The Evolution of CPaaS: From Basic Communication Tools to Robust Business Enablers

Communication has always been the cornerstone of human interaction, and the digital era has brought unprecedented advancements in the way we connect and engage with each other. One of the most significant developments in recent times is the evolution of CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service). CPaaS has revolutionized the way businesses and individuals interact, offering a seamless and powerful platform for real-time communication. In this article, we will explore the journey of CPaaS, its emergence, key features, and its impact on various industries.

Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) has come a long way since its inception, transforming the way businesses interact with their customers. As we trace the evolutionary journey of CPaaS, from its humble beginnings as basic communication tools to becoming robust business enablers that revolutionize customer engagement, collaboration, and overall efficiency

The Emergence of CPaaS

In the early 2000s, as the internet and mobile technologies started to gain momentum, CPaaS emerged as a collection of simple communication tools, primarily providing APIs for developers to integrate voice calls, SMS, and fax services into their applications. Businesses sought innovative ways to enhance their communication strategies. Traditional communication methods like emails and phone calls were not sufficient to meet the demands of real-time interaction and engagement. These tools laid the groundwork for efficient communication, allowing businesses to send automated messages and provide better customer support. However, they were limited in scope and lacked the sophisticated features that would eventually turn CPaaS into a crucial component of modern business ecosystems. This led to the development of CPaaS, a cloud-based solution that enables businesses to integrate voice, video, and messaging capabilities into their applications and websites.

1.       Key Features of CPaaS: CPaaS offers a plethora of features that make it a game-changer in the world of communication. Some of the key features include:

a.       Voice: CPaaS allows businesses to integrate voice calls into their applications using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). This enables interactive voice responses, call forwarding, and conference calling.

b.       Messaging: Real-time two-way messaging through SMS and MMS enables businesses to engage with customers instantly, providing notifications, alerts, and promotional messages.

c.        Video: CPaaS facilitates video communication, enabling businesses to conduct virtual meetings, webinars, and video conferencing directly within their applications.

d.       Chat: Integrating chat capabilities enables businesses to offer live support and engage with customers in real-time through web and mobile applications.

e.       Verification: CPaaS provides secure two-factor authentication (2FA) via SMS or voice, ensuring enhanced security for user accounts and transactions.

2.       Impact on Various Industries: The evolution of CPaaS has had a profound impact on numerous industries, transforming the way they communicate with their stakeholders and customers.

a.       Banking and Finance: CPaaS has revolutionized the financial sector by enabling secure two-factor authentication, real-time transaction alerts, and personalized customer interactions through messaging and chat. This has enhanced customer trust and streamlined communication between financial institutions and their clients.

b.       Healthcare: The healthcare industry has embraced CPaaS for appointment reminders, patient communication, and telemedicine applications. CPaaS enables healthcare providers to deliver timely healthcare information to patients while maintaining compliance with privacy regulations.

c.        Retail: CPaaS has become a vital tool for the retail sector, offering personalized marketing campaigns through SMS and MMS, enhancing customer engagement, and driving customer loyalty with mobile coupons and offers.

d.       Travel and Hospitality: CPaaS has improved customer service in the travel industry by enabling instant updates on flight statuses, hotel reservations, and providing customer support through messaging and chat.

e.       Education: In the education sector, CPaaS has enabled distance learning and virtual classrooms, allowing educators to engage with students globally through video conferencing and real-time messaging.

3.       Advantages of CPaaS: The evolution of CPaaS has brought several advantages to businesses of all sizes:

a.       Cost-Effectiveness: CPaaS eliminates the need for expensive infrastructure and maintenance costs, as the communication services are provided through the cloud.

b.       Scalability: CPaaS solutions can scale up or down based on business requirements, making it suitable for startups, SMEs, and large enterprises alike.

c.        Integration: CPaaS seamlessly integrates with existing applications, websites, and backend systems, ensuring a smooth transition and consistent user experience.

d.       Global Reach: CPaaS enables businesses to communicate with customers across the globe through SMS, voice, and video, breaking down geographical barriers.

e.       Innovation and Flexibility: CPaaS encourages innovation, allowing developers to build unique communication solutions tailored to their business needs.

The Shift to Cloud-Based Solutions

As the demand for seamless and scalable communication grew, CPaaS evolved into cloud-based solutions. The shift to the cloud brought numerous benefits, including easy deployment, reduced infrastructure costs, and global accessibility. Developers no longer needed to manage complex telephony systems; instead, they could leverage APIs hosted in the cloud to enable real-time communication across various channels, such as voice, video, and messaging.

The Rise of API Integration

One of the significant turning points in the evolution of CPaaS was the emphasis on API integration. By opening up their platforms to developers, CPaaS providers allowed businesses to customize and embed communication features into their existing applications and workflows. This marked the beginning of a new era of flexible, tailored communication solutions that catered to the specific needs of each business

Advanced Features and Functionality

As CPaaS matured, providers introduced advanced features such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR), video conferencing, and WebRTC integration. These functionalities empowered businesses to deliver personalized experiences, automate customer interactions, and enhance collaboration. CPaaS became more than just a communication tool; it became a comprehensive suite of services that boosted customer engagement and operational efficiency.

Omnichannel Communication

With the advent of omnichannel communication, CPaaS platforms expanded beyond traditional channels. Today, businesses can seamlessly interact with customers across various platforms, including social media messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat. This omnichannel approach has transformed customer service, enabling businesses to provide consistent and personalized support, regardless of the channel chosen by the customer

AI-Powered Capabilities

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) into CPaaS solutions further elevated their capabilities. AI-powered chatbots now handle routine customer queries, while sentiment analysis helps businesses gauge customer satisfaction in real-time. Additionally, AI-driven analytics provide valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, enabling businesses to refine their marketing strategies and improve overall performance

Security and Compliance

As CPaaS solutions became integral to businesses, security and compliance emerged as top priorities. Providers implemented robust security measures, like encryption and secure data storage, to safeguard sensitive information. Compliance with regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA became critical, ensuring customer data was handled responsibly and in accordance with the law

Conclusion

The evolution of CPaaS from basic communication tools to robust business enablers showcases its immense impact on modern businesses. Today, CPaaS empowers organizations to build stronger customer relationships, improve operational efficiency, and create innovative communication experiences. As technology continues to advance, CPaaS will undoubtedly play an increasingly vital role in shaping the future of business communication

The Metaverse and Its Implications for the Future of Employment

In response to these trends and shifts, organizations with the financial wherewithal are considering hybrid work arrangements and even planning for a wholly remote workforce in the not-too-distant future. It is at this point that virtual collaboration platforms such as the metaverse become very valuable.

