api aggregators : 5 things you need to know

Dynamically Send, Receive & Enhance Text Message Campaigns

Although most people would never know it, life in the modern world would be virtually impossible without API integrations. Part of this might have to do with the fact that most people don’t actually know what an API is to begin with. As we’ve described it on our site, an Application Programming Interface allows for the creation of virtual partnerships between software applications in order to help improve performance and streamline various application processes.

What Is an API?

Still with us? Good. Simply put, an API represents a series of programming commands that allow two different software applications to collaborate with one another for mutual benefit. This programming alliance is called an integration. And everything from Facebook to Instagram must rely on these integrations in order to allow for a certain standard of functionality to take place.

Social Platforms Run Behind the Scenes

And, speaking of Facebook: the nice folks over at the Rackspace Blog created a handy infographic that does an excellent job of driving home the importance of API integrations by revealing some of the ways in which popular programs, apps, and websites make use of interface’s third party interactivity.

Without the help of of various APIs working behind the scenes, for example, you would be unable add the Facebook “like” button to your website in order to drive traffic, upload photos to Flickr or Instagram to post on multiple online locations, instantly share articles on LinkedIn, or share music that you’re currently listening to on Spotify on Twitter.

You’re Becoming an API Business

In fact, in the interconnected world of mobile apps, social media, and cross-platform communication, API integrations have essentially become the building blocks of the modern day business world infrastructure.

In a piece composed for Developer Tech, Adam Spearing of Salesforce even predicted that pervasiveness of APIs and the necessity of API functions will soon mean that every business, regardless of the industry they operate within, will become an “API business.” This is a sentiment shared by Stephen O’Grady over at RedMonk’s “techosystem” section, who called software developers the “new kingmakers.”

A Growing Trend

So, there you have it! Not only are API integrations responsible for some of our most important modern day interactions, they are here to stay. By providing software applications with a way to facilitate partnerships and increase functionality, APIs have established the need for these types of integrations and there’s no going back.

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the greatest value of chatbots in customer service to a broad adoption by retailers

Innovation in communication tools has advanced greatly, giving convenience to retailers and consumers today in their connections with each other. The web, mobile marketing and smartphone applications have turned into the vessel of everyday communications. It is hard to envision what new advancement can come in and sweep over the latest tools.

One tool that is making the retail world turn is a tool that is gaining more popularity: Chatbots.

What Are They?

Chatbots, or "bots", interact with customers in place of a retail customer service or sales agent. The way they work is in place of having a human writing back. An AI, or Artificial Intelligence, bot works in progress assembling your information and providing applicable information from what consumers are seeking.

These bots have turned into a basic apparatus in business commerce today. Retailers can speak with their customers through content/message platforms for a more customized and successful strategy for consumer benefit. These platforms fall within conversational commerce.

What Have They Done Thus Far?

Today, customers lean toward communicating with brands by means of messaging instead of face to face. The quick pace of business today legitimizes why consumers need to get things done quickly with little interference. Google I/O and Facebook's informing bots comprehend the significance of brand knowledge and what affect it has on their consumer base when the knowledge is conveyed through chatbots.

Inc. magazine states:

"Half of Consumers Want Interactions Via Chat. The demand for chatbots is only growing. In fact, if a company could get it right, 49% of consumers would rather conduct all their customer service interactions via text, chat, or messaging. That's according to a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted by Aspect. But that's not all. Millennials said texting was the most effective communication option when engaging with a company.”

Engage enterprises and customers in real time conversations

Creating A Successful Chatbot

Personalization and customization is what drives brands to use bots for consumer needs. Because these bots can collect consumer data from their interactions, they become “smarter” and more reliable.

Along with the chatbots consumers come across online for retail sites, many brands create chatbots for text message purposes. They can send the latest promotions to consumers who have chosen to opt in to receive messages, or can remind a customer that their next appointment is coming up.

Brands want to make sure their bots represent them accordingly and provide personalized experiences. The more consumers are willing to engage with a bot, the quicker retail brands can utilize these bots for a more frequent or permanent tool.

Successful service begins with brands understanding how they can use conversational commerce correctly to bring in sales and grow customer loyalty.

