A report from TeleSign has provided key insights into how digital transformation is reshaping the communications landscape and driving businesses to adopt cloud communications/CPaaS for customer engagement.
Of the 500 customer communications stakeholders surveyed, 87% reported that communicating via SMS/text, voice and other cloud communications channels is vital to their companies’ success.
For companies that have already adopted cloud communications, nearly twice as many report exceptionally high revenue growth rates (20% or above) than those that do not use cloud communications. Additionally, 93% of cloud communications users report that embedding communications into their web and mobile apps led to higher customer satisfaction.
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“We believe business survival is tied to the ability to engage customers in delightful experiences where, when, and how they want to be reached,” said Aled Miles, CEO of TeleSign.
“The world’s leading brands trust TeleSign’s communications platform to provide customers with seamless, right on-time experiences – whether it’s alerting that your driver has arrived, confirming your vacation rental, or receiving your movie tickets right on your mobile phone. The findings are conclusive that businesses using cloud communications to engage customers are seeing higher customer satisfaction and exceeding financial objectives.”
Digital transformation driving cloud communications adoption
Today, 99% of businesses report being in the middle of digital transformation (using mobile connectivity, cloud consumption, and self-service channels to achieve better business results), yet only 29% have reached advanced stages. Of companies still in early stages of this transformation, 64% are struggling to meet the demands of real-time communications and 60% are not meeting customer expectations of 24/7 communication availability.
Cloud communications platforms enable businesses to embed real-time communications features (such as SMS, voice, push notifications and more) into their web and mobile apps, without the need for backend infrastructure or interfaces.
According to this new report, the primary use case for cloud communications today is sending alerts, notifications and reminders, followed by sending marketing messages, enabling two-way communications, streamlining account registration, and protecting accounts with two-factor authentication.
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Interestingly, twice as many companies that have achieved advanced digital transformation use cloud communications to engage customers versus those that are in early stages of digital transformation (43% vs. 20%).
How cloud communications improves the customer experience
Businesses today are turning to cloud communications for a variety of reasons, led by the ability to help them improve the customer experience and deliver customized user experiences. Business leaders further report that once adopted, cloud communications offer an impressive list of benefits, including:
• Better customer service (65%).
• More effective communications (59%).
• Higher customer satisfaction (59%).
• Improved user experience (56%).
• Higher customer retention (52%).
• Increased sales (46%).
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• Positive brand reputation (41%).
• Increased competitive advantage (38%).
Many of these benefits arise due to the fact that businesses are able to communicate with their customers when and how they prefer. In fact, 32% of companies that use cloud communications say their customers are very satisfied with the channels they use to communicate with them versus just 15% of those that don’t use cloud communications.
Cloud communications adoption expected to reach 80% by 2020
Although the cloud communications market is emergent, 32% of businesses are currently using a cloud-based communications platform to interact with customers. Adoption is expected to nearly double by 2018 (61%) and reach 80% by the year 2020.