Companies such as Microsoft have already experienced the advantages of the metaverse for their staff. For example, online meetings have made it possible for timid workers who might otherwise refrain from speaking at in-person meetings to feel more comfortable expressing themselves. Additionally, each participant in the meeting will be able to examine the profiles of the employees. Managers and other workers will be able to learn more about them and maybe reach out to them as a result of this. For a firm to be successful, it is critical that its employees feel seen and heard by not just the company, but also by their coworkers and supervisors. Bill Gates - Microsoft co-founder (https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/12/10/bill-gates-metaverse-work-meetings-predictions/6459911001/ ) - predicts most workers will take their virtual meetings within the metaverse in the next two or three years. He did this prediction on his website, stating – “I predict most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids – which I call the "Hollywood Squares model," although I know that probably dates me – to the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars”.

I personally remember how effectively Nortel was using Web.Alive technology for similar use cases. Disclaimer - I used to work for Nortel - There were reviews such as this one by zdnet (https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/a-tour-of-nortels-webalive-virtual-world-for-business/) – “Nortel's new WebAlive world combines a virtual world with fantastic audio to make a business collaboration platform. Here's a preview of that world.” Remember, this was 2008 ! It was also covered by TechRepublic.om - https://www.techrepublic.com/pictures/a-tour-of-nortels-webalive-virtual-world-for-business/

We did bag a few customers – (https://techmonitor.ai/technology/data-centre/nortel_bags_first_webalive_customer_120109) – “Communications vendor Nortel has announced that PC maker Lenovo has become the first company to take advantage of its web.alive virtual world technology in a new online virtual store. Web.alive is a collaborative, browser-based virtual world application aimed at enterprises and according to the company, can provide an immersive, interactive, and web integrated world with 3D voice and graphics.”

However, as usual, Nortel was way ahead of its time by almost a decade and a half. The Market wasn't ready. 

Avaya also tried to keep this alive (pun intended)… https://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/avaya-web.alive-creates-avatar-based-collaboration-environment/ although it had to be kind of shutdown by 2016… and now Meta (formerly Facebook) and other tech giants have woken up to the potential of the same technology.

There is a popular construct known as creative destruction that explains how innovation helps forward-thinking companies replace organizations that fail to adapt to technological advances. Think of all the companies that went out of business because they couldn’t adapt to the digital age. Add the disruption of a global pandemic, and you get an economy where only those that modify their practices can survive.

Companies can learn how to navigate these disruptions from the tech industry, where businesses must constantly reinvent themselves to keep up with and surpass the competition and the network that most tech companies are looking to utilize for the future is the metaverse.

People's well-being is dependent on their ability to form and maintain human relationships. The metaverse may aid in the development of interpersonal ties, which are important for those who work from home. Instead of participating in a Zoom conference, picture donning a virtual reality headset and participating in an immersive virtual meeting as an incarnation of yourself. As an avatar, you will be able to engage with other people who are present in the conference via visual and spatial-audio links. A similar sensation would be experienced while dealing with a coworker in a real office.

Consider the possibility that your next meeting may be with customers from Company B. The gathering is taking place on their virtual reality platform. Company B's platform will be interoperable with yours, which will enable you to smoothly transition to their platform for the meeting and interact with their staff. Companies will benefit from the metaverse because it will enable them to save time, reduce travel expenses, and foster relationships that were previously impossible.

New possibilities with the metaverse

As amazing and futuristic as these new technologies are, they can also be incredibly intimidating. Building components for the metaverse include the capacity to host hundreds of individuals in one server (perhaps, future metaverses will be able to accommodate thousands or even millions of people at once), motion-tracking systems that can identify where a person's eyes are, and more

According to Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/03/18/the-metaverse-the-future-of-work/?sh=525396b4267e ) – “Business leaders have realized that we now live in a new era of work and that the standard business practices of old no longer apply. Many understand that to succeed, they need to leverage the benefits of the metaverse.”

Not only have people's views of the virtual world evolved, but so have the possibilities that may arise as a result of it. Growing and developing possibilities will arise as the metaverse area evolves and develops. In response to technology improvements, new career opportunities will be developed. The need for individuals who are informed about the area will grow in the future.

Conclusion

The metaverse type technology began by emerging into everyday life as entertainment, but it took a global pandemic to reset a few things and then speed up its embrace by work culture. The once-in-a-generation event forced most companies to re-evaluate their operations, with many deciding to reduce the in-person office and attempt to transition to a more digital future. This is going hand in hand with the world's gradual transition to a post-pandemic period, technological advancements are having a considerable, life-changing, impact on the human experience in both the physical and digital realms.

Sooner or later, the metaverse will begin to have a greater effect on not just our workplace but also on our general everyday lives, eventually becoming the new normal. The metaverse is the workplace of the future, as well as the future of the whole globe.

Let me know your thoughts.... and as usual - click here to follow this blog!

Metaverse – Current Trends & Changes

Chief executive officers and executives from related industries believe that the concept of the workplace is changing. Along with the technologies that influence the development of these concepts, there are new ideas about business culture, manager-employee dynamics, the convergence of real and virtual places, as well as the evolution of these ideas.

People think that the metaverse is about living in a virtual existence, when, in my opinion, it is actually an adaptive and functional way for the fictional worlds to join our reality.

According to an article in The Hindu (https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/virtual-banks-digital-humans-social-chat-spacesinsides-tcs-metaverse-gameplan/article65267748.ece) – “Metaverse is the new buzzword in the technology world globally, and IT companies seem to be leading the way. IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has already started working on several metaverse projects including a “virtual bank” for retail transaction and a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace using its own blockchain solution, a senior company executive told BusinessLine.”

