Not so long ago, brands communicated with customers exclusively through traditional telephony channels such as voice calls and SMS, but communication with customers has come a long way in the last decade. Organizations are currently using various OTT channels and social networks to interact with their target audience.
However, while omnichannel communications are dramatically improving the customer experience through links, images, and interactive QR codes, it seems that the plethora of new channels is also becoming a source of increased complexity and confusion.
Current Omnichannel Issues
“In a recent survey we conducted, 67% of respondents said they prefer to communicate with brands within the app to ensure that all information, queries and problem resolutions are stored in the same interface,” shares Thomas Labouille, Founder and CEO Toku director.
At the same time, the influx of channels is also a problem for the brand.
“Exchanging the ubiquity of traditional telephone channels for enhanced connectivity across multiple OTT channels requires careful consideration, as few brands end up needing more than one synchronous and one asynchronous channel,” notes Labouille.
“Also, it can be risky to place your entire corporate communications strategy in the hands of individuals who, unlike traditional telecommunications companies, do not offer alternatives if their terms do not suit you as a user,” he adds.
Toku's solution
According to Laboulle, the smartest choice for brands right now is to invest in their own app, turning it into the hub of choice for customer communications.
“This doesn’t preclude the use of other channels for certain use cases, but it greatly reduces the reliance on generic communication channels to interact with the brand’s existing user base,” says Labouille.
Toku Embeddables, a set of programmable APIs and SDK solutions, makes it easy for organizations to embed communication channels into their applications.
“Embedded solutions are most effective when integrated with a contact center platform,” Labouille explains. “This powerful combination can provide uninterrupted communications for customers, increase agent efficiency, and improve business outcomes.
Before we look at the importance of integrating Toku's embedded solutions with a contact center platform, let's look at some of the general benefits of in-app communication.
Channels in the application: centralized, secure, efficient
According to Laboule, using the app's internal channels to communicate with the audience has four main advantages.
Consolidation. Using channels within the application allows you to centralize all customer interactions in one place, which greatly improves the customer experience.
“Users no longer need to remember where to look for a given conversation or specific information, as they can easily find all the data they need in the app,” says Labouille.
“Ultimately, this is very similar to the multi-channel interface that we provide to help desk agents to manage all communications on their end.”
Security and trust. Unlike telecom and OTT channels, where phone numbers can be spoofed and fake accounts set up to mislead users, the situation is different when it comes to in-app communication.
"In-app communications are proprietary and restricted to the brand's ecosystem, so they protect against scammers trying to impersonate a brand or a customer."
Additional Data and Ideas. Communicating with users from within the application provides agents with additional data points that can help provide a more personalized and efficient service.
“For example, they can see exactly what the user has selected on the menu, recent items purchased, previous tickets, etc. In some cases, they can even access the user's location to match their time zone and not catch them. in a dream".
Seamless UX - In-app communication enhances the user experience.
“By providing a smoother customer journey, internal app channels improve the overall customer experience.
CPaaS and CCaaS: Unlocking Limitless Synergy
As we can see, embedding communication channels into a brand's app using Toku Embeddables can be a powerful tool for streamlining customer acquisition operations. So why aren't more brands adding in-app communication to the omnichannel dial-up of their contact centers?
“Firstly, in-app communication technologies are in their infancy. Adoption is steadily growing, but most brands are still discovering the potential to create and manage their own communication channels,” Labouille explains.
"Secondly, organizations that already use in-app channels typically don't add them to their contact center deployments because they typically work with two separate vendors for their CPaaS and CCaaS solutions, making integrating them extremely difficult," - He says.
In effect, this means that even if the integration is somehow possible, it still cannot be native, which means that information is not properly transferred both ways, which limits agents' access to important data elements inside the contact center.
The good news is that instead of solving connectivity problems alone, businesses can use the experience of an ISP to expand their communications capabilities and improve the customer experience.
By partnering with a provider with experience in both CPaaS and CCaaS, brands can overcome the current challenges of omnichannel communications.
“As a provider of cloud communication and customer interaction technologies, Toku allows its customers to embed voice messages, chats and push notifications into their applications, and makes it easy to access and manage these interactions through our contact center interface,” says Labouille. .
“Because these CPaaS and CCaaS services are natively integrated, agents have a complete overview of all customer-related activities and communications in one place, improving the experience for both customers and agents,” he concludes.