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5 Reasons to Switch to Cloud Contact Center CTI

Loyal customers of a brand become the source of potential referrals as per their experience. Irrespective of the business category, the competition in the markets has mostly increased, making businesses give significant importance to customer interactions for both sales and support. 

As per a survey conducted in 2020, 42% of respondents stated that they choose phone calls as a communication channel to resolve customer service issues.

For businesses that deal with a high volume of both incoming and outbound calls, the right technology can make a significant difference in efficiency, sales, and ROI. 

With customer experience taking the center stage around meeting customers’ expectations, it is important to understand Computer Telephony Interaction (CTI) – a robust technology that can help leverage maximum benefits from customer interactions.

What is CTI?

CTI is a call center technology meant for customer service teams that provides them the ability to access telephone services through a desktop. It essentially unifies a telephone system with a computer and also combines various other technologies like Automatic Number Identification, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and Voice Conferences to allow a contact center to function to its true potential.

Using CTI, you can ensure that your teams are no longer dependent on phones to communicate with clients. Besides this, all your devices – fax, phone, or voice mail, can communicate with one another. In other words, it gives you centralized control over different business communications through a single interface.

A wide range of CTI features makes it a better alternative to the traditional PBX systems. With effective CTI integration, the required customer information – personal information, account status, previous call logs, etc. are easily visible to the agent for faster resolution of customer queries.

How does CTI Work?

Previously, setting up customer support service and sales channels required PBX systems, server setup, and hiring of maintenance professionals. With the advent of cloud telephony, the entire process has been streamlined. 

Using CTI integration with your call center software, you can enable the agents to manage phone calls from their computers. They can make or answer phone calls and follow a data-driven approach to fulfill customers’ needs.

Key Functions of CTI

CTI can be used for a variety of contact center functions such as:

  • Automated dialing that generally includes power dialing, auto-dialers, and click-to-call
  • Phone controls like answering calls, making calls, or holding conferences
  • Screen popping to trigger caller numbers (ANI), number dialed, and other customer data during the call
  • Call routing that includes time-based routing, skill-based routing, and others

Primary Advantages of CTI Integration for Contact Centers

Cloud Contact Center CTI

1. Intelligent Call Routing

If your team of agents handles a large volume of calls, they might have come across situations in which the calls are to be transferred to relevant departments multiple times. The results are dual-sided – customers will most likely get delayed responses while the agents face productivity issues when at work.

CTI integration to call center software is one possible solution that can help route incoming calls to different lines based on product types, departments, or extent of support needed. As a result, the customers can get in touch with the right agent directly by selecting a suitable keypress option and asking for help.

Using CTI technology, you can also exercise control over the transfer of calls to a specific agent within a department. This way, you can achieve faster resolution of customer queries and in turn, higher customer satisfaction. In cases where a customer selects the wrong option, IVR flow will provide them the option to go back and select the right number.

2. Enhanced Collaboration Between Teams

As per a research, 33% of customers feel most frustrated when they have to repeat themselves to multiple representatives. 

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and you will realise that it is annoying to repeat your query related to a product or service to multiple agents. This generally happens when the interacting agents are unable to resolve their problem, do not have the option to transfer the same call to a domain expert, or add more people on the call as required.

CTI solutions help overcome such challenges by allowing the agents to loop multiple team members on a call if necessary to ensure a satisfactory resolution to the customer. On the business side, it also creates a collaborative work environment where different agents work in harmony to deliver maximum customer satisfaction. Using the right CTI integration technology, one agent can also leave notes for other agents to take the conversation forward.

3. Better Caller Experience

Answer this simple question –

What will be the result of greeting a caller/customer as per their location and referring to the recent purchases for queries if any?

Most likely, the customer will like such personalized support and does not feel annoyed with the response received. If this is something you want for your contact center to earn loyal customers, you need CTI solutions.

Through CTI integrations, your team will have detailed information about each customer they deal with, including his/her call records, and prior concerns if any. For example, the agents can greet customers with their names while having their personal details right in front of them.

Besides this, your team can address their previous concerns without waiting for the customers to follow up. The ultimate result will be a satisfied customer base, higher referrals, and higher sales. CTI can give you the much-needed competitive advantage and effective utilization of internal resources.

Read More: What is Cloud Computing? Usage and Benefits

4. Easy Call Handling

One of the reasons behind unsatisfied support service delivery is the complexities that the agents face to juggle between computer and telephone systems while dealing with the consumers. CTI can help them overcome hurdles that they face.

Agents will no longer need to balance the work between contact center software and the connected telephone system. They can access the required information on their computers and manage call controls with the click of a button on the screen. Besides this, they will have control over different functionalities like answering calls, hanging up, transferring them to an agent, etc. at their convenience.

CTI technology also helps create automated responses for frequently asked questions, thus reducing call traffic and allowing the agents to focus more on queries that require human interaction.

5. Easy to Monitor Agents’ Performance

With a CTI call center management system, you get access to the right tools like live call monitoring or call recording to monitor the performance of different agents. It also allows you to highlight instances during customer interactions where an agent could have performed better. Based on the tracking information, you can provide the required training to the agents to help them improve their skills.

“Alone, we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Hellen Keller

This popular quote underlines the importance of individual growth of team members to grow business. Running contact center operations involves various complex tasks, one of which is to dive deep into understanding the performance of the hired agents.

This will not only help boost the team’s performance but also strengthen their ability to deal with customers.

The Bottom Line

Various benefits of CTI solutions will help increase productivity and customer satisfaction. Consolidating all the customer-related information into one platform allows your team to get a thorough understanding of the caller and hence, provide full support to build a loyal customer base.

Integrate Ameyo with Leading CRM and Helpdesk Systems

At Ameyo, we help our clients integrate their preferred CRM with contact center software. We also offer ready-made integrations for all major helpdesk and ticketing systems. With our robust CTI integration, you can enable your agents to drive the right conversations with the customers or prospects. For more details, visit our official website.

The Future of AI Chatbots in the Educational Sector

Many of you must have heard about AI chatbots in education. So what is this all about?

Technological advancements have completely changed the way of getting an education. Long before the pandemic, education became online because of technology. Today, educational institutes are making huge profits with chatbots. Educational AI chatbots are transforming the way institutions interact with their students. Right from teacher’s assistants to student support, there are many ways in which chatbots are gaining popularity.

Well, Conversational design and Artificial intelligence are used to create chatbots that can interact with students for their studies. No matter what academic level or subject it is, AI chatbots can be used by students and institutes. The chatbot can only work as an assistant to the teacher to provide a modern education.

The Global chatbot market spent 526 million USD in 2021; however, by 2030, it is anticipated to reach USD 3,619 million, expanding at a CAGR of 23.9 percent from 2022 to 2030
Globenewswire

The benefits of AI chatbots and their assistance in education have made it far-reaching in the future. Here are some of the reasons why educational institutes are opting for AI chatbots-

AI Chatbots in Education and Its Role

1. A Great Learning Medium

Artificial intelligence automated chatbot provides an excellent learning environment for the students to study and learn many things. It also helps analyze students’ responses, learning patterns, and interaction levels with the learning content.

Similarly, AI chatbots can help teach students through a series of messages or chats made from a lecture. In this way, the learning experience of students will get better. 

Colleges, schools, and many educational institutions are now adopting and implementing AI chatbots because of their benefits. 

  • The AI chatbot can assist in learning specific topics to students through audio, images, videos, or document files.
  • A chatbot can also be used to hand students the required learning material. It is also designed to take tests or quizzes and  send the results to the concerned teachers.

2. Enhances Student Engagement

Nowadays, Students find attending classes and going to college to study a bit boring. They like to get instant answers and solutions within a few clicks, and students easily switch to another option if they don’t get it. These days, students are more engaged with their devices and accustomed to instant messaging.

They’re on social media platforms and many other sites to communicate with each other and get solutions to their assignments and homework. In addition, the education sector can integrate chatbots, educate students with help and virtual classes, and increase engagement.

