COVID-19 has forced companies to change how they implement remote work and take care of customers. When you use solutions such as a Communication-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS), you can lessen the burden on remote work employees and streamline your operations. These advantages reduce costs and enhance customer experiences.
What is CPaaS?
CPaaS is a tool that makes managing integrated communications for businesses easier. As with any Platform-as-a-Service, CPaaS offers the benefit of scalability, as businesses only pay for the services they use. This makes CPaaS a more cost-effective approach than paying for on-premise hardware.
The cloud-based platform allows developers to integrate communications, such as messaging, video, and voice into mobile and web applications by using application programming interfaces (APIs).
How can CPaaS support remote work?
What is nice about CPaaS is the ability to streamline operations; so remote work employees answering calls, for example, do not feel overburdened. Any general calls can go to chatbots in that case. With a CPaaS in place, you can have chatbots answer routine queries and direct specialized calls to agents.
Also, by adding CPaaS, you do not have to worry about adding connections or providing maintenance support. The seamless integration makes it easy to hire remote work employees.
Therefore, CPaaS benefits businesses that require customer support or wish to move away from a call center setting. You can also use the same platform to improve your virtual assistant functions or the sales process.
How CPaaS supports virtual assistant tasks
Use CPaaS for virtual assistance support for:
1. Creating applications to automate call scheduling and appointments
This application can assist practitioners who use CPaaS in the medical field. Applications such as WhatsApp Business or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) options allow patients to call in and create, change, or cancel an appointment without needing to speak to an employee. This simpler way of doing things improves customer experiences and leads to more customer and employee satisfaction.
2. Creating applications to send text reminders and messages
By using a CPaaS, you can create automated texts for payment reminders, appointment reminders, confirmations, or to transmit special discount codes. With this automation in place, you can easily increase your customer base and guarantee that customers will return to your site and use your products and services.
Using CPaaS to improve customer experiences and support remote work activities
Use CPaaS for better customer experiences by:
1. Creating applications for easier customer payment
Businesses can use CPaaS to make it easier for customers to pay bills using an IVR system. Customer experiences improve because customers can update accounts easily and pay bills 24/7.
2. Reducing call volumes
Remote work call agents who work directly with other callers do not feel overstressed, as CPaaS allows the use of chatbots and IVR. SIP trunking is used to avoid internal bandwidth use problems for VoIP call technology.
3. Creating applications to work with customer relationship management (CRM) software
You can also integrate CPaaS with CRM software to assist your remote work employees in locating accounts using the customer's info inserted through the IVR. When an agent answers a call, the account shows up in a pop-up window so the caller does not have to repeat details to the agent. This feature results in better customer experiences and reduced call volume and time.
4. Creating call center agent performance surveys
You can continue to deliver excellent customer experiences by creating customer agent performance surveys at the end of calls. Taking this initiative improves agent performance and allows companies to enhance their services based on performance feedback.
How CPaaS supports Sales and Marketing
To support your sales and marketing remote work goals, you can use CPaaS for:
1. Creating phone surveys
Use CPaaS platforms to create surveys for ongoing or time-specific marketing projects. The software stores customer responses in a database for marketing analysis.
2. Create reports to learn more about customers
By using analytics and reporting tools, you can create custom reports that list survey results detailing customer satisfaction and feedback on specific services and products.
Using APIs to support connections
CPaaS offers a framework to support real-time communications so that businesses can send messages using APIs to connect through several channels.
CPaaS platforms do not use APIs solely for connecting to the cloud but to virtualize communications, integrating them with open architecture services. For example, customers can directly connect to a business by using their preferred tool for communications, such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. This omnichannel approach gives a business more ways to connect with its customer base without paying extra for business communication services.
Getting started with CPaaS
When selecting a CPaaS provider, you need to consider:
- How much coverage do they offer?
- Are their platforms PCI/DSI complaint? (This payment processing designation stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard - regulations created to process credit card information in a secure environment).
- What do they feature in their portfolio of IT solutions?
- Are they ISO certified? (ISO certification shows that a management system or service has met the requirements for standardization and quality assurance).
To improve customer experiences and support remote work activities, learn more about your CPaaS business communication options today. Contact us for further details.
About CEQUENS
We're a Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider. Our mission is to bridge communication gaps in a communication-driven world.
Born in the digital era, CEQUENS was founded in response to the increasing challenges facing enterprise communication. We started as an SMS aggregator and gradually crafted a path toward omnichannel CPaaS solutions.
For 10 years, our innovation has empowered thousands of businesses create and deliver communication experiences finetuned to their industries. Our cloud-based, PCI/DSS compliant Communication Platform is the award-winning, end-to-end solution helping businesses realize their full potential and go digital.
As an Endeavor member and industry player, CEQUENS plays a pivotal role in transforming business communication worldwide.
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