According to an article in the Business Standard (https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/ltts-forays-into-meta-world-to-carve-out-business-unit-for-metaverse-122032900666_1.html) – “Amit Chadha, CEO & MD, LTTS shared that while the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic accelerated digital transformation of the business across the globe, the confluence of 5G, digital products, AI and digital manufacturing is finally merging the physical and digital to create a plausible phygital universe.”

According to Yourstory (https://yourstory.com/the-decrypting-story/biggest-trends-metaverse-space/amp) – “One of the biggest trends that is already taking over the metaverse space is Cryptocurrencies and NFTs (Non-fungible tokens). Already more than a $10 billion market, digital items like NFTs can be created, sold, and purchased in an open market, owned by an individual user without interference from a centralised entity”

In spite of the fact that some changes had already taken place in the workplace before the outbreak, COVID-19 has demonstrated the necessity of a functional world separate from the real world, has accelerated the consideration of unorthodox practices, and has opened doors for the implementation of new practices. While the pandemic is in progress, businesses that wish to survive and keep personnel are adjusting to these changes. In the post-pandemic age, these changes will almost certainly become permanent.

Over the course of COVID, there has been a growth in the popularity of two significant themes in the metaverse and the future of work: hybrid work and the so-called "Great Reshuffle."

Creator economy is already there in Metaverse! “Internet 3.0” is entirely decentralized. Almost all virtual games or environments that are being built in the metaverse are already selling their assets, avatars, and all usable equipment as NFTs. The value of digital goods is increasing compared to their physical counterparts, for example, NFTs of tweets and avatars are valued higher than some high-priced paintings!

The idea of DAOs which represents Decentralized Autonomous Organizations is another pattern that is assuming control over the metaverse. The metaverse is actually an independent reality that isn't constrained by a brought-together substance. DAOs are advancing step by step and with time, will give clients more command over concluding what they look for from each computerized stage, great or administration

Building components for the metaverse include the capacity to host hundreds of individuals in one server (perhaps, future metaverses will be able to accommodate thousands or even millions of people at once), and motion-tracking systems that can identify where a person's eyes are, and more. 

Companies, brands, and individuals who are aware of these trends and the online culture that exists in the metaverse can develop and expand their digital identities, content, and products to outperform their competitors. The greatest way to expand your brand is to adapt to the ever-changing metaverse and embrace their digital development.

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Metaverse - Introduction!

The pandemic COVID-19, which is still ongoing, at least in some parts of the world, has had a significant impact on the dynamics of our society. Many individuals lost their employment, but they also had to adjust to fundamental changes in the workplace, which affected millions of people. However, the pandemic also accelerated the adoption of digital both by businesses and by the masses. it’s only a matter of time before the digital verse or the metaverse becomes a reality, given the speed with which technologies and businesses are developing creative ideas surrounding this immersive reality.

The Technology itself is not THAT new, however. We have had these kinds of “virtual worlds” available for more than a decade in the gaming world. There was a second life which way back in 2008 created so much hype that one article claimed that one-day second life would buy google itself. Of course, it didn’t’ pan out quite that way. Google went on to become the juggernaut that it is today and facebook emerged for the masses. However, the idea of an immersive virtual reality refused to die down. The most important mainstream depiction of the same was the “holodeck” of Star trek.

Nortel had its web.alive platform – which was a very immersive engine. We had a variety of games, too many to name them here. These transformations have resulted in the demise of rigid enterprises and the emergence of new economies, such as the metaverse economy. What will the future of employment look like if we go ahead in the context of a metaverse economy is an open question?

The phrase "metaverse" has always generated a lot of excitement in the technology community. The specific meaning of the term and how it will show to be an outstanding instrument in the future are not well understood by the majority of people.

In order to help you comprehend the metaverse's basics and functioning, we'll go over all you need to know about it in this post. So let's get this party started.

Introduction to metaverse

Imagine being able to build your ideal alter-ego in a virtual environment where you have complete control over every element of your persona. You have the freedom to do anything you want, to possess whatever you want, and pursue practically any opportunity that comes your way.

A scene like this was often portrayed in science fiction films and television programs. However, it is possible that it may become a reality in the near future since there is a lot of excitement in the business world about getting every layer, technology, and protocol ready to build "The Metaverse."

The conceptual breadth of the metaverse seems to be endless. It will vary from your house, street, business, and town or city, down to the solar system itself, and everything in between. It will also be a realm of fantasy worlds as well as social, economic, and cultural experimentation.

Those of us of a certain age may be hesitant about spending our waking hours in the metaverse where everything will be gamified, but it is the digital natives among us who inhabit today’s metaverse of Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft who will likely adapt the fastest and prosper.

In parallel with the world's gradual transition to a post-pandemic period, technological advancements are having a tremendous impact on the human experience in both the physical and digital realms.

Sooner or later, the metaverse will begin to have a greater effect on not just our workplace but also on our general everyday lives, eventually becoming the new normal. The metaverse is the workplace of the future, as well as the future of the whole globe.

Building components for the metaverse include the capacity to host hundreds of individuals in one server (perhaps, future metaverses will be able to accommodate thousands or even millions of people at once), and motion-tracking systems that can identify where a person's eyes are, and more.

Let me know your thoughts.... and as usual - click here to follow this blog!

New Normal - Borderless Workforce

The world has changed, and it has changed very rapidly indeed in the last 2 years. We all agree that the COVID-19 outbreak is a world-changing event that will have long-lasting implications for the global economy. It has been a once-in-a-generation global impact event. While there is no doubt that the pandemic is amplifying the adoption of new technologies, technological advancements were already changing the world over the past two decades, from living standards to the very nature of our work. It takes a world-changing event like the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate certain trends so dramatically and workforce-related changes have been, perhaps, the most profound.

“Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win” – Max McKeown

See, even before the pandemic struck, some features of the state of technological progress aka digital transformation were especially salient.

First, technology was already disrupting production processes, especially through the rapid scale-up of digital platforms.