Status of Education Industry in 2022

A huge transformation has been seen in the education industry after the covid pandemic period. According to the research, the education sector is among the top five sectors that have been profiting from chatbots. Teachers, parents, and students are taking advantage by conveniently experiencing the privilege of interacting with chatbots to get diversified and satisfying solutions.

Key Use cases of Educational Chatbots

Chatbots for education are ingeniously changing how organizations communicate with their pupils. They are attempting to make it simpler for students to learn and participate in all the activities available throughout their studies.

AI chatbot sin educational sector

1. A Virtual Tutorial Assistant

AI chatbots can attend to every student individually by identifying their learning habits and giving them tutoring assistance accordingly. In addition, intelligent tutoring systems created based on Artificial Assistance can render personalized learning experiences.

2. Enhanced Student Engagement

Due to the sudden rise of the pandemic, the students’ engagement reduced to zero due to the unavailability of physical classrooms and teacher interactions. However, By integrating AI chatbots, teachers can continuously interact with students and efficiently solve their queries. This way, AI chatbots have played a vital role in bridging the engagement gap between teachers and students.

Read More: Automate Customer Service with Conversational AI

3. Significant Support to the Students

People choose corporate training and courses online, so they don’t have to take time away from their jobs and families to upgrade their skills.

A robust student assistance strategy is required for educational institutions in light of this expansion. Prioritize and respond quickly to student inquiries before registration, during the course, and after that. With educational chatbots, education institutions can support students to diversify their knowledge and learn around the clock.

4. A Helping to the Teachers

Teachers, in particular, are overworked and worn out from staying beyond hours to provide their pupils with good learning experiences. The majority of the work that teachers undertake is routine and repetitive. A few examples are keeping track of student attendance, grading exams, or assigning homework. Chatbots with artificial intelligence can help teachers justify their work without wearing them out too much.

The institutional staffs have to do a lot of everyday work that can sometimes make them exhausted and overburdened. They’ve to work several hours continuously, which lessens their productivity. Tracking the attendance of students, checking test papers, and assigning academic tasks to students are some common works that teachers and faculty staffs have to do.

5. Feedback and Support

Regardless of the business you work in, everyday feedback collection is crucial.

There is a lot of information that educational institutions need feedback on. Schools can gather data on every area, from instructors to curricula, admissions to hygiene, and rise to the top of their industry. After every discussion or process has been completed, chatbots in the education sector can assist in gathering feedback from all stakeholders. This can assist schools in gathering important data and addressing issues that lead to subpar outcomes.

In many ways, AI chatbots are important in the education sector, especially when there’s a need to increase student engagement.

Read More: Improving Customer Feedback with Conversational AI Technology

Using an AI chatbot as an interactive platform, one can ask questions instantly without delay. Students can take different well-suited approaches to enhance their overall learning and engagement in any subject, be it proactive assistance, assessments, and evaluation.

With AI chatbots, one can easily communicate and connect to the classroom, teachers, different departments, and some educational clubs. It makes things easy for the students to collate information related to their studies. Overall, a chatbot helps make things easier for the students, and it takes education to another level by making it an engaging experience for students.

Future of AI Chatbots in the Education Industry

Traditional learning is the same for every student; each student gets the same treatment. However, every student’s grasping power and understanding level is different. Right from their abilities to skills, all students are different from each other. Thus, treating them the same while teaching won’t benefit many students.

If your educational institution is looking for opportunities to deploy AI chatbots, then this is the right time. There are many things that students can explore with AI chatbots in the future in the educational sector.

With AI chatbots, students can get a personalized learning experience. In addition, Chatbots can quickly help students by resolving this problem, customizing each student’s interactions, and providing the best learning experience for each student.

  • AI chatbot solution that can automatically answer the questions of students based on their data and academic records. Personalized learning with the help of a chatbot will surely make the learning experience effective.
  • Chatbots are designed in such a way with artificial intelligence that they can know the intention behind the interaction with the students.
  • In short, an AI chatbots solution is well suited to improve the overall learning process of students personalizing it as per their exact requirements and academic records.

Sum Up..

The good thing is that AI chatbots can efficiently perform those repetitive tasks. A chatbot can be used as an assistant to the teachers. Because of artificial intelligence, chatbots can help teachers in doing their work without getting them stressed out or exhausted. If you want your institutional staff to increase their productivity, then you must use AI chatbots.

CPaaS vs. CCaaS – Which is Better for Businesses?

Over a few years, a huge change in the business operation trends can be seen. Many businesses have started focusing on these aspects, customer handling or communication channels. Because of this, businesses are now shifting from on-premise to cloud-based communication. Cloud technology is helping organizations by offering them improved business communications and customer experience.

According to analysis, 75 percent of firms will employ video by the end of the next five years, up from 40 percent currently. Up to 85% of businesses with more than 1,000 employees will be using video by then. More than IT managers believed during the present study, the pandemic’s long-term effects may have an impact on these figures. Click here to know more about it.

CPaas and CCaas are crucial technologies that have emerged as the main service models for implementing cloud-based communications. Are you switching from an on-premises contact center to a CCaaS or CPaaS platform?

Do you want to know the differences between CPaas vs. CCaas? If yes, then let’s have a close look at the introduction, features, benefits, and major differences of both the CCaaS and CPaaS platforms to get a clear insight-

An Introduction- What is CCaaS?

CCaaS stands for Contact Center as a Service, a software deployment model that helps companies buy only the necessary technology. This platform is specially designed to simplify the task of the companies trying to communicate with their customers.

A vendor mainly operates this model to reduce the company’s integration, IT, and support costs. In short, CCaas helps the business in offering all kinds of cost-effective backend communication solutions for flexible options for the modern business and businesses always look for a better customer service software solution. Thus they prefer choosing a Contact Center as a Service. This is one of the better alternatives to most of the on-premises contact centers.

The main objective of this platform is to connect and communicate with customers more easily than ever before. Not just this, CCaaS is beneficial for enhancing the continuity of communications for the customer journey.

Crucial Features of CCaaS

  • CCaaS is featured with call recording and management that improves the quality of the call and enhances the customer experience.
  • All the calls can be made quickly with a few clicks rather than dialing a number.
  • Comes with software analytics tracking and Customer experience tracking feature
  • One of the CCaaS features includes whisper coaching in which the supervisors can hear the agent’s call so that they can advise them. 
  • Features with IVR that will connect the callers to the correct department. 
  • Comes with the feature of virtual attendants
  • CCaaS platform has a cloud-based interface through which agents can connect and work together from anywhere in the world.
  • One of the crucial features of the CCaaS platform is the Live Feed, through which supervisors can monitor the agent’s real-time activity.

There can be seen a tremendous rise in the demand and implementation of the CCaaS platform. According to the expert’s prediction, the CCaaS market will grow to $27 billion in the coming years. This growth of the CCaaS platform has increased the dependence on digital communication channels.

Read More: Automate Customer Service with Conversational AI

CCaaS Platform for Businesses

CCaaS is a communication framework that helps businesses use a remote cloud-based infrastructure for hassle-free functioning of their contact center operations. Whether a small company or a start-up, CCaaS offers a good value for the money and numerous incredible features.

Numerous ways are there following which a business can implement the CCaaS platform. Implementation of CCaaS in any company depends on its requirements and available resources. Most organizations choose on-premises software installations for CCaaS.

The main users of CCaaS are the business and organizations that deal continuously with customers or teams. It’s a great way to manage an organization’s communications more effectively. So, if there’s any need to communicate with customers, then CCaaS is a better option.

Benefits of CCaaS

  • CCaaS has incredible analytics that lets businesses monitor calls and agents’ performance and review the call content.
  • One of the benefits of CCaaS is its cost-effectiveness, which means the price of using this platform is much less than the money invested in different resources such as an on-site phone system and hardware.
  • CCaaS has multiple features that make it a versatile communication solution for any organization. Some of its features for better customer interaction are voice, text, and video calls.

An Introduction- What is CPaaS?

