What is CPaaS?

A one-size-fits-all communication strategy just doesn’t cut it nowadays, with increasingly tech-savvy customers expecting to choose the channel and device they prefer to send and receive information.

A CPaaS solution takes the work out of managing these expectations — rather than requiring operators to monitor every possible inbound and outbound channel, everything is integrated into the systems you’re already working with.

At the touch of a button, you can reach out to customers, employees, or partners via their choice of social media account, email, SMS, or messaging app.

CPaaS solutions can drastically increase the throughput of your call centre, customer service, or admin teams, enabling you to scale faster and do more with less.

Automated processes and deep systems integration remove the need for customer service agents to manually send reminders, confirm bookings, or respond to simple inquiries.

Integrating your CPaaS solution with your CRM or ticketing system allows confirmations, updates, notifications, schedule changes, and other transactional communications to be completed automatically, and therefore immediately.
Your team members are freed up to focus their efforts on more complex tasks and can give those customers a level of attention that just wasn’t possible before.

Ultimately, the difference is most apparent in your bottom line, as a result of saving thousands in management overheads, recruitment and training costs, and onboarding.

Customers are no longer willing to settle for substandard interactions with a business – gone are the days when it was acceptable to keep a client on hold or trapped in an endless voice menu for minutes on end.

Research shows that 90% of customers expect consistent, trusted interactions across various channels as a baseline. Over a third of those customers expect to be able to connect with the same customer service agent, regardless of which channel they choose to use, and two-thirds expect to receive assistance in real-time.

CPaaS gives you the tools you need to offer this level of responsiveness and flexibility, without having to double or triple your staffing budget. It allows integrated communication, using your existing systems, which moves between channels as necessary.

No more interrupting the flow of the conversation, or asking customers to continually reconfirm or restate information. Rather than simply satisfying your customer’s needs, you can deepen the relationship by making every interaction a delight.

Whether you’re communicating with customers, employees, or other stakeholders, you’re facing serious competition for their attention. Sending a single email update is unlikely to get the message across, as there’s a pretty good chance your carefully crafted words will be lost under an avalanche of sale and marketing emails or trapped by an overzealous spam filter.

Using multi-channel communications helps to ensure that the important messages get through intact and on time. And it’s welcomed by customers, with research indicating that brand perception is improved up to 68% when customers receive consistent messaging across multiple channels. This also results in a 90% uptick in purchasing intent — a real win — win.

So whether you’re sending an urgent notification, a change to a scheduled appointment, a password reset, or simply a thank you note, using the multi-channel communication functionality made possible by a CPaaS solution means you can be confident your message is received and read.

People are not robots — so whenever you’re relying on employees to manually send out customer communications, there will always be errors. Sometimes they’re unimportant, sometimes they have a serious impact.

It’s also true that the more transactional the communication, the greater the likelihood of mistakes. When customer service agents are in a rush to clear an overloaded task list, sending out update after update by hand, errors are almost certain to creep in. When they have the time and space to give their full attention to inquiries, they’re able to deliver a more considered, accurate response.

Using a CPaaS solution addresses both of these issues, with automation ensuring that the correct notifications or updates go to the right people at the right time, while also freeing up your staff to focus on those communications which require the human touch.

No-shows, late arrivals, “did not attend” — it all means the same thing, wasted time and resources for your employees and the inconvenience of longer waiting times for your other customers.

Research has proved that sending out automated confirmation messages on appointment booking, as well as reminders in the days leading up to the scheduled meeting can significantly reduce missed appointments, saving you time and money.

With a CPaaS solution, you can increase the effectiveness of these reminders, scheduling them to auto-send when a booking is made in your CRM and at specified intervals before the event, via your customer’s preferred channel.

The messages can be configured to include a quick link to cancel or reschedule the appointment, so if the customer can’t make it, you have advance notice and can adjust your schedule accordingly.

Remote or hybrid working has become increasingly prevalent in many industries, accelerated by the travel and occupancy restrictions posed by the COVID pandemic.

As businesses start to recover, many are planning to keep at least partial remote working practices in place, so effective communication has never been more important for keeping teams engaged and able to collaborate effectively, even when working from home.

Using a CPaaS solution, you can easily integrate your internal communication systems with channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, or IRC alongside traditional methods such as email to ensure that messages reach your team wherever and whenever they’re working.