Today’s Commerce

Brand and customer communication works best when both sides have accepted how much technology can benefit their needs.

Creating a bot means to create a simulation that represent the brand correctly and is intelligent enough to provide information consumers need and to learn from the different types of consumers and their different motives.

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4-steps to implement text messaging to engage your customers

Deploy a mobile ready messaging strategy across your organization

The way that consumers research, find, and engage with dealership has changed significantly in recent years. In the past, dealers would buy newspaper and radio ads, put up a billboard, get listed in the Yellow Pages, and wait for customers to call or show up to their dealership.

Now, the process is much more detached. While traditional advertising and marketing are important to create awareness, they are no longer the primary sources car buyers turn to when deciding which dealership to choose. Online searches are now king. Today’s car buyer typically searches for dealerships near them, reads reviews, maybe looks at your website, and then calls or messages you directly from your listing.

The option for customers to message businesses is a new addition. Google recognized that more and more customers would prefer to message a business as opposed to placing a call. In fact, 90 percent of consumers want to use messaging to interact with a business – with 50 percent preferring to message via SMS text.

The problem is only 48 percent of businesses are capable of messaging with their customers, but that number will likely increase with the launch of Google Click-to-Message. To help you get started, we have outlined the steps to get your dealership’s account set up to accept messages from your customers.

Here are the four steps to setting up Google Click-To-Message:

• Login to your Google My Business page
• Select messaging in the left menu and add phone number
• Verify that number with a code sent from Google
• Now searchers can message your dealership

                                       : Tips for interacting with customers via text:

 

Now that your dealership is all set up to take incoming texts, let’s review some tips that will help you successfully interact with your customers.

 

1. Be responsive

Oftentimes when consumers are conducting an online search on their mobile device, they want their questions answered immediately. This is because they are likely experiencing what Google refers to as micro-moments. These are when consumers want to know, want to go, or want to buy. If your online presence isn’t able to quickly answer their questions, they will probably move on to your competition.

One of the main reasons that online searchers want to connect with you via text is they feel like it is a quicker, more efficient method of communication. But that’s only true if the dealership is placing an emphasis on quick response times.

To ensure this happens, general managers should make sure their team is well equipped to offer quick responses to customers. If you don’t consistently respond to messages in a timely manner, customers will know because over time Google will post typical response times on your listing.

2. Don’t ask for sensitive information via text

This might seem obvious, but it bears repeating. Businesses should never ask for sensitive information like credit cards, banking information, or social security numbers over text. While text messages seem secure, the information isn’t encrypted so the data could be vulnerable.

3. Ask for customer feedback

Another valuable way to utilize text messaging in your customer interactions is asking for feedback. A lot of times customers don’t want to take the time to fill out a lengthy customer satisfaction survey, but they would be willing to answer a few questions via text. That is because asking questions via text comes across as more personal and less intrusive than a survey.

One way to approach this is by asking your customers after a transaction is complete, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend this business to a family or friend.” And then follow that up with one or two questions about the service your business delivers. Our research has shown that approaching customer feedback this way results in significantly higher open and response rates than traditional CSAT surveys.

4. Invite customers to review your business

Text messaging is also a good method for collecting public facing customer feedback on your Google My Business listing. One of the biggest reasons to use text messaging to do this is many people are already signed into their Google account on their smartphone, so it’s much easier to connect them directly to your Google reviews page.

5. Encourage customers to add you to their contacts

Texting with your customers will help you build stronger more loyal customers. To help you reinforce that loyalty, try texting them a vCard with your contact information on it. If customers have access to your phone number in their contacts, it removes one of the steps in the car buying journey. It will help you evolve from being just a dealership to being their dealership.