CPaaS stands for Communications Platform as a Service and is an especially designed communication tool that helps organizations improve communication abilities. This platform offers integrated development environments to make the integration of communications capabilities easy and quick.

In simple words, CPaaS is a cloud-based delivery model that helps an organization add voice, video, and messaging features to their existing business software through APIs.

With the help of CPaaS, a business can fully customize its communication stack. Through this platform, businesses can let their employees communicate with customers and each other on a device they want.

Crucial Features of CPaaS

  • One of the best features of CPaas is that it offers both regional\global reach. If a company has implemented CPaaS and any brand partners, they can benefit from immediate access to different carriers worldwide. 
  • CPaas is scalable, reliable, and secure. Companies using CPaaS can easily scale up or down depending on the present requirements. The good thing is that businesses will only have to pay for their use.
  • The leading CPaaS platform supports multiple programming languages. With this, it’s easy for the in-house developers of an organization can customize their communications systems. Whatever code they already know, the developers can use them to customize CPaas.
  • CPaas platform helps bring the functionality of modern IP communications systems and traditional phone networks together.

CPaas Solution for Businesses

With the advent of CPaaS, various opportunities and possibilities have opened up for businesses that can help them in their operations and finance management. These days, most organizations are using the CPaaS technology to improve customer experiences, ensure marketing campaign effectiveness, and expand sales.

This communication platform is mainly implemented by businesses that want to embed communications in their business application. As the companies discovered the usefulness and features of CPaaS technology, they started using it. For a better customer experience, companies are using CPaaS technology within their smartphone applications, chatbots, and online interfaces.

Key Benefits of CPaaS

Let’s understand how this CPaaS technology is beneficial-

  • With CPaaS technology, there will be a minimum employee and staff training requirement. CPaaS is suitable for the employees to learn using a new software program, not an entirely new communication ecosystem.
  • CPaaS is scalable, meaning organizations of any size can easily use it. Also, there is no need for hardware or infrastructure to install when it is about CPaaS.
  • CPaaS is affordable, which makes it a suitable option for many small businesses. Compared to other on-premise systems, CPaaS is cost-effective as it lets businesses pay for only the services they use and need. Along with this, CPaaS platforms have a community-based nature that translates into fewer developer-based expenses.

Read More: Cloud Contact Center: A Guide for 2022 (with Actionable Tips)

Difference Between CCaaS and CPaaS Platforms

Both these platforms are useful for a business in many aspects. Regardless of many similar features, there are some major differences too. Let’s look at Cpaas vs. CCaas in a detailed manner in different terms and aspects.

1. Usability

For businesses, CCaaS is an ideal option for setting up contact centers when software lacks flexibility. However, CPaaS helps businesses build their contact center software by offering numerous communication solutions, including video calls, chatbots, and text.

2. Flexibility

Both CCaaS and CPaaS platforms ensure cost-effectiveness to the businesses, but they’re different in how they allow flexibility. CCaaS is a rigid technology that ensures easy and quick customer handling. But, CPaaS offers flexibility to the businesses to install communication tools per the needs of the business.

3. Customization

Regarding customization, CPaaS is a good option to proceed with as it lets businesses customize their communication channels per their needs and customers’ demands. However, CCaaS is somewhat rigid and will need to make many changes in the software’s coding to customize specific features and tools.

4. Business Domain

CPaaS mainly focuses on building a communication bridge between employees within an organization and customers and the company. In this aspect, CCaaS is useful and efficient for those businesses that are customer-centric or are contact centers.

5. Compatibility

CPaaS is considered the building block that makes it compatible to be incorporated, and layered with other cloud-based services and channels. However, CCaaS can only be used as whole software, and its features cannot be fragmented for any specific application.

6. Objectives

CPaaS enables enterprises to design and develop their own communication infrastructure to guarantee seamless connectivity both inside and outside the organization. Contrarily, CCaaS improves business continuity by handling clients through channels they themselves select.

Wrapping Up.

The advent of cloud communication services and applications has benefited businesses in many ways. By contrasting the features, benefits, and applications of CPaaS and CCaaS, one can easily comprehend Cpaas vs. CCaas. CPaaS is mainly for improving communication, and CCaaS makes customer handling easier and more manageable. So, organizations can choose them depending on the requirements that they’ve.

HOW IS WHATSAPP BUSINESS API EFFECTIVE IN BUSINESS?

WhatsApp is the most popular global mobile messenger app as of January 2022, making it one of the top preferred channels of communication for users:

Source: Statista

What is WhatsApp Business API?

While WhatsApp is a simple messenger with various features for private conversations, WhatsApp Business is a free app for small businesses with features like verified tags, product catalog, text templates, and opening hours. 

WhatsApp Business API (Application Programming Interface) is a paid version that integrates one application, i.e., WhatsApp and other apps like CRM, business websites, etc. 

Allowing businesses to connect to customers, execute their operations smoothly, and provide a seamless experience to customers on their preferred communication channel.  

How is WhatsApp Business API Effective in Business?

WhatsApp API can become a game-changer by giving a competitive edge to businesses in the following ways:

1. Increasing the Reach Of Business

Using an application like WhatsApp with a userbase of 2 billion people can be extremely helpful in increasing the reach of a business. 

By syncing the data of potential customers with the help of WhatsApp Business API, information about a business can be sent to the direct inbox of n number of users. It also helps in catering to the needs of existing customers globally.  

2. Connecting With Customers On Their Preferred Communication Channels

A survey by Zendesk revealed that 93% of users were willing to make more expenses with businesses providing their preferred communication channel

93% is immensely significant in making or breaking a brand’s image and increasing its revenue remarkably. 

Hence, with the help of WhatsApp Business API, a business can quickly provide an advanced experience to customers on WhatsApp. For reference, here is how WhatsApp Chatbot is providing seamless CX in the healthcare industry.

3. Allowing Real-Time Interactions 24×7

In the era of instant gratification, customers want their queries to be resolved at the earliest. 

24×7 real-time interactions can be provided with the help of an AI-enabled chatbot that will always be available for initial interactions with the customers so, if there is a simple query, they can find a solution instantly, without waiting to be connected with an agent. 

It increases customer satisfaction and enhances the overall experience.

4. Answering FAQs

Sometimes users have a set of standard questions called FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). A chatbot helps answer FAQs instead of an agent investing their time and energy on the same questions repeatedly. 

The chatbot recognizes a set of predefined keywords and displays the most relevant answer to the customer.

5. Connecting to Agents for Complicated Queries

Many times, complicated customer queries cannot be resolved by chatbots in the initial interaction. In such cases, the customer is connected to an agent to carry the conversation forward. 

WhatsApp Business API helps in making it an effortless process for the customer as well as the agent.

6. Personalizing Customer Experience

Personalization is an essential tool in a good customer experience. WhatsApp Messenger is personal for customers as they use it to interact with friends and family. 

A conversation regarding their purchase or window shopping based on their data on the brand website helps personalize the whole experience. It also helps in getting genuine feedback.

7. Recommending Products With Smart Buttons

Many brands recommend similar products on their official website, but with WhatsApp Business platform, customers can get product recommendations on WhatsApp based on their purchasing history. 

In addition, smart buttons can play a massive role in encouraging the customer to act. So, buttons like ‘Add to cart’ or ‘View more’ can redirect the customer to the app/site and trigger a reaction.

8. Notifying About the Product

Notifications regarding order confirmation, estimated delivery, shipping details, out for delivery, and order successfully delivered can be sent on WhatsApp. 

It makes product tracking easier for the customers. Post-delivery feedback can also help in getting genuine feedback from the customers.

9. Providing Post-Sales Support

Post-sale service is a very crucial step in enhancing customer experience. With WhatsApp Business AI option to exchange/return a product can be provided to the customer on WhatsApp. 

If there are any issues with the delivery and shipping, that can be acknowledged and considered through WhatsApp.

10. Automating Reminders to Reduce Cart Abandonment

Most of the time, customers add items to their cart but then abandon them. 

