According to McKinsey & Company, Asia’s consumers are expected to be at the forefront of the next decade’s global consumption growth, offering a USD10 trillion opportunity. Tapping into this growth will require an understanding of the region’s rapidly changing consumer behaviours, which have shifted dramatically since the start of the pandemic.
According to our recent survey, about half of consumers worldwide have increased their use of digital channels to engage with businesses and service providers over the past 12-18 months while 87% expect to maintain or increase this level in the next six-12 months.
Businesses across Asia Pacific (APAC) have increased their use of digital channels to engage with customers but many are unable to meet their expectations. Customers expect their service providers to know what they need, wanting a personalised, seamless experience. This lack of customer satisfaction is emerging from the organisation’s inability to respond to feedback.
According to NTT’s report ‘The Connected Customer: Delivering an effortless experience’, organisations are finding it challenging to align their CX strategies to customer feedback, with 54% having no formal process for considering this data and 19% which capture no feedback at all. Businesses are also facing other challenges - 20% of organisations say their technology systems are unable to meet current needs while many struggle with legacy systems (42%) and the integration of multiple technology systems (43%).
In this age of fleeting brand loyalty, it is critical that companies can adapt to increasingly complex expectations around customer communications.
Enhancing customer experience (CX) is the only way forward for businesses to maintain a competitive edge. Meeting customer expectations is crucial as it could be the difference between business success and failure.
CPaaS key to improved customer experience
Adopting advanced technologies, improving CX and growing business revenues are top priorities for organisations today. As part of their efforts to accelerate digitalisation, companies are now turning to Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) solutions to improve their customer engagement.
CPaaS is a complete application platform for multitenant cloud environments that includes development tools, runtime, administration, and management tools for voice, video, and messaging services. An advanced CPaaS vendor has even more extensive communications capabilities: robust conversation services, multiple APIs, use case–specific APIs along with monitoring and management capabilities.
A new study conducted by Forrester Consulting revealed that 80% of surveyed APAC firms have already implemented CPaaS or are planning on implementing it within the next 12 months. However, very few have implemented an advanced CPaaS solution. Globally, only 17% of CPaaS users are working with an advanced CPaaS vendor despite overwhelming advantages.
CPaaS and advanced CPaaS platforms help businesses overcome various business and technical challenges such as lack of integration of communication channels and visibility of customer preferences. Such limitations can result in businesses losing their customers.
Why choose CPaaS and advanced CPaaS platforms
Globally, those with CPaaS are much more effective and quicker at getting customers the information they want (98%) than non-CPaaS users (37%). However, businesses need to aim to shift to advanced platforms as less-capable CPaaS systems offer basic and non-scalable APIs that require more-skilled developers to program across channels.
An advanced CPaaS platform enables personalised customer engagement by embedding programmable capabilities – voice, video, messaging, social chat and verification – directly into websites, workflows and even bespoke applications.
This allows businesses to expand their communications capabilities and offer the following benefits:
1. Improved CX and first-call resolution
In APAC, 61%of respondents expect advanced CPaaS to improve CX, enabling better first-contact resolutions. The ability to connect client touchpoints (64%), improve customer journey analytics (63%) and increase visibility into customer communication preferences (58%) make the top three expected technical benefits for APAC businesses.
For instance, using a messages API – integrated directly with the WhatsApp Business solution - PopBox Asia Services, an automated parcel locker service provider in Indonesia, communicates with customers via the country’s top mobile app WhatsApp, notifying them of package deliveries. If the message delivery is unsuccessful via this channel, an integrated dispatch API will send the message through alternative channels, such as SMS. The company’s transition from SMS to WhatsApp notifications was crucial as it worked to meet the increased demand in parcel deliveries during the pandemic.
This enabled PopBox Asia to better connect and communicate with its customers through fast and reliable means and enhance its last-mile delivery process in Indonesia.
2. Stronger financial performance
According to Forrester, half of surveyed decision-makers globally have seen or expect to see advanced CPaaS drive revenue growth, with improved analytics and CX enhancements observed as key improvements [1].
In APAC, 58% of businesses expect increased revenue as one of the top business benefits of an advanced CPaaS solution This is tied with 58% expecting the streamlining of costs through proactive communications to customers.
3. Integration gains with services and tools
About 55% of APAC decision-makers expect that an advanced CPaaS solution will increase integration with communication services. Meanwhile, 53% expect increased integration with existing tools/platforms.
Australia-based telehealth innovator Visionflex has embedded a video API into its Vision Telehealth Platform as well as its comprehensive range of cutting-edge telehealth devices, medical equipment, and software solutions, to enable deeper, more meaningful remote healthcare interactions. This allows Visionflex’s powerful software and hardware telehealth solutions to support a range of approved medical devices, revolutionising the way medical professionals examine, diagnose, monitor, and treat remote patients.
Advanced CPaaS enhances customer journeys
Changing customer expectations present opportunities for organisations to adapt and transform. With the ongoing pandemic likely to continue in the long term, enhancing CX is the needof the hour. Getting it right with the customer during the first engagement is crucial. An advanced CPaaS can address key pain points throughout the customer journey, improve customer service and increase revenue for your organisation during challenging times.
[1] https://www.thefastmode.com/expert-opinion/22620-the-future-of-customer-experience-is-personal