Second, technology created seismic shifts in the mix of skills required to succeed in the labor market. these include cognitive skills such as critical thinking, as well as socio-behavioral skills such as managing and recognizing emotions that enhance teamwork or selling better. Earnings are higher for those who have a combination of these skills.

Third, digital technology changed the terms of work. Rather than “standard” long-term contracts, digital technologies have given rise to more short-term work, often via online work platforms. These “gigs” make certain kinds of work more accessible and flexible.

A hybrid virtual approach in which some workers work on-site while others work from home promises greater access to talent, enhanced productivity for individuals and small teams, cheaper costs, increased individual freedom, and better employee experiences. There are three major obstacles in implementing remote working:

1.            Securing the infrastructure for remote working

2.            Implementing new work policies in a structural way

3.            Balancing the work and private lives of Employees

With 40% of companies encouraging increased flexibility in terms of the country or office to work from over the next three years, and over 36% increasing the number of international remote workers not necessarily affiliated with a local office, the workforce of the future appears to be far more fluid and globalized.

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence -it is to act with yesterday’s logic”- Peter Drucker

With such conditions, businesses' appetites will be piqued for one thing: A borderless Workforce.

Why?

1.            Is it More Effective? - Employees working remotely in various regions of the world save operating costs like salary, administrative expenditures, and business travel expenses. With a global workforce, you can provide round-the-clock support and significantly reduce your turnaround time. 

2.            Does it create new market opportunities? - Local skills may be unlocked and new possibilities can be created by a more globalized workforce. Striking for a borderless global workforce allows your organization to access high-quality personnel from all around the world, increasing your chances of being recognized in any market.

3.            Is it more sustainable? - Remote working decreases commute time and business travel, improving a company's environmental, social, and governance credentials. It aids in the prevention of brain drain from developing markets on a global level, and it aids in the creation of stronger social cohesion in smaller towns and rural regions on a local level.

As organizations start to reopen, they are finding that their workforce is not keen to give up remote work. Companies can no longer say that they cannot operate remotely (a common reason to avoid remote work pre-2020), but with an ongoing global pandemic, they also cannot ask employees to come back to the office full-time. The most popular solution is the thing that every organization seems to be grappling with now — the hybrid model.

People refer to the hybrid model a lot; it involves some combination of working remotely and from an office. So far, the hybrid model looks different for every organization, but there are a few clear themes. Whatever the specifics, however, companies that choose to incorporate a hybrid model will all face some challenges ranging from culture-specific to seamless collaboration to the kind of talent that is available. Borderless workforces break down geographical barriers and develop a culture of cooperation and complete adaptability, allowing businesses to grow at an unprecedented rate while leveraging global talent to solve business problems.

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How Social Media is driving customer-brand interaction

 In my previous blog, I briefly touched upon how the internet, since it going mainstream in mid-1990s became ever more central to the way we do business, there sprang up quite a different and radically new way of how businesses manage reputation. In the offline world, it was relatively straightforward. The image was projected via centralized controlled media and the average customer or citizen’s opinion and experiences were relatively between the organization and them. However, with the advent of the internet, this started to democratize a bit more and really exploded into the true voice of the masses with the advent of social media. These days, it is important for a business or organization to pay attention to what and how is the online reputation shaping up since it affects almost every aspect of an organization from customer relations, new sales, even their ability to attract talent, and of course their future growth prospects.

This week, we will explore where and how ORM helps in driving customer-brand interactions.

Building and maintaining brand loyalty are one of the central themes of research for marketers for a very long time. Marketers have utilized various means to maintain the brand loyalty of their customers. Brand loyalty is defined as the partiality of a consumer towards one business or product over another, and it can truly make or break a company. It drives in-store traffic, visits to your website, word-of-mouth recommendations, and the conversion of leads to customers. This means the difference between profits and losses. Whether you like it or not, your customers are talking about your brand on social media. Customers have always dictated brand perception through word-of-mouth. Companies can put out good products, market those products, and attempt to steer branding in a certain direction, but it’s always been up to the customers. Now, word-of-mouth has moved online and happens on a much larger scale. And through various social media platforms it’s available for all to see and more often than not, in today’s interconnected world, brand loyalty depends on your ability to leverage the power of social media to build connections with your prospects and customers.

Tapping into your social media market and communicating with followers is no longer an option – it is a requirement. Hence, in this digital age, reputation management has become a critical component of every business. It is all about reputation when it comes to how a brand identifies itself and how the public perceives it.

The primary goal of online reputation management is to market and protect your brand so that it can be found, followed, and promoted in a digital world. Online Reputation Management aka ORM works by responding to negative, unfavourable customer comments and articles published on the internet that reflect poorly on your company's brand image.

Though both Online Reputation Management and Public Relations have the same goal, they approach it in quite different ways. ORM is more of a reactive effort that includes searching for and responding to potentially damaging information from other individuals or businesses. PR is more of a proactive effort to strengthen a brand, whereas ORM is more of a reactive effort that includes searching for and responding to potentially detrimental information from other individuals or businesses.

If you want customers to keep coming back to your brand, you have to connect with them in meaningful ways. Social media is the perfect place to build these relationships. First and foremost, doing a thorough online reputation audit could be considered the most basic of ORM activity. An online reputation management audit involves establishing how people view you online and the hurdles you face in challenging that perception, which can be done through brand monitoring. Simple questions like what kinds of websites do I see for my brand name. Do most people reach my business through search engines or external sites can be answered with this, and is the sentiment for my company's overall positive?

With the audit results in hand, you can outline your ORM goals, set limitations and constraints, and prioritise your duties to construct an Online Reputation Management Strategy for your firm.

Proactively monitoring online discussions gives you a real-time picture of your online presence and helps you to reply swiftly. People expect responses to social media remarks within a day or less. Prompt responses keep disgruntled consumers from providing negative comments and show that you value their assistance. The goal is to reply immediately and compassionately. A private message could become a public comment if you do not respond to customer inquiries swiftly.

To summarize, any company that wants to build client loyalty must remain on top of online reviews and develop an online reputation management strategy that shows its strengths and positions it well on the first page of search engines. Actively managing reputations can certainly benefit organization with bigger trust, better talent, less risks, and higher profit.