Automating reminders can help send personalized messages to the users, reminding them about the items in their cart so they can complete the buying process.

11. Introducing Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are introduced by offering incentives and exciting offers to the existing customers as a reward for their loyalty. 

These loyalty programs are a great way of attracting new customers and increasing repeated sales through word-of-mouth promotional methods among customers.

12. Increasing Efficiency

WhatsApp Business API increases customer communication efficiency compared to emails and calls. 

It also reduces the average resolution rate by providing an instantaneous response. It also reduces customer waiting time for query resolution.

13. Saving Money

WhatsApp Business API helps save money by reducing heavy expenses on costly call centers and old CRM systems. 

It also helps in reducing customer turnover due to poor customer service.  

14. Enhancing Marketing

WhatsApp has an astonishing open rate of 98% compared to email campaigns with just 22%. It is evident enough that WhatsApp is the peak source of attracting customers and promoting a brand. The authentic usage of WhatsApp also ensures access to qualified leads.

Wrapping Up: 

WhatsApp is meant for private conversations as it does not deal with highly confidential data. Therefore, WhatsApp Business is suitable for small-scale businesses as it provides a few limited features without any advanced elements or security.

In contrast, WhatsApp Business API is GDPR compliant and highly secure for storing sensitive data. It also provides a bundle of advanced features to grow a business. So, more and more companies are opting for it. 

This data has been combined and presented by Ameyo. It is an AI-enabled customer experience platform. Contact Us to get more information about our products and services. You can also request a DEMO with an expert today!

Cloud Computing: Its Usage and Benefits

From rain to storage, our lives have exponentially changed regarding clouds. What felt like a word in childhood has changed how we live our lives & conduct business all over the world. Since the inception of the internet in 1960 and its usage in the business world in the 1990s, things for the world have significantly changed. Cloud computing as we know it now, was technically launched in the 1990s though it came to public attention in mid-2000 when the 3 giants GCP, Microsoft Azure, and AWS became known to the world.

With it getting more and more popular and advanced this decade, at the end of 2020, the virtual weight of all the information in the world was 44 zettabytes. Enormous, Isn’t it?

As we are moving forward to the cloud advanced world, individuals need to be more enriched with cloud computing information

Here, we have compiled a cloud computing definition with its key usage and benefits that would help you in contextualizing your current capabilities to lead to future growth.

What is Cloud Computing?

Simply put, Cloud computing is one of the most innovative uses of technology to leverage the internet that reserves and preserves data on remote servers and access it wherever required. And overall, everything without even owning the physical infrastructure. Cloud computing became popular due to its simplicity in usage, cost-effectiveness and above all its advantage in easy storage and backup of important files.

There will be over 100 zettabytes of data stored in the cloud
Cyber Security Ventures

With business usage of cloud computing getting popular, personal usage of cloud computing can not be left unseen. If you are using dropbox or Google Drive for data storage, you have already been a part of this evolution. Additionally, all your favorite tv shows and movies are already hosted on cloud storage like Netflix or youtube.

As per Markets and Markets, it is estimated that by 2025 it will rise to a staggering $832.1 billion.

Since cloud computing is huge, there are three types of cloud computing deployments:

Cloud Computing

1. Public Cloud

As the name describes, public clouds are owned and managed by third-party companies and are not owned by any end-user. Public clouds are highly reliable for the audience as it comes with lower cost and lower maintenance.

These types of clouds are divided among different tenants and are shared out by multiple individuals or companies. A few of the major players in the public cloud arena are AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft Azure, and Google cloud.

2. Private Cloud

These types of clouds are completely managed by a single user in the back of a firewall with completely isolated access. These are majorly owned and managed by giant private companies or government organizations for better data privacy.

Plenty of organizations are structuring private data centers located outside of their premises. Private clouds are further bifurcated into:

  1. Dedicated Cloud wherein a particular team of a department can have a cloud within the cloud. For example, a finance team at an enterprise can have their own secured and private cloud on the company’s cloud.
  2. Managed Cloud wherein a private cloud is deployed and managed by any other company if the organization’s core team is not skilled enough to manage a cloud by themselves.

3. Hybrid Cloud

Use of a mixed environment of clouds including private, premises, and third party clouds for better flexibility & data deployment. These clouds come with highly advanced security and cost-efficiency factors as there are flexible pricing options that can be on a Pay-as-you-use basis.

Plenty of data-sensitive industries like banking and finance are opting for a hybrid cloud environment to develop new apps and store their confidential data. Also, healthcare companies are using private as well as public infrastructure for data security and easy access to data respectively.

The key Usages of Cloud Computing

Before people opted for cloud computing, companies and individuals were downloading programs on their personal computers or physical servers to use them. Owning, managing, and allocating resources and money to a personal data center was a challenge.

The introduction of cloud computing changed everything for companies and individuals as it saves a humongous amount of time, effort, and money. Businesses are now avoiding paying a hefty amount for setting up and managing their data centers.

Ranging from emerging startups to giant enterprises or government organizations, numerous companies are opting for the cloud environment to access solutions to enhance communications, run workforces, and much more. 

Here are how organizations are using cloud computing in their day-to-day operations:

Cloud Computing

1. Repository

Storage being one of the most common reasons for using cloud computing makes it easier for companies to store and access data at their ease.

Storing data on hard drives and USBs is now vanishing slowly. Companies are leveraging cloud storage to seamlessly use data when, where and whenever required. With providers like Dropbox or one drive, cloud storage according to requirement has become an ease.

Read More: Top 6 Keys to Operational Excellence in your Cloud Contact Center

2. Big Data Analytics

Data-led decisions have become a primary factor in companies’ future at every level. Be it customer acquisition, user engagement, or retention, analyzing user behavior is important. Companies are investing a good amount of money in collecting behavioral data to create personalized campaigns. But when it comes to customers’ likes, dislikes, trends, and patterns, the data calculation and storage are huge.

Leveraging cloud computing makes it easier for companies to store massive data and make data analysis an easier bet.

3. Web Applications

Web applications are one of the highest priorities for organizations today. Whether it is for workforce management, client management, or data management, web application plays an important role. Thanks to cloud computing, companies can access remote information through a web browser. This allows companies and their teams to get instant and real-time data and information to collaborate with customers and colleagues on the go.

4. Collaboration

Internal and external organization collaboration is a necessity in today’s time. Companies are relying on cloud-based tools like Microsoft 365, and Google workspaces for easy collaboration among teams internally and with clients and customers externally. Also, tools like Google Drive and Microsoft suites are used for enhanced productivity within the company.

5. SaaS Applications

As companies grow and expand, ways to store, manage and retain data have become challenging. SaaS technologies through cloud computing have helped companies in organizing data. SaaS platforms like salesforce and Hubspot have helped companies in doing their business more efficiently.

Key Benefits of Cloud Computing

According to Statista, as of 2021, around 50% of all corporate data is stored in the cloud. Businesses are using cloud computing to a great extent as it gives organizations the ability to increase and decrease their infrastructure as and when required. 

Numerous leaders across the globe have successfully implemented a cloud-first setup and are availing humongous benefits of the cloud.

Listed below are some of the most important benefits of cloud computing.

1. Reduced Cost

As companies do not need to build their infrastructure or set up hardware for data storage, they are saving a huge amount of money. With cloud computing, one need not invest in purchasing new equipment. Along with that, organizations saves cost on power consumption and space which are usually taken by in-house infrastructures.

2. Flexibility and Scalability

With businesses of any size, cloud computing comes with a great scalability option. Cloud computing partners/vendors can scale or descale bandwidth, power, or space at any level according to one’s needs and budget. Moving to the cloud allows companies to scale business according to the business requirement without spending extra costs on extra services.

Read More: ​​Cloud Contact Center: A Guide for 2022 (With Actionable Tips)

3. High-end Security

Data security is one of the primary benefits and reasons which make companies go for cloud setup. With security parameters like data encryption, authentication, etc, cloud vendors ensure extra safety for sensitive data on the cloud. Major cloud players like AWS and Microsoft Azure have all the data regulations requirements in place for making your sensitive data safe and secure.

