The Future of Messaging - Effortless Engagement with APIs

The briefing was opened by Matthew Parker, UK Country manager of Vonage, the event sponsor.    

There was a surprising (but welcome) mix of marketeers and technologists at our breakfast briefing at the Goring Hotel, instead of the usual technology crowd. This mix was revealed at the very beginning as participants introduced themselves, and also underscored quite how many industries are not only interested in unified communications, but also how much of a challenge managing truly, multi-channel, communications can be. 

The siloed approach to unified comms was touted as the primary issue (“15 solutions in one company!”), each with a different voice, message and tone. Technology leading the charge on solutions was universally agreed to be the primary cause, with some rebranding their digital transformation teams to service transformation to ensure focus on customer results rather than technology outcomes.

The need for technology and marketing to work together is vital, although this usually only works when the “tone at the top” is clear and collaboration is demanded to ensure the customer outcome is prioritised and not the individual outcome for a particular team.

The ongoing challenge of self-build versus vendor build was agreed to be a key decision. Only the larger organisations have the resources, procurement departments and people to properly manage a third-party effectively, or even to play internal suppliers (technology departments etc) against third-party suppliers to ensure better outcomes. There was a consensus though that the third-party vendors almost always have better skills, experience and resources to address the problem versus internal suppliers.

The topic of RCS (Rich Communication Services) as the upcoming replacement to SMS (Short Messaging Service) was raised, with a number of the audience unaware of its existence and/or potential. RCS enables businesses to share reliable, encrypted RCS messages that are branded with the company name, logo and a user interface indication to designate the carrier-supported verification status. This enables businesses to secure their communications, safeguarding against fraud and other security threats, and inspiring customer trust and confidence.

With Apple announcing support in its latest operating system it is anticipated to be mainstream in a year or so allowing organisations to deliver tailored, safe and secure content to their customers on their preferred channels.    

Parker emphasised the importance of embracing a new messaging solution like RCS to ensure relevance and trust with customer;

“Customers’ favourite channels are ever evolving - think of your own communication preferences and how they have changed in the last few years.”

Matthew Parker, UK Country Manager, Vonage

This naturally led to the topic of “trust” being built with customers (something the banking and fintech organisations represented know all too well). The use of RCS helps to build this trust, and an example was given of The AA using RCS in its sales and marketing campaigns and seeing a 25% uplift in click-through and sales attributed to the campaign up to six months later! SMS is still the dominant messaging platform for those in the room, but it’s days are certainly numbered.

Finally (and not entirely unexpectedly) the topic of AI raised its ever-present head. Some use cases were cited, such as using it for translation and transcription of global meetings, and for assisting in the creation of discrete content for specific audiences. Another case mentioned was using it to analyse data to help provide reports with significantly less input.

There were a number of approaches used by those represented to try and establish clear use cases that add value, such as hackathons or other safe spaces to build in a segregated environment. The risk of unintended consequences of AI and even its successful application is clearly going to be a reality. Questions such as “what is the use case?”, “what is the problem are we trying to solve?”, “what does success look like?”, and “how do we measure progress in real terms?” are vital.

With a conversation spanning nearly two hours, the above barely does it justice, but the summary was clear; using a coherent, collaborative and intelligent approach to unified communications, and leveraging the capabilities of skilled third-parties will deliver clear, secure, trustworthy, and tonally correct communications to your customers in a way that can demonstrably drive engagement, and ultimately sales. This was reinforced during Parker’s closing comments;

"One thing we have learned from this event is that customers need to trust that they are interacting with a verified brand - this is why all communication leaders need to be prepared to securely reach customers on their favourite authenticated channels such as WhatsApp - and future preferences including RCS".

“Whichever way companies are moving things forward, the delivery of a frictionless digital customer experience, on whichever channel they love most, will remain an essential priority for businesses."

Matthew Parker, UK Country Manager, Vonage