What is Online Reputation Management and Why Do You Need It?

As the internet became ever more central to the way we do business, there sprang up quite a different and radically new way of how businesses manage reputation. In the offline world, it was relatively straightforward. The image was projected via centralized controlled media and the average customer or citizen’s opinion and experiences were relatively between the organization and them. However, with the advent of the internet, this started to democratize a bit more and really exploded into the true voice of the masses with the advent of social media. These days, it is important for a business or organization to pay attention to what and how is the online reputation shaping up since it affects almost every aspect of an organization from customer relations, new sales, even their ability to attract talent, and of course their future growth prospects.

Why ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT is important for your business

·       Every organization tries to build a positive image about itself; in fact, the core of the business is all about building an image and improving it every day. In today’s immensely crowded, geography agnostic flat world, It is important to make sure your brand is interesting and fascinating to attract new customers.

·       The way customers interact with the business has undergone a tremendous change. These days, before buying anything online, they look for reviews online and on social media to know the product, brand, and its general views from others. More often than not, the preference of your customers largely depends on the search results.

·       Internet and social media have truly given voice to everyone and now anyone can give reviews online, even your competitors can write negative reviews to spoil your reputation online.

·       With the help of ORM tools, strategies, and practices, one can eliminate the negative content that is untrue; this helps in painting the right picture in front of the customer.

·       Online reputation management helps you improve the reviews and feedback about your brand and create a positive brand image. Customers usually pay more attention to a brand that has positive feedback and reviews online. This helps to generate sales as well.

·       Online reputation management boosts the search engine optimization of your company.

Online reputation management helps you to overcome all this. A survey indicates that a vast majority of customers read online reviews before purchasing anything, therefore ORM becomes paramount today

Hence, reputation management has become a critical part of every organization in the digital age. The way a brand defines itself and how the public sees it is all about reputation. Online Reputation Management is primarily concerned with marketing and defending your brand so that it may be discovered, followed, promoted in a digital marketplace. ORM works by responding to negative thus unfavorable customer comments and articles that are posted online media that cast a poor light on your organization's brand image.

Your consumer base might be jeopardized if you do not manage your online reputation properly. Because according to one survey more than 80% of customers conduct some internet research prior to making a purchase, how you seem online is a make-or-break aspect in their final choice. In addition, with the majority of consumers reading reviews to decide if your organization is trustworthy, your online reputation is a business quality check. Treating online reviews as personal recommendations becomes critical in such situations. Because the Internet keeps practically everything, anything people say about your business online is likely to stay online.

Though both Online Reputation Management and Public Relations have the same aim, there is a significant variation in how they do it. PR is more of a proactive effort to strengthen a brand, whereas ORM is more of a reactive effort that includes searching for and responding to potentially detrimental information from other individuals or businesses.

Monitoring is an important component of maintaining your online reputation since it may provide you with valuable information about consumer satisfaction and feedback on your products or services. Customers who made a complaint and received a satisfactory answer from the company will return to do business with them. You can reduce negative customer comments and maintain a positive online presence by actively managing your reputation.

First and foremost, completing an extensive online reputation Audit may be regarded as an ORM activity. An online reputation management audit entails determining how people perceive you online and the challenges you have in contesting that perception, which may be accomplished through brand monitoring. This can assist with simple queries like What kind of websites do I see for my brand name?, Do most people find my business from search engines or external sites?, and Is the overall attitude for my business positive?

With the audit results in hand, you can create an Online Reputation Management Strategy for your company by outlining your ORM goals, establishing limits and constraints, and prioritizing your tasks.

Monitoring online chats, social media posts, discussion forums, reviews, etc in a proactive manner offers you a real-time snapshot of your online presence and allows you to respond quickly. People expect social media comments to be responded to within a day or less. Prompt answers prevent dissatisfied customers from leaving bad feedback and demonstrate that you appreciate their assistance. The goal here is to respond quickly and with empathy. If you don't reply to consumer inquiries promptly, a private communication might suddenly become a public comment.

To summarize, online reputation management is not a one-day or one-time activity rather it requires regular monitoring; online reputation management will help your business in the long term if you keep an eye on your activities and the activities done by your competitors.

How to succeed With a Customer-centric Marketing Strategy

Advances in technology and communication, combined with explosive growth in data and information, have given rise to a more empowered global consumer. During the past decade, consumer needs have changed significantly, with technology growing at an exponential rate, influencing consumer behavior and marketing strategies. Nearly three-quarters of the world will use just their smartphones to access the internet by 2025. By 2025, 85% of the global population will have access to mobile telephony and more than 75% of the customers will have low-cost tablets or smartphones. It is anticipated that almost 75 Billion devices would be connected globally with mobile-based internet being the primary method of connectivity. Social media and unprecedented access to information such as peer-to-peer product and service reviews are giving greater power to consumers, creating more demanding and informed consumers. These experiences are shaping consumer expectations across all sectors. Amongst all of this, personal interaction is still highly considered and will remain an important component of the overall strategy.

Every day, hundreds of marketing strategies are published, each with its own set of thoughts and studies, but nothing else counts if your customers do not connect with your brand. Any strategy is good if it keeps the customer’s interest. To build value and increase sales over time, understanding your customers is crucial for a predictable result from marketing activities.

Customer centricity is a corporate strategy that prioritizes customers and places them at the center of operations in order to provide a positive experience and build long-term relationships. Understanding how to create leads based on your ideal customer and developing an overall marketing strategy that focuses on the greatest results for your customers are both parts of customer-centric marketing planning.

When a customer becomes engaged with a brand, they are 70 percent more inclined to spend than a first-time customer is. All of this is the outcome of long-term customer trust in the brand. A loyal customer base cuts down on the time, money, and effort it takes to generate additional revenue.

The most common way of creating an effective strategy, especially for marketing is to start by conducting a customer behavior study, which may assist split customers into distinct categories and personas’ as well as covering the most basic phase of constructing a customer profile, is a good place to start when developing a plan. This aids businesses in defining and focusing on their target market.