4. Ease of Access and Collaboration

With easy data access for users, cloud computing became a go-to option for companies specially post-world going remote. With just a mobile app, data can be easily accessed, used, and modified as per the requirement of companies or individuals.

Work from home culture has increased the requirement for easy transfer of files, and data and to conduct meetings on cloud-based platforms like zoom. Cloud-based solutions have allowed individuals to work and collaborate even when the geographic locations are thousands of miles away. Cloud computing has drastically enhanced faster collaboration with customers and solving queries in real-time.

5. Automatic Updates

Manual software updates have been proved to be a time & cost-consuming activity for organizations in the past decade. Manual updates utilize a lot of time of organization key resources. With cloud computing, systems are regularly updated and taken care of by service providers to provide faster and more effective services across the globe.

Final Thoughts

Globally, businesses are trusting cloud service providers with their data. Companies are relying on vendors across the world for their data security, uptime, and availability. cloud services providers are taking away all the pain of data storage and allowing companies to move faster and innovate better.

How Can Conversational AI Help the Healthcare Industry?

New and improved Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are the result of rapid growth in computing abilities that enable machines to learn with least human supervision. Particularly in the healthcare industry that is ripe with so many use cases of AI, there is significant headroom for growth.

As per WHO statistics, the world is facing a shortage of 4.3 million doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff. India, being a part of this existential crisis, is running short of 0.6 million doctors and 2 million nurses, according to estimates. While these numbers forewarn about the loss of quality of healthcare, there is emerging technology bringing more light to the world’s crippling shortage of physicians.

From ancient syringes to the advanced telemedicine of today, healthcare technology has come a long way and has conversational AI as a part of the next exciting developments. It is geared up to redefine the healthcare industry’s bottom lines. As per Accenture’s analysis on this subject, the key clinical healthcare AI applications have the potential to create annual savings of $150 billion by 2026 for the U.S. healthcare economy.

With correct implementation, conversation AI systems can have an enormous impact on the healthcare industry. If you are wondering about the potential of this technology and how it can save the beleaguered healthcare economy, this complete guide to conversation AI for the healthcare industry is meant for you.

What is Conversational AI?

In technical terms, conversational AI is a type of AI that has been designed to enable consumers to interact with human-like computer applications. Primarily, it has taken the form of advanced-level chatbots to enhance the experience of interacting with traditional voice assistants and virtual agents.

A conversational AI-based chatbot can answer FAQs and help troubleshoot common issues contrary to the limited capabilities of a conventional chatbot. 

Here, it is important to highlight the fact that conversational AI is not just a chatbot, though these terms are often used interchangeably. On one hand, chatbots are applications that simply automate chats and provide an instant response to a user without the need for human intervention. Not all chatbots make use of AI and only have scripted, predefined responses that deliver answers to specific questions via rule-based programming.

On the other hand, conversational AI-based chatbots utilize advanced automation, AI, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to make applications capable of responding to human language. Conversational AI is primed to make a significant impact in the healthcare industry when implemented the right way. It can also improve operational efficiency and patient outcomes while making the lives of healthcare professionals easier.

Now that you have gone through the fundamentals of conversational AI, let’s talk more about its specific use cases.

Top 10 Use Cases of Conversational AI in the Healthcare Industry

Conversational AI

1. FAQ Resolution

Many patients ask pressing questions that require immediate response without demanding the attention of a healthcare professional. The answers to these FAQs, if delivered via a self-service knowledge base, can satisfy frequent queries. A research study on customer experience confirms that 92% of consumers would prefer using a knowledge base for self-support if available.

Conversational AI has turned into an optimal self-service method for the healthcare industry. It helps overcome typical FAQ challenges for medical professionals. For example, many users find it difficult to search for relevant answers via the search function on websites if their queries do not involve the same terminology as in existing FAQs. An intelligent conversational interface backed by AI can solve this problem and deliver engaging responses to the users.

2. Appointment Scheduling

Next to answering patients’ queries, appointment management is one of the most challenging yet critical operations for a healthcare facility. While it is easy to find appointment scheduling software, they are quite inflexible, leading patients to avoid using them in favor of scheduling an appointment via a phone call.

Conversational AI can wave its magic wand to overcome this challenge. It allows patients to schedule appointments without feeling frustrated to use a complicated interface. In addition, they can also reschedule or cancel appointments easily if needed to eliminate the risk of scheduling conflicts.

3. Health Tracking

Another significant transformation in healthcare via conversational AI is related to tracking patients’ health. For many patients, visiting a doctor simply means a lack of control over the self while facing severe symptoms because of an underlying health problem. Other than the in-person consultation with health experts, what they need is easy access to information and tools to take control of their health.

Conversational AI systems tend to alleviate this issue by helping patients to track their progress toward personal health goals. They can also deliver specific information about specific actions to be taken to meet those goals, hence prompting patients to feel engaged.

4. Symptom Checking

While we live in an Internet-backed world with easy access to information of all sorts, we are unable to get personalized healthcare advice with just an online search for medical information. This is where conversational AI tools can be put to use to check symptoms and suggest a step-by-step diagnosis. It can lead a patient through a series of questions in a logical sequence to understand their condition that may require immediate escalation. At times, getting an accurate diagnosis following appointment scheduling is what a patient needs for further review.

Besides this, conversational AI is more flexible than conventional chatbot and will not come up with a blank response if the symptom descriptions vary between users.

5. Automation of Administrative Tasks

Various administrative tasks are handled in healthcare facilities on a daily basis, most of which are carried out inefficiently. For example, medical staff members have to search for countless patient forms and switch between applications, resulting in loss of time and frustration.

An intelligent Ai-based platform can simplify the process at both ends. On the side of medical staff, employees can send updates, submit requests, and track status within one system in the form of conversation. On the other hand, the same system can be used to streamline the patient onboarding process and guide them through the process in an easy way.

6. Patients Insights

In layman’s terms, data is the lifeblood of AI systems. For both text-based and voice-based systems, it is the data that empowers the underlying engine to deliver a satisfactory response. Basically, conversational AI platforms collect and track patients’ data at scale. The information also acts as a goldmine for valuable insights that healthcare service providers can utilise to improve the quality of care offered and the overall patient experience.

Example – an AI system logs frequent instances of attempts made to book appointments with a pediatrician in a certain timeframe. Detailed analysis of this data may reveal the lack of enough pediatricians in the facility which  calls for hiring these professionals to meet the demand.

7. Internal Coordination

These days, healthcare professionals are over-stretched at work and have to deal with hundreds of tasks when at work. But sometimes, technology makes things more complicated for them and results in costly errors than helping them as expected.

With the help of conversational AI, medical staff can access various types of information, such as prescriptions, appointments, and lab reports with a few keystrokes. This helps save significant time and frees them to focus on more critical tasks. Since the team members can access the information they need via the systems, it also reduces interdependence between teams.

8. Post-treatment Care

Patients often undergo periodic checkups with a doctor for post-treatment recovery consultation. However, if they fail to understand instructions in their post-care plan, it can worsen their recovery and may have side effects on health. This is where they need a system that can bridge the communication gap and support them during recovery.

A conversational AI system can come in handy for such needs. For instance, it can issue reminders for critical actions to patients after they have submitted the details of post-care actions followed. Similarly, it can alert the concerned doctor if the need arises.

9. Dissemination of Health Information/Advisory

The worldwide pandemic has made us all realise the fact that misinformation spreads even faster than a virus and can cause real damage to people. To control the spread, conversational AI can be of great help.

This technology has the potential to combat the spread of inaccurate health information in several ways. Example – in case of a public health crisis like the Covid-19, such a system can disseminate recommended advice about washing hands, social distancing, and covering face with masks. It can also advise patients about when to visit a healthcare facility and how to manage their symptoms.