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5 ways to use sms marketing for the legal industry

  Best practices for  SMS  marketing  for the legal industry

 

 

Mobile Messaging has made a phenomenal impact on diverse industries, by acting as a cost-effective marketing tool, thereby improving the revenues of companies to a considerable extent. The Even Legal industry has understood the potential of the text messaging platform and hence is taking active participation in using the mobile messaging platform. Law firms regardless of size are slowly and steadily harnessing text messaging medium to not only improve their services and making them more effective but also in helping them  increase reach and get new clients 

The bond between a lawyer and a client is a rather sensitive one, which includes credibility as well. Without credibility, it would be really hard for a lawyer to go forward with the case. To strengthen the relationship between the lawyer and the client, the mode of mobile messaging can be used. A Lawyer can send timely alerts and other important notifications such as court case hearing to their respective clients through a SMS.

 Independent Lawyers who have their own law firm are using the mobile messaging medium to market their specific services to as many customers as they can. In fact, seeing the trend attractive, more and more lawyers globally are coming forward to use this platform and gradually build their law business. Individuals accused of  crimes can get legal counsel through the medium of mobile messaging.

Texting can also be used for confirmation of appointment on a particular time, and also for scheduling and rescheduling meetings. On the contrary, clients who are mostly convicts have their mobile phone. This, in turn, makes it very easy for lawyers to send certain important information through text. Certain regulations have to be followed by the conversations that happen between a lawyer and a client is of a formal nature.

 How can Law firms use mobile messaging in an optimal manner? 

1. Permission-based messages: It becomes the rightful duty of the lawyers to first ask for the permission from their valued clients, before sending any worthy information. This ultimately builds trust.

 2. Use targeted mobile keywords: This greatly helps the lawyer to categorize clients. For example “Text bankruptcy to 91000” will bring in all those clients who are in real need of services pertaining to bankruptcy. Similarly, “Text Assault to 81000” will bring in all those clients who are booked for assault. 

3. Be Concise: Because text messages are short in length, it becomes utmost important that the text is specific and concise. This will, in turn, help the clients know as to what are the legal services that your firm is offering, and so help them make quick decisions. 

4. Timing is utmost important: When any notifications or alerts have to be sent, ensure that they are delivered on time. This builds loyalty and shows that your firm is really serious about helping clients. In turn, when a client sends any query through SMS, see to that the response is sent as soon as possible. Many of the lawyers who have used texting, were happy about the fact that their clients responded immediately upon receiving the message. Another pertinent point that the lawyers have mentioned is that time and money have been saved to a significant extent using this medium. The text messages which the clients receive can further be used for evidential purposes in a court or for other legal matters. Upon that, clients can document all the messages they have received by sorting out on a date and time basis. Whether you are a lawyer or a client, you can save and print all your text messages, which might eventually help in solving your legal cases.

four questions to consider before creating a chatbot for your business activity

Engage enterprises and customers in real time conversations

The customer experience model of today looks different than it did even five years ago, yet certain pillars of customer experience remain.

With the introduction of any new tool for customer engagement, you must strive to make experiences more personal, available and efficient.

Many organizations today struggle to implement new technology, while maintaining that human touch we all yearn for when dealing with organizations. To face this head-on, companies need to remember that innovations in technology should always augment the overall human element -- not necessarily replace it.

Case in point: Artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbots. When implemented strategically, they can help enhance their customer experience by changing business processes and making customer service functions more seamless. 

Chatbots can help streamline overall productivity across contact centers. While chatbots won’t replace humans any time soon, they can help save time for customers while allowing agents to dedicate their time to more complex interactions.

If you're considering chatbots in your contact center, take a hard look at why you're implementing these tools and how they will help your organization achieve success. These four questions are key to avoiding a complex implementation that adds more costs than value:

1. Why Do You Want to Implement a Chatbot? 

Chatbots can improve contact center operations. However, the technology is still evolving and must be carefully evaluated and deployed to ensure success. Be sure that chatbots are the right tool for your business. Before taking the plunge, evaluate the cost of deployment and scale the needed skills within your organization. Chatbots can unlock new potential for contact centers, but only when done with the appropriate goals in mind. Chatbots, like other self-service channels, enable 24-7-365 support for customers with basic questions who are looking for fast responses.

2. How Can You Make Sure Your Chatbot Is Actually Intelligent? 

Your chatbot is only as good as the underlying data it's built on, so evaluate if you have an effective foundation. This involves mining and collating vast amounts of data derived from many systems. This includes reviewing prior customer interactions, understanding the types of questions asked and ensuring the correct answer is documented. With this information, your organization can better address the complexity of questions, and ensure that there is a correct answer available for the chatbot to provide customers.