One can create original content that is relevant to one’s audience by focusing on a specific market, as a vast majority of consumers prefer relevant and personalized content. It is critical to align content not only to different stages of the buying process but also to specific buyer personas, as the type of content that will engage and incentivize them will differ depending on their characteristics and preferences.

With the proper content in hand, one can begin implementing it using an Omnichannel strategy, with special emphasis on social media. Social media and internet-based customer conversations – both good and bad – are federated, dynamic, contagious, and opinion making about products and services. As social media is about real-time and people-centric interactions, external social initiatives will have limited success if not backed by a similar focus on agent engagement. The way forward is to build internal collaboration capabilities that help deliver a superior external customer experience. The key here is to concentrate one’s efforts in the areas where one’s target audience exists, engages, learns and spends time. Share the content in these places and collaborate with the audience to create memorable experiences. This will help in increasing the likelihood of customer advocacy, which can foster a sense of community within loyalty the loyal customer base.

Along with content, other factors that can contribute to customer-centric strategies include training the talent that is aligned with customer-centric thinking and understands the value of customer experience delivered by the organization. Here the role of Contact center representatives who are the first and most front-facing workforce is extremely important. They will shape many of the first customer interactions. This must be coupled with relevant and timely information. Successful organizations break down silos of information and use an enterprise-wide approach to customer information and insight. A single, accurate, accessible enterprise customer view is essential to the success of any organization that wants to differentiate on customer-centricity.

Measuring the performance of one’s strategies is equally important, so having customer success metrics to measure customer-centricity becomes critical. Calculating churn rates can assist you in keeping track of customer satisfaction. Similarly, Net Promoter Score and customer lifetime value are two metrics that can assist you in determining the success of your customer-centric marketing strategy.

95% of senior business leaders believe that the next competitive differentiator is customer experience. The irony is that 80% of companies believe they deliver a superior customer experience. But only 8% of their customers agree!

A customer-centric marketing approach is the most effective way to stay competitive, onboard ideal consumers, and increase the lifetime value of your customers. The modern consumer is acutely aware of their requirements and the myriad options and choices available to them. The transition to becoming a truly customer-centric organization is difficult and time-consuming, but even minor policy and procedure improvements can have a big impact on both employees and customers. Every part of your business should be focused on providing the best possible customer experience, resulting in your customers becoming your reason for success.

The scenario is similar in almost most of the B2C organizations like Manufacturing, Automotive, Retail, FMCG, Telcos, BFSI, etc. However, the investments in marketing technology or process and people development areas to service their customers do not commensurate to this ratio currently. Moreover, organizations are driving efficiency and extending the cost play within the ecosystem and are not as much focussed on effectiveness.

To summarize, for the modern marketing strategy to succeed, it is imperative that the experiences during the acquisition and post-acquisition phases be engineered and managed properly. A customer experience is an interaction between an organization and a customer is a complex function of the brand promise, which has set the expectations to the customer and the sum total of the life cycle of an engagement or interaction experiences – product performance, service delivery, people interaction, and process experience. It is perceived through a customer’s conscious and subconscious mind. It is a blend of an organization’s rational performance, the senses stimulated and the emotions evoked and intuitively measured against customer expectations across all moments of contact 

Customer Journey Mapping: The secret to Superior CX

Customers' behavior is surmised to be rather unpredictable, thus businesses strive to make lasting first impressions and provide unique purchase experiences. Those who wish to learn how your clients purchase in today's digital environment should focus on the most impactful channels and touchpoints in their buying journeys.

 Customer Experience Mapping is a method that helps you identify your consumers' motivating elements during the purchase process. It may be defined as a customer's journey through the phases of their relationship with a company, which includes all interactions between the consumer and the firm across several channels. It's basically a flowchart that displays the steps of a client's interaction with a firm, from purchasing things online to contacting customer support.

 Although most firms are rather effective at acquiring data on their customers, data alone does not adequately express the customer's problems and experiences. At such instances, a customer journey map, which is a visual representation of a customer's interaction with a firm through time, may give insight into the customer's overall experience. It assists your team in better understanding and addressing the wants and pain points of your customers when they interact with your product or service. Thus, a customer journey map allows your company to observe how your brand contacts a potential client and then travels through the many touchpoints of the sales process.

Depending on the sort of business and the types of consumers served, each customer journey map will be unique. However, there are a few key elements that will be consistent throughout every map you build. Some of them are:

 

1.      Personas: Personas, which are composite representations of a market segment of consumers with similar requirements, objectives, and motivations, are the greatest way to understand customers' behaviors and sentiments. It may provide you a comprehensive picture of who your consumers are, what they want, and how they engage with your company across all channels.

 

2.       Identifying the stages of the customer journey that your customer is attempting to complete. Rather than focusing on internal process processes, one should focus on creating a customer journey map with phases that depict your client's goal-oriented trip.

 

3.      Customer touchpoints: One of the most significant parts of the customer journey map is the touchpoints between the customer and the business. Each touchpoint specifies a specific action the consumer did with the business. Identifying your touchpoints is a crucial step in establishing a customer journey map and ensuring that your consumers are happy at every stage.

 

4.      Emotion: It's crucial to think about how your consumers could react to each engagement. Identifying the places of friction in the customer experience may help companies see their client personas in a new light.

 After you've established all of the components, it's a wonderful exercise to bring them all together from the customer's perspective. Companies frequently need to construct many customer journey maps based on a jumbled picture of how consumers interact with them.

Customer journeys aren't always going to be straightforward. Customers may hop ahead and back multiple times within the same segment throughout the course of their lifetime. As a result, taking exceptions into account while mapping the Customer Journey may be a smart idea. Another smart approach is to involve other departments since each department has a stake in defining the customer's experience and may give a distinct perspective. Customer Journey Mapping will, in the end, never be a static entity; like everything else in the digital age, it will be forced to be Agile.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a customer experience, so your company will have to figure out what works best for you. However, the Trip Mapping frameworks you develop should help you gain a better knowledge of the journey your consumers take as they interact with your organization, brand, goods, partners, and employees. Knowing where your consumer is on their journey might help you anticipate what they could encounter next.