10. Employee Hiring/Training

Healthcare facilities, whether small or big, regularly hire new employees and follow the onboarding process. This involves double-checking their credentials and handling paperwork related to the applications received. With AI-powered chatbots, the job of the HR team in these facilities can become easier. They can use these bots to ask the recruits to subscribe to a channel to get access to information about the organisation. Similarly, the bots can automate sending forms to the recruits for easy onboarding.

Things to Consider Before Using Conversational AI

While conversational AI is highly advantageous, its implementation is no walkover. Its inaccurate implementation can strike many wrong chords. Hence, it is important to consider the following three aspects:

Conversational AI

1. Integration

Conversational AI’s backend is responsible for funneling dialogues and capturing contextual information. It requires an articulated integration model that can empower the contextual capabilities of virtual assistants.

2. Security and Compliance

Conversational AI implementation requires organisations to comply with various data regulations and data security guidelines.

3. Change Management

It also requires transparent communication to consumers interacting with the AI chatbots and employees for swift technology adoption.

Step Into the Future of Healthcare with Ameyo’s Customer Experience AI

Amidst the deepening healthcare crisis, conversational AI brings with it an avenue for change. From helping patients get quality care on time to easing the workload of medical professionals, there are endless possibilities to explore. Join hands with Ameyo for our hi-tech customer experience AI platform that is future-ready to deliver personalized customer service. To know more about its features, click here.

Ensuring Business Continuity with Conversational AI

Businesses worldwide have been going through a massive transformation over several years. The introduction of cutting-edge tech innovations, change in consumer behavior, globalization, and several other factors play a huge role. 

In addition, suppose the role of natural disasters and disease outbreaks are to be considered. In that case, the requirements of delivering a top-notch service can become quite challenging. 

Companies must rapidly evolve their existing tech stack to avoid such events’ pitfalls. One of the primary reasons for doing so is to improve the customer experience. 

The uncertainty due to several disruptions that are now so common for businesses must be negated to maintain business continuity. 

Among the departments most affected by these disruptions, the customer service sector has been impacted severely. 

The rise in expectations, unpredictability, and the need to meet customer requirements have led to a surge in customer interactions, which puts the customer service teams under tremendous pressure. 

Tech innovations like conversational AI can be a helpful addition here in maintaining business continuity and seamless operations. Let’s find out how. 

Collaboration Between Chatbots & Remote Agents

The introduction of conversational AI has been a significant advantage in tackling business continuity challenges. 

The array of solutions that leverages cloud-based AI and ML capabilities has been a helpful addition in breaking the barriers between human agents and chatbots.

In addition, it has further reduced the dependency on the physical presence of a customer center executive by making remote work seamlessly.

AI-based conversational chatbots have also improved operational efficiency for businesses by associating multiple digital channels for customer interaction. 

It enhances customer communications by simulating human-like interactions across channels that can be monitored or handled better by human agents and improve customer experience to quite some degree. 

Improving Customer Center Operational Efficiency

AI-based chatbots leverage AI, ML, NLP, and other capabilities to ‘learn’ continuously. Therefore, businesses can train their chatbots to automate a range of tasks. 

For example, they can teach the chatbots to handle routine queries and FAQs such as customer login issues, profile changes, shipment details, and payment issues. 

In addition, these AI-based chatbots can help customers find and order products, recommend relevant product updates and features, book tickets, and more. 

Chatbots can be ‘taught’ customer preferences using data such as past transactions, purchase history, online history, and more. Each new interaction act as a data point for the chatbots, which define their actions while interacting with the customers. 

It can also escalate the issues or customer queries to a human agent if it cannot help solve the problem. 

In short, maintaining business continuity with AI becomes much more convenient for businesses by using these tools as the first point of contact for customer interactions. 

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Automating Customer Service Center Processes

Maintaining business continuity is vital for operations and processes requiring more manual interventions. However, this can lead to a lack of adaptability, increased human errors, and a lack of scaling up operational requirements due to overdependence on humans.

Introducing AI can complement these human agents with effective management and handling processes that enhance collaboration and efficiency across operations.

Chatbots can effectively automate the customer service department too. Since these machines don’t need sleep or breaks, they can easily handle customer interactions, even in high volumes. 

Studies show that chatbots can even answer almost 80 percent of routine queries from customers. 

These capabilities allow chatbots to improve the response times of customer centers and free up human agents’ for other challenging tasks. 

It also enables businesses and agents to find enough bandwidth to upskill themselves, potentially improving the customer center’s overall efficiency. 

These tools can improve business continuity with AI by optimizing the agents’ effort and time spent answering common queries, expanding a company’s profitability.

It also provides a data-driven approach for businesses to improve their ROI by investing more in the right processes. 

Improving Client Experiences

Using AI for business continuity allows companies to use customer data more efficiently and improve the relevance of products and offerings to the customers. 

It can analyze the key insights to find customer intent and motivations and solve hidden interdependencies that affect business growth. This helps businesses to optimize their processes and increase customer engagement rates. 

Using customer data also helps businesses proactively understand customer satisfaction levels and address their pain points while interacting with the company. 

In addition, it allows them to improve customer loyalty and drive retention by optimizing relevant processes.

Subsequently, including AI-based chatbots in operational processes helps in driving business intelligence. These chatbots can be integrated with the existing CRMs and leverage their data to derive a 360-degree view of the customers. 

As a result, it helps businesses improve their marketing and sales outreaches with relevant recommendations, feedback inquiries, and other interactions that boost customer loyalty. 

Maintaining Backups

As the level of global connectivity increases, so does the threat perception of using such facilities goes up. 

A cloud-based solution that leverages AI to maintain business continuity helps businesses mitigate the issue by strengthening the online security parameters and ensuring safety for customer data. 

In addition, it further improves business efficiencies by reducing data loss and increasing the number of data points for collecting customer insights.

Since these are cloud-based solutions leveraging remote and secure servers, businesses can consider them as secure backups and retrieve them in case of a fallout. 

Even if there is a security breach at the local server, the cloud-based solutions also help businesses maintain the integrity of the customer data by securing the remote server.  

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Wrapping Up

A cloud-based, intelligent chatbot can help companies maintain business continuity with AI. These tools and platforms’ ability to handle customer queries at a massive scale, cost-effective and engaging manner helps companies improve user experience, loyalty, and retention. 

Further, the scalability of these tools also allows businesses to ensure continuity and optimize operational parameters.

Understanding the business needs and adapting to a digital transformation ecosystem is the only way to move forward for businesses today. To know more about how to use conversational AI, visit our website or email us at – info@ameyo.com. 

HOW IS WHATSAPP BUSINESS INTEGRATION USEFUL FOR BUSINESS

WhatsApp Business Integration or WhatsApp Business API is an upgraded version of WhatsApp Business that allows business to integrate their third-party applications and software with WhatsApp. 

The primary purpose was to eliminate the hassle of time-taking approval and to allow developers to work on top of WhatsApp for faster actions and solutions. 

While WhatsApp Business platform is suitable for small-scale businesses that cater to a limited clientele, WhatsApp Business API brings a ton of features to enhance the experience of medium to large-scale ones.

Top Features That Make Whatsapp Business Integration Useful For Business:

1. Business Profile

A business profile helps in personifying a business. It includes basic information like- business name, contact number, address, business description, category, and website/links (if any). 

It increases brand loyalty and gives an identity to one of the contacts saved on customers’ phones. It also helps to assess if the business offers the services they require.  

2. Quick Replies

This feature allows businesses to create replies to the most common and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to save time repeatedly typing the same thing. 

The predesigned responses can include the first text you send when a customer contacts you like, “Welcome to XYZ, how may we help?” and replies to common queries. 

It is designed with the help of Keyboard shortcuts to provide an instant and relevant reply to the customers. 

3. Labels

Labels are like the Sorting Hat of WhatsApp Business. It helps in sorting and categorizing different customers for better accessibility and clarity of data. 

Like new customers can be labeled in yellow and repeat customers in blue to easily send relevant messages to the desired group, respectively. 