3. Can Every Customer Can Benefit From the Chatbot? 

For a customer, being misunderstood during an interaction is frustrating and reflects poorly on your brand’s reputation. The prevalence of social media and flattening of the consumer world means more brands are dealing with more diverse customers. To address this, your contact center must provide service to customers across all languages and geographies. By layering a customized translation solution on top of the chatbot, you can provide support across all languages, regardless of what language the chatbot was trained in.

4. When Is It Time to Shift a Customer Interaction From a Chatbot to a Live Agent? 

Chatbots are not something you should set and forget.They need to be continually monitored and evaluated to make them smarter, as well as to determine the tipping point for when a customer engagement should move from bot to agent. Customer problems come in all shapes and sizes, and regardless of how much a bot understands, there will always be instances when an interaction needs to be handled by a human agent. The chatbot must be able to determine sentiment to know when a customer is frustrated and needs to talk to a live agent.

Contact centers must embrace new technology, but with every deployment should come a period of intensive evaluation — all with the goal of enhancing the customer experience at the center of every decision. Our increasingly connected world offers an abundance of new customer opportunities for businesses, but this expanding and diversified customer base comes with challenges. Regardless of industry or company size, customers expect seamless, efficient responses to their questions.

The human point of contact is always important in customer engagement, but tools like chatbots will play a key role in augmenting the traditional customer experience. Organizations that take a thoughtful approach to deploying chatbots will not only alleviate challenges for inundated contact centers, but also enhance support, reduce costs and provide unprecedented customer experiences for every customer they touch.

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brands increasingly using AI-powered chatbots for automating customer care

Engage enterprises and customers in real time conversations

One of the most visible ways artificial intelligence (AI) is entering the business world is the consumer-facing chatbot. This AI-powered virtual assistant uses natural language processing to understand key words and context from customers and help them without the use of a human representative. Naturally, this offers powerful incentives to companies looking to offer 24/7 customer service without ballooning costs.

But how are consumers reacting to chatbots? Are they really an effective way to augment customer service or are they a finicky, early stage technology that still has too many bugs to work out?

Business News Daily spoke to consumers and companies that have stepped into the world of AI in customer service to find out more about how chatbots are evolving and changing the way we think about customer service and sales automation. Check out these big trends that illuminate the future of customer service

How do chatbots work? 

 

There are two primary types of chatbots: one works on a rules engine, and the other is powered by machine learning, a subset of AI. The rules-based bots are a lot simpler and won't understand complex commands and requests, or be able to discern context.

The machine-learning versions, however, are more adaptable and intelligent. They can better understand context and react appropriately, especially as they interact with more humans over time. Machine learning incorporates natural language processing to do this, and as a result, can carry on far more sophisticated conversations than their rules-based counterparts.

Chatbots engage consumers on messenger platforms – which are quickly becoming the No. 1 place users spend their time, especially on mobile – and you'll need to determine where yours will exist prior to development. Facebook Messenger and Slack are common places to build chatbots, or you can host them locally on your own website.

As soon as it's live, your customers can begin interacting with your chatbot, which can answer questions, facilitate purchases and more. The more your bot interacts with people, the smarter it gets. That's the beauty of machine learning.

Early experiences with chatbots

Do chatbots really work in the real world as well as they do on paper? AI has been around for a while, but its development has been a story of peaks and valleys. Can machine learning-based chatbots really be so reliable? The short answer is sometimes.

"In a time where automation is prevalent, personalization is key to connecting with customers, and chatbots have helped personalize that experience," Albizu Garcia, CEO of GAIN, told Business News Daily. "However, there are drawbacks. Chatbots cannot always translate needs and may respond inappropriately to a customer's request. There is no doubt that chatbots are here to stay, but there are limitations that will need to be resolved, like increasing response capability, should they be the future of customer service."

Still, chatbots are a new phenomenon, and continuous improvements and new iterations are being developed every day and has positively impacted business even as they continue to work on it.