Where CX meets Technology - Intelligent Experiences

As the pandemic forced us to change our very way of living, consumer behavior also changed drastically. Overnight, many people who were “fence-sitters” when it came to transacting “online” were literally forced to online since in-person contact became the least preferred way of doing commerce. This online commerce forced organizations to really take a deep look at their customer journeys both online and offline. Digital Technologies, earlier often relegated to “coming in future” or “nice to have” became “essential” to survival. Retail was the hardest hit with this realization.

However, we find that now almost every area of the customer experience is being transformed by new technologies. Customers have evolved to anticipate new levels of perfection, performance, and just about everything in between as the possibilities of digital technology improve. Customers' expectations are continuously evolving; thus, the current customer experience must go above and beyond old customer care practices. Companies that give a meaningful but relevant experience that meets or exceeds their consumers' expectations will be successful.

To stay on top of these advancements and trends, we must grasp these new technologies and use them to communicate, interact, and promote in novel ways. Today's organizations need to discover the proper digital tools to provide a great customer experience, build brand loyalty, and drive sales growth. CX is taking advantage of today's technology and data to improve the entire customer experience. This involves sharing data amongst teams such as marketing and customer support, developing new roles to act on the data, and using new technologies such as AI, resulting in the implementation of a class of digital practices that leverage data to improve the whole digital trip for customers.

Leading firms in customer experience management are already utilizing these new technologies to achieve a competitive advantage. This ranking is topped by the utilization of artificial intelligence. According to one Research, by 2022, consumers would probably be handling 85 percent or more of their interactions with the organization without the need to be engaging with a human, at least for simple interactions. Many of the technological breakthroughs accessible to CX delivery teams are determined by how artificial intelligence, conversational interfaces, and robotic automation are implemented. There are two aspects to this. One is related to productivity and efficiency. By automating frequent and repetitive processes, these solutions save expenses and boost agent productivity. The other aspect, perhaps more important, is to do with delivering superior experiences through quick, efficient, and empathetic engagements during various segments of customer journeys. Conversational Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence are another method for automating simple chores. Today's industry-standard chatbots offer an incredible step forward for organizations looking to automate and outsource easy, regular inquiries and interactions to an intelligent system, thanks to an algorithmic learning feature that allows it to learn from past discussions and adapt replies. Another widely used option, IoT, may boost a company's bottom line by cutting operational expenses, improving productivity, and assisting companies in expanding into new markets or developing new goods.

One technique, which seems to be gaining tremendous traction in understanding and delivering empathetic engagements, is speech analytics, which is being increasingly used to augment existing AI processes enabled processes by listening for heightened voice pitches and other emotional indications, analyzing the customer's sentiments, further contextualizing with backend order data and transferring them to an agent when appropriate. It also gives fresh sources of feedback by identifying emotional drivers and focusing on terms or themes that regularly provoke specific feelings.

Armed with this sentiment analysis technology and with comprehensive dashboards, agents can quickly acquire a full image of each client, their purchase history, and their expected goals for each engagement – and then take on a consultative role, alleviating emergent and even projected requirements as well instantly acquire a thorough understanding of each client. These new and continually growing technologies are assisting businesses not only to extend their client base but also to get a macro-level understanding of their customers. Adopting such technologies for one’s organization is providing a more competitive advantage over competitors that have yet to connect technology with customer experience.

For a few years, a huge focus of most of the organizations and service providers was to deflect a transaction or engagement towards a non-voice channel – with the hope that customers would find these easier and such channels also afford a lower cost to serve. However, as seen, most of the customers are not very comfortable using non-voice channels especially with an AI-powered bot behind the channel during a time of crisis or during a buying journey. In a country like India, literacy rates while climbing has also proved to be a challenge for a largely English-dominated non-voice channel scene. Hence, we see that voice is making a comeback, albeit in a different avatar for service providers! And Speech Analytics and related technologies are at the heart of this revolution.

This is not limited to service providers or call centers only! General use of such virtual assistants is happening on an increasingly wide scale. For example, Taxi and cab drivers in India are routinely seen using some form of voice-powered virtual assistant for doing routine things – hands-free! Mostly the interface is maps or google assistant. The next frontier in Speech-enabled virtual assistants would be real-time language translation capabilities, which would allow two humans to converse with each other even though they might speak different languages. 5G and increasingly powerful speech engines are the key. While we are far away from Star Trek’s Universal Translator, but such technologies, on a simpler scale can revolutionize the way we interact with each other and transact online.

The next frontier in CX and EX definitely involves a significant role for such technologies available through a variety of interface formats!

Virtual Assistants: Their Role in Superior CX & EX

The Digital era compels many companies to maintain continuous connections with their customers until the resolution of their queries or issues. As a result, with customer service as a top priority, the ideal customer experience allows consumers to communicate via the channel of their choosing while keeping the context of interactions intact. A limitless firm has a new operating system that incorporates a shift in thinking as well as the increased embrace of emerging technology. The conventional tethered and physical workflow is morphing into interactive customer communications through various digital channels.

The role of Virtual assistants is developing as businesses adapt to the Omni Channel experience which is increasingly being expected by their end customers. Though virtual assistants first appeared in the 1960s with ELIZA and IBM's Shoebox voice-activated calculators, this technology is now emerging as the go-to solution in the realm of customer experience.

A traditional virtual assistant may be conceived of as an application that responds to a user's voice or text command and does the work at hand. Emerging virtual assistants, on the other hand, are programs that integrate the use of artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, natural language processing, and machine learning to extract information and complicated data from conversations in order to comprehend and process them.

Structured data with standardized rules can easily adapt to RPA solutions whereas unstructured data with less application of standardization utilized Cognitive automation, a virtual assistant is a next-level combo that can extract information and complicated data from a conversation using a voice and text-based interface.

Virtual Assistant algorithms develop the capacity to construct data models that detect and adapt behavior patterns by merging past data. With the inclusion of historical data, preferences, and other user information on a regular basis, a virtual assistant can answer difficult queries, offer suggestions and predictions, and even start a discussion.