4. Catalogs 

This feature allows businesses to exhibit the collection of their products with descriptions, prices, and links to place orders.

 So, they can see what the brand offers without switching to the official website. It saves the hassle of ‘to and fro’ if they have inquiries about a particular product and provides a way to do it on WhatsApp easily.

5. Greeting Texts

If a greeting message has already been set, the same can be used, or a new message can be written and activated in the ‘business settings’ option under ‘settings.’ It automatically sends the welcome text to customers when they reach out to a business. 

6. Away Texts- 

Just like a greeting message helps welcome customers, away texts tell the customers that the business is not operational if the customer contacts the business outside working hours. 

This message can include the working hours of the business so the customer can get help at the right time. 

7. Interactive Messages- 

These are the kind of messages that allow a customer to interact with businesses in a better and more comprehensive way. 

It makes the customer experience better and also assists the bot in taking accurate actions in customer interaction. 

These interactive messages can be classified into four categories:

a) CTA

Call-to-action (CTA) option allows businesses to redirect customers to the desired website at the click of a button. 

It enhances the customer experience by reducing customer effort in the interaction. The CTA can be anything the business finds useful, like- scheduling an appointment, making a call, etc.  

b) List Messages

As the name indicates, list messages provide a list of options to the customer in reply to a particular request or query. 

So, the customer can choose the most relevant option instead of manually typing the whole text themselves. Currently, WhatsApp supports a maximum of 10 options in a list message.

c) Reply Buttons

The reply button allows businesses to provide up to three responses; customers can choose one. The options are one of the links in a series of actions that take place after the customer makes their choice. 

One example of such a feature is- when a customer gets an order confirmation text on WhatsApp, there are two buttons: “track order” and “cancel order,” that allow the customer to decide what to do next.

Here is a detailed guide on creating interactive messages using WhatsApp Business API.

8. Message Statistics

Essential statistical data regarding messages sent, delivered, and opened can be accessed in ‘settings’ under ‘business settings.’ It allows using that information to identify issues and take corrective measures.

9. Facebook Integration

Facebook family integration refers to integration between two or more apps belonging to the Facebook family. One such beneficial integration for business is with Facebook Shops. It helps in creating a personalized customer experience.

10. WhatsApp Payments

The payment feature in WhatsApp is not just crucial to make business operations easier, it also helps in enhancing customer experience. 

The Payment feature has been authorized in India by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). It operates by using the Unified Payment Interface (UPI). Any person with a bank account and a debit card can access this feature securely. 


Some Advantages Of Whatsapp Business Integration Are: 

1. Increase Customer Engagements 

Automated and interactive messages help in increasing customer engagement and enhancing the whole experience.

2. Enhanced Customer Support 

Chatbots and live messages help businesses to provide 24×7 customer support at the convenience of customers. 

3. Ensures Data Security 

The end-to-end encryption in WhatsApp conversations helps ensure data security. 

4. Third-party integrations 

WhatsApp Business Integration helps connect third-party applications and software to enhance the customer experience. 

5. Personalize Experience 

Every customer enjoys recognition and appreciation. WhatsApp Business Integration helps create that. 

6. Enhance Campaigning 

Enhance marketing campaigns with the help of message statistics provided by WhatsApp.  

Wrapping Up:

WhatsApp Business Integration is beneficial for medium to large-scale businesses. The optimal usage can be achieved using the best and most relevant third-party applications and software. To know about the benefits of using WhatsApp Business with Ameyo, read here.

Automate Customer Service with Conversational AI

Irrespective of the business type, the importance of a robust customer support strategy cannot be undermined. This is what keeps contact centers at the core of such a strategy. With rising customer expectations, most contact centers handle tremendous pressure to do more with fewer resources.

On one side, cost-cutting narrows down the quality of customer support to be delivered. On the other, there are higher contact volumes via inbound and outbound customer communication channels paired with complex consumer problems. This is where technology, in the form of conversational AI, comes to the rescue.

This advanced technology is expected to disrupt the contact center industry for the better, with its global market growing towards the mark of US$ 18.4 billion by 2026
MarketsandMarkets

Conversational AI for customer service is considered a core contact center automation technology that promotes the shift to a digital-first approach for customer support solutions. If you are wondering whether this technology is meant for your business, let us help you understand its impact in relation to the challenges it solves.

Check out these top customer service statistics to watch out for in 2022

Why Do Businesses Need Conversational AI for Customer Service?

The growth of a business lies in how efficiently it handles customer support needs post sales. Bad customer service can lead to an unsatisfactory customer experience, which can pave the way for the significant loss of potential customers.

As per recent research, 91% of customers are willing to leave a brand without warning because of poor customer service.  Another statistics reveals that 46% of customers prefer live chat over email or social media. This highlights higher expectations for real-time support. This behavioral shift away from in-person interactions to effective, omnichannel customer service makes them feel the worth of conversational AI.

This technology can address these shortcomings, thereby making businesses improve their overall customer experience and operational efficiency. It will also allow your business to interact with your customers via their preferred channels for quick response delivery.

At times, staffing an in-house customer service division can be quite expensive to deal with customer queries round the clock. Delayed responses to support tickets can have an adverse effect on the growth of little-to-medium-sized organizations. The use of AI-based conversation interfaces to address customer queries not only reduce business cost but also ensure timely response delivery.

Operational Challenges Solved by Conversational AI

Conversational AI is largely used in three different ways to fulfill the required customer support needs, including:

Conversational AI

1. Assistance to Customers

It covers the self-service assistance delivered via mobile, web, and voice channels to the customers. Here, the AI system backing voice bots or chatbots tends to interpret customer queries and respond in a manner similar to human interaction. As a result, it solves a plethora of operational challenges for contact centers and helps them meet their Return on Investment (ROI) targets.

Firstly, conversational AI for customer service provides 24×7 assistance which is far cheaper than handling rotating shifts of live agents. It also enables seamless management of high volumes of customer queries, answering each of them almost immediately.

Even if the deployed AI system is programmed to handle less complex queries, it will help manage the most common customer interactions. As a result, only the complex support queries will make it through to the team of live agents.

2. Assistance to Customer Support Agents

At various stages, customer support agents need to deal with information related to the consumers, be it their personal details, past purchases, prior shopping experience, etc. They need to look at multiple sheets and prompts to address the query or transfer it to the senior support staff for further resolution. This increases the hold time and reduces the overall contact resolution rate.

The implementation of conversational AI in the contact centers also supports live agents by providing easy access to the required information, tools, and systems to conduct customer interactions. With context-sensitive technology by their side, they can reduce the call hold time and forgo the need to transfer calls to other agents because of the knowledge gap. This can also increase the first contact resolution rate.

3. Data Analysis

Most businesses deal with and store huge chunks of data that include transactional information, previous customer interactions, chat sessions, or call transcripts. A major proportion of this data is in unstructured form and can only be mined to extract valuable insights with the help of AI technology.

AI interrogates the data to find patterns and links between pieces of information and transform them into insights. More particularly, conversational AI can monitor conversations with the customers to analyze how they respond in different circumstances and predict what they want.

A thorough analysis of how a customer responds now, how he/she had once responded, and how other customers respond to similar situations can give you the power to anticipate ways to deliver maximum customer satisfaction and guide live agents towards a certain course of action.

Benefits of Conversational AI in Customer Service

Conversational AI

1. Easy to Win Over Potential Customers

Your customers look at the quality of your products/services and post-sales support experience you offer with the same lens. A good customer experience can make your business benefit from customer loyalty financially.

Conversational AI for customer service can help you answer queries almost instantly, which can make the customers come back for more. Keep in mind that amidst the rising competition in almost every sphere of business, some customers would not choose your brand again on not receiving support service as expected.

2. Faster Resolution of Queries Across Channels

These days, consumers love to communicate with each other using instant messaging apps or social media channels. On the other hand, businesses need to build their presence on these channels for brand building and marketing. This calls for having the capability to handle and answer queries from customers received via these popular channels. 

You can automate customer service across different channels with the help of conversational AI and let it interact with the customers while staying true to the brand’s tone.

