Business Partner | 
Customer journeys are getting more fragmented every day. Newer ways of communication are emerging more quickly than ever before. As a business, it can get tough to keep track of leads across various platforms and user segments distributed among various tools. While manual integration of different communication platforms is entirely possible, it is not the most efficient. Complexities can arise with each integration, such as compatibility issues between tools. That's where Communication Platform as a Service, or CPaaS, can be a powerful solution for businesses.
It can, especially, be very useful for small and medium enterprises that don't necessarily have the resources to build their own IT infrastructure. Through API integrations, CPaaS can enhance the capabilities of messaging platforms and business applications for better customer engagement. Here are 5 prominent ways businesses can use CPaaS for higher customer satisfaction.
5 CPaaS Use Cases for Business
1. Automated reminders, scheduling, and transactional messaging
CPaaS can streamline transactional messaging, such as reminders and notifications. For instance, hospitals and clinics can send automated appointment reminders to patients and reduce the cases of missed appointments. In turn, it can help them run a more efficient practice.
Similarly, the use case of automated reminders can be applied to the insurance industry and businesses that work on a subscription model. It can improve the rate of timely payments, which translates to better revenue cycle management for a business.
CPaaS can enable different kinds of transactional messages, such as order updates in e-commerce and food delivery, order confirmations, and delivery tracking information. Streamlining transactional messaging can drastically improve customer experience and take the burden off the front desk. For instance, when customers get automatic updates on their order status, they are less likely to contact customer support to know their parcel's whereabouts.
2. Mobile payments and two-factor authentication
Businesses can integrate SMS APIs in their mobile application for two-factor authentication, which provides an additional layer of security to customers. This is especially useful for businesses that handle sensitive information, such as banks and hospitals. With the help of CPaaS, enterprises can verify user identity with the help of OTPs (one-time passwords), so users don't need to remember passwords, anymore.
Two-factor authentication with the help of CPaaS can be used for password resets, mobile banking (including mobile payments), and authenticating logins to apps. In fact, mobile payments can be a huge differentiator for businesses. It can enable frictionless payments, even for small businesses, which can greatly improve conversion rates.
3. Integrated marketing communication
Integrated, omnichannel communication lies at the heart of what CPaaS can do. In the modern digital landscape, an enterprise has several options to reach out to buyers. There are SMS, voice, emails, videos, and OTT chat applications that keep evolving. Very often, businesses will use different services for all those different communication mediums. There will be a platform for automated email marketing, another for SMS campaigns, and yet another for two-factor authentication.
This distributed architecture can lead to redundancies, which, ultimately, can affect customer experience. For example, the SMS platform might trigger a welcome message to new users, and the email platform might do the same. Suddenly, users' phones are bombarded with redundant notifications, which can annoying. Disparate communication platforms can lead to even more complex problems. For instance, a group of loyal customers might get an SMS intended for new users, in addition to a 'special offers' email for loyal users. It can lead to very confused messaging, which can adversely affect conversion rates.
CPaaS integrates different communication mediums for more coherent messaging. Since every kind of communication is connected, marketers can be more efficient at segmenting audiences. For example, let's say there is a grocery delivery business that uses CPaaS to send out marketing communication. Based on the usage pattern of customers, it can send out different kinds of notifications to different groups of people, even when their buying behavior is the same. It might send out push notifications to one set of people who use its mobile app regularly; while for desktop users, it might use email as the primary mode of communication.
4. Virtual phone numbers or DIDs for a local presence
Sometimes, enterprises might lack a physical presence in a region that they want to cater to. Instead of setting up a physical call center and investing in additional resources, they can opt for a more scalable solution with CPaaS - virtual phone numbers. Enterprises can have a common toll-free number across the globe for brand recall. Likewise, they can opt for region-specific virtual phone numbers in order to build local presence and trust in an area.
Direct inward dialing (DID) can be used for missed call service, which is handy for two-factor authentication, and lead generation. Missed calls from customers can be automatically fed into an integrated CRM and the marketing funnel can come into action, straightaway. It can also be used to set up a feature-rich virtual call center with functionalities such as call recording, a sophisticated IVR menu, and call forwarding. Call recording functionality can be incredibly useful for industries such as healthcare and investment banking.
5. Chatbots and customer service
Chatbots and WhatsApp Business APIs are the most obvious use case of CPaaS. Companies are already using conversational interfaces to integrate self-service bots that can answer basic queries. CPaaS also allows a business to integrate text-based help, call-based help, and video-based help within the same application. Customers never have to leave the app to raise a request or talk to a customer service executive.
Since everything is integrated at the backend, customer service reps don't have to spend time gathering customer information on a call. When a buyer connects with them, they already know what the likely issue is and the buyer's communication history. They can get straight to resolving the query, which vastly improves the customer experience. As AI and machine-learning technologies continue to mature, we can expect even smarter bots that use CPaaS for better customer service.
CPaaS Can be Incredibly Powerful
There are still more examples of how CPaaS can be enhanced through API integrations. For example, an online travel portal can integrate their app with virtual-reality APIs for virtual tours of hotels and destinations. Similarly, banking applications can use APIs with CPaaS to enable remote authentication of new customers.
CPaaS can go well beyond integrated communication. It can combine the power of mobile, web, security, payments, and communication into one cohesive platform. When all those things can be managed with a single, integrated platform, organizations can get a better sense of their overall business and communication strategy.
CEQUENS Can Help
We're leading Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider region that aims to bridge communication gaps in a communication-driven world.
Powered by innovation and guided by a Cloud-First and Mobile-First approach, we provide omnichannel communication services and APIs that enable enterprises and developers to communicate with their customer base worldwide.
As an Endeavor Entrepreneur and GSMA associate member, CEQUENS plays a pivotal role in transforming communication in the region.
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