Pre-programmed virtual assistants, which are more rule-based, with logic mapped out with a logical next step for various answers users might ask, are giving way to more complex and dynamic AI virtual assistants, which can be divided into two categories: NLP virtual assistants and machine learning virtual assistants. As a result, virtual assistants are becoming smarter by ditching automated chats and becoming more participatory, as seen by one of the most popular products on the market, Google Home, which knows each user's voice and issues a secure ID to each. The trend is also emerging to integrate different Virtual assistants, which can provide enhanced functionality to consumers and end-users.

However, there are certain privacy issues with AI-enabled virtual assistants that gather and retain user data indefinitely for better upgrades and user experience; this may be mitigated with strict data privacy rules from the corporations that provide this technology. After all, technology is a double-edged weapon that must be handled with caution.

Virtual Assistants have a chance to build a new digital workforce that will supplement human talents while also benefiting B2C and B2B end customers. Virtual assistant technology may be efficiently applied to external customer-facing use-cases using Conversational AI and cloud-enabled services, assisting enterprises in meeting the demands of digital natives and growing omnichannel digital contact with Omnichannel digital virtual assistants. At the same time, with employee experience also becoming increasingly important in the delivery of holistic Total Stakeholder Experience, virtual assistants are playing an increasingly important role in enabling employees to perform their tasks with much more accuracy, speed, and efficiency. These assistants are used in a variety of formats including conversational text, guidance coaches, and even as “co-listeners” to a voice conversation and then providing guidance based on inferences derived from a vast database of previous interactions and persona-based profiling.

The next frontier in CX and EX definitely involves a significant role for virtual assistants available through a variety of interface formats!

Benchmarking Your CX Organization

 To develop your business, you must first improve the customer experience (CX)  that your business delivers to guarantee that your customers are well-served and have transformative interactions with your brand. For a fully connected, effortless CX that adds value to your consumers and business, you need a well-defined CX strategy and clear leadership.

It's good to see companies continuing to value customer experience as a key differentiator. Benchmarking assists businesses in understanding how these strategies and staff perform in comparison to rivals and what customers are truly saying.

Thus, for setting your organization up for long-term success, it's vital to take a critical step of Benchmarking.

The first step would be setting up KPIs such as Net promoter score, customer satisfaction scores, Customer acquisition and retention, Customer effort score, Average ratings across listing platforms, Volume and sentiment of online reviews, and Consumer engagement for Benchmarking Customer Experience that is important to compare to previous results both internally and outside.

Customer and Employees feedback - By interacting directly with your customers, blind spots in the organization can be identified and understood what’s not working.

Using reputation management software that uses natural language processing (NLP) can help you to evaluate client comments as one approach to gauge consumer sentiment. It might provide insight into the precise issues that need to be addressed in order to improve your client experience.

Another method is to use Voice of the Customer initiatives, which are aimed at gathering and evaluating customer feedback in order to find chances for operational or product changes, which helps to achieve the ultimate objective of increasing customer acquisition and retention.

Comparing the most recent available scores to these earlier scores can assist you to determine what is and isn't working with your client experience when you begin your benchmarking CX.

Competitive Advantage via Benchmarking – we must focus on our customer experience via Client satisfaction to create a loyal customer base and keep business away from our rivals. When we're evaluating our company's performance, look at how our rivals are doing via internet reviews and social media mentions to get a sense of how they're doing and what areas they're having trouble with. With this kind of study, we should be able to pinpoint areas where we can enhance our client experience and address some of their concerns, perhaps luring them to our company.

With at least one-to-one comparisons, the aim should be to figure out where your competitors are outperforming us, where we can improve, and how our customer experience stacks up against the competition.

Benchmark revenue measurements can reveal where our team spends more, less, or the same as comparable organizations of our size, and these insights can help us better allocate our company's resources.

Benchmarking in fact forces us to evaluate ourselves in comparison to other organizations in our industry, rather than our own prior success, and holding our firm to industry standards maintains the focus on becoming the best among competitors.

Identifying the relevant KPIs, gathering consumer insights, and evaluating our achievements against the industry are only the beginnings of a customer-centric organizational transformation.

Benchmarking and improving customer experience is a long-term marketing strategy which is a long-term investment after adoption

Digital Customer Experience Strategy

With an ever-expanding spectrum of digital technologies and tools at our disposal, the distinction between digital and physical customer experience is becoming increasingly hazy. For competitive marketers, digital channels are becoming increasingly vital in supporting their whole customer experience strategy.

In my opinion, companies will, increasingly, compete on customer experience as a focused area alongside their product or service, thus they will be prepared to pay more for a great customer experience.

A successful digital experience plan needs organizations to consider how digital interfaces fit into their customer engagement strategy, which utilizes customer data and provides businesses with customer insights to improve digital interaction across interfaces and boost customer retention.

In order to promote genuine gains, digital customer experience management must become an executive priority and fit with the overall business strategy. Delivering a seamless experience across individual customer contact points by leveraging unified communications as a service is a fantastic example of channel flexibility when consumers want to remain engaged with the same agent across digital channels.

This may be accomplished by deploying cloud management solutions that allow customers to switch between your brand's multiple channels, therefore addressing the growing need for response time, which customers rank as critical when they have a customer service query.

Companies must make the effort to completely map and understand their customer journey in order to increase customer engagement scores, where consumers are willing to share data with you in exchange for personalized experiences that make their journey easier, easy, and convenient.

When the objective is to decrease consumer friction and effort, it's critical to build complicated systems that simplify client interactions as every move in the firm has an influence on the consumers in some manner, hence companies must be aligned towards customer-centricity.

This is possible with the help of a specialized digital team that specifies alignment and synergies with other relevant business divisions. This team must define KPIs to push the organization's and culture's thinking toward digital transformation and customer experience, as well as simplify processes to generate efficiency and reduce redundancies.

When you simplify your digital journey and offer tailored digital experiences for your consumers, you achieve customer satisfaction with less effort, which leads to an increase in your customer lifetime value.

Brands that have a strong CX strategy make a concerted effort to connect company goals with these consumer expectations.