3. 24*7 Efficient Support Services

Step into your customers’ shoes to realize how frustrating it can be to wait for hours to get an urgent issue resolved or explain the same problem to different agents. Ensuring the benefit of constant, quick support becomes the critical factor that defines how they perceive your business. 

All the communication channels can be made available to the users round-the-clock when backed by conversational AI. Whether it is about new orders, problems related to the shopping experience, or any other query, this technology can make it easier for you to handle customer queries whenever they come up.

4. Personalized Support Services

Another benefit of utilizing chatbots or voicebots backed by conversational AI is greater personalization of support offered. By knowing your customers’ clear profile, you can handle their queries related to a product or service according to their needs, which can set your brand apart from the competition. These bots will also deal with the end users in an empathetic way and recommend products/services accordingly. 

The more personalized your customer support service is, the more prospects you can convert into paying customers.

5. Reduced Customer Service Costs

Automation in customer service backed by AI can enable you to optimize how the agents handle customer queries, among other things. For instance, a chatbot can handle queries related to sales and after-sales service, business processes, and FAQs, while the hired agents have time to deal with complex cases. 

In case you opt for a no-code conversation AI solution, you can easily get started without creating a new IT team.

6. Multiple Language Support

For multinational contact centers, having a diverse support team to handle customer queries is quite challenging. Plus, you never know with certainty from where the support query will arise, making the language barrier persist for a longer time.

 
With conversational AI, it is possible to create chatbots to provide customer service to specific target regions or the whole world. Take the case of Ameyo Chatbot which supports more than 100 languages and responds to the customers in their native language.

How to Leverage Conversational AI for Best Results?

While delivering customer service, you can implement conversational AI for as many use cases as possible. From dealing with post-live support to handling customer queries about using your product, chatbots or voicebots can take care of end-to-end customer experiences. 

Given below are a few use cases where conversational AI can be linked to customer support services:

1. Response Suggestions to the Agents

Generic customer queries are simple and easy to resolve by chatbots, whereas complex queries may need human intervention. The best part is – conversational AI can deal with them both and suggest appropriate responses to the live agents to make things easier for them.

For example, a chatbot can help a support executive by analyzing the intent behind the customer’s query and providing relevant information to resolve the same and close the ticket in less time. It can also handle automatic call routing to different departments of your business to deliver a world-class customer experience.

2. Social Media Monitoring to Recognize Customers’ Concerns

Finding the issues faced by your customers is the first step towards their timely resolution. With the help of Natural Language Processing (NLP), you can automate social media monitoring to track customer behavior across different channels.

You can also benefit from automated ticket classification based on which the chatbots will redirect the query to the concerned department timely. As a whole, it will make the customer service more efficient.

3. Customer Service Analytics

Conversational AI Platforms (CAIP) can also provide you with an analytics dashboard where you can analyze minute details about every chatbot interaction. You can clearly check how many users leave your website or other touchpoints with timely resolution of their queries.

Summing It Up

Every business aims to provide the best-in-class customer service and resorts to advanced technology to make this happen. Ameyo Chatbot and Voicebot, which are based on conversational AI, are powerful tools to help your business automate customer service delivery and convert your customers into loyalists. 

Interested in understanding this technology further? We recommend you to read our complete guide to conversational AI.

EVERYTHING YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WHATSAPP CLOUD API

What is API?

Application Programming Interface (API) is a software interface that offers communication services between two or more computer programs, software, and applications. 

It executes such interactions in the form of requests and responses. A request from one application to another results in getting an appropriate response. 

What is WhatsApp Cloud API?

WhatsApp Cloud API is a cloud server owned by Meta (Previously known as Facebook). Mark Zuckerberg made a public announcement on 19 May 2022 about launching WhatsApp Cloud API to enhance the experience for WhatsApp Business users. How? 

WhatsApp Cloud API acts as a host server for the data from all the other applications involved in API. So, businesses can create an experience on top of WhatsApp more accessibly than ever. 

In addition, WhatsApp Cloud API reduces the cost of hosting infrastructure, allows multiple users, and reduces approval time for businesses to get started.

Before WhatsApp Cloud API, businesses used to rely on WhatsApp Partners and Business Service Providers (BSPs) to get verified and access WhatsApp Business API. You can read more about it here

But with the introduction of WhatsApp Cloud API, utilizing the features of WhatsApp Business has been more feasible and better. 

Although, businesses still need third-party applications like Ameyo for optimum utilization of WhatsApp Business as it does not have its platform to execute.  

Steps to Set Up WhatsApp Cloud API:

1. Log In to the Facebook Developer Account

The first step is to log in to a Facebook Developer Account and click on the “Create App” icon.

Login > Create App

2. Choose Application Type

Then a dialogue box will appear asking the kind of application type that is required. There, click on the “Business” option.  

Select an App Type > Business

3. Fill In The Necessary Information

The next step is to fill in basic information about the business. If there is a Facebook Business Manager account, then link it. 

If there is none, select “no business manager account selected” and move to “create an app.”

4. Set Up WhatsApp

Meta dashboard will showcase the list of their services and application. Scroll down to find WhatsApp and click on “set up” to complete the installation. 

5. Read And Accept T&C

A dialogue box showing Terms and Conditions will appear. Accept them before continuing with the process. 

6. Unique Business Account Id And Contact Number 

A temporary contact number valid for up to 23 hours will be assigned along with a Unique Business Account ID. Then, send a text to a WhatsApp-enabled number to facilitate text messaging.  

7. Verification

To complete the verification process enter the verification code sent to the previously mentioned mobile number. 

8. Get Started With Sending Texts

Send texts on the verified number from the test number assigned, and experience the features of WhatsApp Cloud API. 

After completing the setup of WhatsApp Cloud API, it can be integrated with different applications to access the complete features. 

Features of WhatsApp Cloud API:

1. Integrations by developers and businesses with third-party apps like- CRM and analytics on top of WhatsApp to reduce start-up time.  

2. Reduce external hosting costs for WhatsApp Business API users.

3. Access WhatsApp Cloud API on multiple devices (up to 10) and manage the influx of chats with broadcast and bulk messaging.

4. Interactive and customizable messaging options to attract new customers and increase online presence.

5. Use chatbots and other automation with the help of third-party applications. 

6. Access to a verified WhatsApp Business Profile with a green tick, directly approved by Meta. 

Registered users get access to all the new features as it gets updated periodically.

Pricing of WhatsApp Cloud API: 

Meta has made getting access to WhatsApp Cloud API cost-free. It does not charge anything for providing hosting services that used to incur in the case of WhatsApp Business API. 

There are a lot of changes and upgraded features. The plan is to provide these features and the current pricing plan to the existing WhatsApp Business API users. 

They will have the option to choose if they want to include these features or not. If the user opts for these services, an additional fee may incur for offering premium services. The pricing has not been announced yet.  

WhatsApp has shifted its pricing policy from notification-basis to conversation-basis from 1 February 2022. 

Now businesses have to pay based on conversations or messages sent. There are two ways of charging for conversations:

1. User-Initiated Conversations- 

These are the conversations where a user reaches out to a business, and they reply within 24 hours. In India, the current cost of a User-Initiated Conversation (UIC) is 0.35 Rs per conversation. 

2. Business-Initiated Conversations- 

These are the conversations where a business reaches out to a customer- either in response to an existing text after 24 hours or for the first time using a template message. 

In India, the current cost of a Business-Initiated Conversation (BIC) is 0.55 Rs per conversation. 

Key Takeaways about WhatsApp Cloud API: 

1. It is an upgraded version of WhatsApp Business API with advanced and premium features.

2. It removes the hassle of intermediaries and helps businesses get direct verification from Meta.

3. It does not have an interactive platform and requires a third-party vendor like Ameyo. 

4. It reduces expenses spent on hosting services and infrastructure.

If there are still any queries or you would like an in-depth take on WhatsApp Cloud API, then you can Contact Us to get in touch with our experts!