Customers like a human experience, even when they're dealing with a machine. In fact, customers tend to prefer chatbots that are so convincingly human that they might well be speaking with a customer service representative. That is why natural language processing is so important.

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future of mobile communication : top 3 trends

Third-party messaging services have become very popular with billions of monthly users

These digital communication services have the advantage of being free to the consumer, which means they don’t have a per message charge beyond the cost of the underlying data connectivity.

What’s next for mobile communications?

The mobile communications landscape is evolving, as carriers are already moving on to the new Rich Communications Services (RCS) standard, which is part of the new, more advanced mobile messaging standard, designed to improve the messaging functionality installed on phones by default.

Along with text messages, RCS will also allow for higher quality picture messaging, group chats, location sharing, and video calls. The service will also support read receipts and typing indicators that you’re probably already familiar with from other services.

mobile messaging platform

So, why the push for RCS if the “new” features already exist in other apps?

RCS has a few notable advantages over other messaging services:

• A single inbox for traditional SMS, MMS and feature rich messages
• Universal profile – no account sign up required
• Out of the box support – no app download required
• Open and cross-platform standard – It is hardware agnostic. Unlike Apple’s iMessage, RCS is designed to work across all phones and software.

What still needs to happen:

• Adoption by carriers globally – The reality today is that only around 52 carriers have implemented the RCS standard, but the GSMA – Google Android RCS initiative – provides the opportunity to rapidly deploy RCS to a potential 800 GSMA carriers.
• Interoperability – Users on different carrier networks must be able to send/receive RCS messages to/from each other. There must also be interoperability between RCS and non-RCS phones.
• Apple support – If tens of millions of iPhone users can’t join RCS chats, then a large part of the appeal is lost.

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how bulk sms is the easiest and fastest way to to increase your business reach

Deploy a mobile ready messaging strategy across your organization

Text messaging has become part and parcel of modern business life, an especially useful means of communicating information when timely response is the desired result. Safety alerts, real-time information updates, appointment reminders/confirmations, service scheduling, order status, password resets, marketing promotions... all these, and plenty more, now regularly find their way to workers or customers via text message. 

The ability to send text messages for such purposes is typically integrated into workforce and customer engagement workflows, automated via a process known as application-to-person, or A2P, messaging. If you can't tell from the number of business-related text messages arriving on your own smartphone alone, A2P is a booming market. IDC estimates the worldwide market for A2P messaging will grow from $27.2 billion in 2016 to $34.3 billion in 2019. That's a 26% growth in four years.

Given the rising importance of text messaging, companies need to think strategically about how to incorporate the technology into their communications portfolio. Business-grade text messaging comes in a variety of deployment options: on premises, Web portal, API, text-enabled business lines, and Internet-based messaging applications. The goal should be selecting a solution that improves engagement with employees and customers, integrates with existing applications, and meets security and compliance requirements.

Critical selection criteria should include the ability to:

• Archive messages in a secure system that stores business messages -- on premises or in the cloud, depending on preference -- and allows for quick and easy retrieval from a Web portal
• Integrate with a wide range of messaging protocols and endpoints, including basic SMS and SMTP, as well as entrenched messaging protocols such as WCTP and TAP
• Allow message lengths of up to 1,000 characters, scalability to 20,000 employees at once, and global messaging
• Support security features such as end-to-end encryption and remote wipe, and provide a secure app for users
• Integrate with applications and other communications services via APIs
• Manage and send text messages for employee productivity and promotions via simple, easy-to-use features, with administration functions simplified through a Web-based interface
• Text-enable landline phone numbers

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how to keep text messaging communication channels of your business secure

Deploy a mobile ready messaging strategy across your organization

IT needs to put strong texting policies in place, educate users, and implement a mobile messaging platform that provides encryption, storage, and archiving, as explained below:

Text messaging has taken on a life of its own in the enterprise, providing a sure-fire way to grab a colleague's attention quickly and all but ensure an instantaneous response. But all this text messaging comes with a gotcha. While the business can benefit from such efficiency, text messaging used in such an unrestrained manner can put a business in jeopardy of being noncompliant and at risk of security breaches.

