenient & beneficial for the customer and all this while increases the brand visibility. CPaaS enables automated and personalized notifications and reminders on programs and new products. It is also possible to engage consumers more directly by allowing them to participate and contribute content. For example, reality shows asking for votes or predictions on SMS for their favorite participants.

CPaaS is helpful in facilitating 2-way Omnichannel communications for media houses running content on televisions that needs voting and polling application via pre-call notification (missed call services) for its various reality TV shows like dance and talent hunt shows.  

Retail

CPaaS can aid in the promotion of products by ensuring the customer doesn’t abandon the cart with unpurchased items. They can view a live product demo and speak to the customer representative in real-time. This would not only bolster brand engagement but also be valued by customers for its easy accessibility. Providing post-sale services & continuous engagement also becomes easier. A leading automobile company has implemented CPaaS integrated with Siebel CRM. Automated SMS alerts are configured as rules to process new vehicle booking invoice, vehicle service reminders, cost estimation of service and after service pick up alerts. The tool has also provided a short code exclusively provisioned for their customers to opt-in for test drives, inquire for genuine spare parts and other such services. Along with providing the organization and its customers a convenient and efficient communication channel, the GUI also reports all incoming leads. This leads to a whopping 12 million monthly interactions.

E-commerce

Customers can track their orders and stay updated about exclusive offers and upcoming sales and can opt for receiving promotional offers and exclusive sale information. Food delivery, shopping & transport services apps rely heavily on the tracking feature. With CPaaS, real-time visibility could be further enhanced by multiple channels of viewing and interaction such as video and voice.

Banking

CPaaS enables a banking app to allow video calls with their customer representatives.

In the case of loss of a debit/credit card or fraudulent activity, the customer is able to directly connect and inform the bank through the app. One of India’s leading and largest banking organization uses SMS and Email Power APIs in the banking and CRM systems to trigger alerts to customers on transactions like ATM withdrawal, debit/credit card swipe, net banking transactions, credit card payment acknowledgements, beneficiary additions/changes, etc. To enable transactions on Net Banking & Phone Banking, the bank uses SMS and Voice One Time Password APIs to enable additional authentication for transactions and in turn adding an additional layer of security.

Insurance

Reminders on payments, updates on policy renewals, and changes in policy can be easily generated using CPaaS. Customers can also talk to support staff if they have enquiries regarding new policies or policy changes.

Mark Winther, Group Vice President and Consulting Partner, Worldwide Telecommunications, IDC has quoted "The voice, text messaging and video CPaaS market is transitioning from a hypergrowth start-up phase to a critical-mass phase. The worldwide market is forecast to exceed $8.2 billion in 2021, driven by enterprise demand for mobile enablement, cloud consumption and differentiated, customer experiences."

The everything mobile trend, along with declining costs of communication, increased IoT adoption and omni-channel communication is driving this trend. For businesses that focus on omnichannel

marketing, CPaaS provides the smoothest & most sought after way to interactive customer engagement.

—by Gurteshwar Singh – Director Product & Marketing, Karix.