Consider the use of text messaging among business colleagues using any old messaging apps from personal devices, for example. Consumer-grade messaging apps like WhatsApp or WeChat can be vulnerable to hacking and other threats, making those business conversations open to interception by malicious third parties. What if those messages contained sensitive financial or personally identifiable information on an employee or customer?

When business users send each other text messages via unsanctioned apps, IT has no visibility into the information riding over such services. They can't archive those business conversations, and wouldn't be able to find them during discovery proceedings -- which may very well mean the company fails to meet regulatory compliance mandates.

Tough as drawing a line between acceptable and non-acceptable use of messaging may be, businesses must do so. For one, they must put firm policies in place that define what types of communications workers can exchange on personal devices through SMS and other types of messaging, and back up those policies with user education. Additionally, businesses must implement messaging platforms that can provide compliance and security while allowing users to rely on texting as a means of reaching out to colleagues.

While a business-dedicated messaging app is the strongest way to differentiate between personal and professional messaging, some businesses like to use containerized mobile app deployments as a way to secure communications apps and software. Mobility management software suites often provide the means of containerizing apps, and can offer secure versions of peer-to-peer messaging along with other popular business tools, including email, browsers, and calendaring. On the downside, this type of solution can be difficult to implement in BYOD environments.

Businesses that do allow personal device use need to look for a secure/compliant mobile messaging platform that provides auditability -- i.e., message retention and archiving -- and encryption, both of the communication channel itself and data while at rest.

And businesses that deal with sensitive data, especially if they operate in regulated industries, would do well to seek out vendors that can provide a dedicated messaging service that handles encryption as well as the storage and archiving of text messages for legal discovery and compliance. A cloud-based service is particularly beneficial, allowing businesses to centralize all the messages and communications among employees.

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why instant push notifications are absolutely essential for messaging

Increase engagement with your APP users and drive conversions

There have been concerns for years (and years…) about security holes in the Signalling System 7 (SS7) protocol – the telco standard that is used to send SMS. Furthermore the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has started the process of deprecating SMS due to security fears. And now it has been reported that hackers have drained some bank accounts in Germany by exploiting one of the flaws in SS7.

In this case, online banking customers needed to get a code sent via SMS to their phone before a transaction between accounts could be completed. The hackers, who had obtained login and password details already, routed the SMS to themselves, and bingo – transaction successful. It wasn’t particularly sophisticated, and the hardware is easily available. What is frustrating is that nobody seemed surprised – it felt like an inevitability. The bottom line is that it appears that sending anything ‘secure’ over SMS is no longer acceptable. Would this have happened if the two factor authentication was carried out via push notification? Probably not.

Push Offers Increased Security

 

Compared to SMS, it is safe to say that push notifications offer much more security. Take Apple Push Notification service (APNs) for example, which “enforces end-to-end, cryptographic validation and authentication using two levels of trust: connection trust and device token.” Without delving into a deep technical exploration (you can read it for yourself in Apple’s developer docs, and let me off the hook), there are token and certificate based encryptions in place which ensure that push notifications are sent only to the intended end user, which SMS just doesn’t have or do anywhere near as well. Furthermore businesses are required to apply for the Apple certificate in order to send push for their apps, and they can be revoked if there is a breach in trust.

More Benefits Of Using Push notifications

Push notifications provide better security, but they also come with other benefits for enterprise businesses. Let’s take a look:

Efficiency – Push notifications are much cheaper to send than SMS, so you will be saving your business money by doing so. As well as this they are much faster to deploy, and they can be sent at huge scale. For enterprises that need to send millions of push notifications in less than a minute – no sweat.

Richer Interactions – Let’s face it, SMS has not been impressive technology for at least 15 years. Push notifications, on the other hand, provide a much more sophisticated and attractive interaction, especially with the advent of Rich Push. This includes the ability to personalize and contextualize messages at a much more individual level in real-time. Add to this the use of emojis, and now with Rich Push the use of images, GIFs and videos, and SMS look like a real museum piece.

Tracking – We also get extra information from push notifications, such as which users have turned off push or uninstalled the app. This is useful information that you can use to re-onboard users or engage them through a different channel.

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