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In today's digital-first landscape, communication outages are more than minor hiccups; they're significant events with the potential to disrupt businesses. From startups to multinationals, seamless communication is essential to operations, customer service, and competitive positioning. A failure in these systems can adversely impact sales, customer satisfaction, and even the company's reputation. In an age where rapid information exchange and high customer expectations are the norms, even brief communication interruptions can lead to missed opportunities and eroded trust. The essential role of system uptime System uptime is far from a mere convenience – it's a cornerstone of modern business strategy. Consistent uptime is vital for businesses to address customer needs promptly, maintain efficient internal operations, and ensure stable connections with partners and suppliers. How Twilio reinforces system reliability Twilio has emerged as a pivotal solution in enhancing telecommunications reliability, crucial for maintaining system uptime. Twilio’s Super Network saves you from managing carrier complexities, piecing together connectivity, and building redundancy. Twilio takes a proactive approach to routing, proactively optimizing routes and spotting potential carrier outages before they impact your customers. We monitor thousands of data points across our global carrier communication fabric to spot outages and degradation of services so that we can fine-tune and reroute traffic seamlessly to the most optimised path. This integration is key to crafting personalized customer experiences across various channels, such as voice, video, email, and messaging platforms. Twilio's robust infrastructure ensures these vital communication channels remain operational in scenarios of potential outages, allowing businesses to function smoothly and keep up with customer demands. Highlights: Comprehensive Integration: Offers seamless integration across multiple platforms, ensuring flexibility in communication. Asynchronous Communication: Maintains continuity during outages, ensuring no customer is left behind. Advanced Security: Utilises WebRTC technology for end-to-end encryption, enhancing data security beyond traditional network standards. Next steps Explore Twilio's Solutions: Evaluate how Twilio can enhance your existing communication infrastructure. Read about The Super Network here. Adopt WebRTC: Implement WebRTC for resilient communication, especially during network disruptions. Maximise Twilio Flex: Use Twilio Flex for its personalised customer engagement capabilities with CustomerAI. Expert Consultation: Engage with Twilio experts for tailored implementation strategies. Embracing a new era in business communications Twilio's approach to telecommunications offers businesses a shield against outages. By leveraging the Super Network and Flex platform, businesses are positioned to deliver uninterrupted services, enhance customer experiences, and maintain stringent security—essential elements in today's business environment. For more insights on ensuring business continuity with Twilio, feel free to check out our webinar here.

Welcome to the wonderful world of AI. Businesses and professionals around the globe are getting on the AI bandwagon, looking for ways to use this exciting technology to design products, supercharge customer service operations, and create innovative services. But here's the (literally) million-dollar question: Is your investment in AI paying off? Figuring out your return on investment (ROI) on AI isn't as straightforward as you'd think. So we’re here to walk you through how to think about this complicated question. First, here’s a primer on AI to familiarize yourself with key terms if you’re new to it: Complete generative AI glossary for businesses. How do you define ROI for AI? Let's start with the basics. When investing time and human resources—and money—the decision always comes down to ROI. Is it worth it? In business, that’s a fair question to ask. But with AI, the traditional rules of ROI don’t always apply. The traditional approach to calculating ROI is straightforward. If you invest money in something, and it generates more money than it costs you, you have a positive ROI. Compare your gains against your costs. That’s it. But with AI, it’s not that straightforward. Why? Because AI benefits don’t necessarily have immediate financial gains. First, you might see business benefits like: Increases in customer engagement Improvements in operational efficiency Breakthroughs in more data-driven and accurate decision-making These things can be huge for the success of your business but might not correlate directly to a number at the bottom of your quarterly report. Along with this, the returns on your AI investment may not show up immediately. But those incremental benefits will add up. In the long run, your business gets saturated with the effects. Challenges in measuring ROI for AI investments So here’s where we are: businesses can’t take the traditional approach to quantifying ROI with AI investments, primarily because determining your investment is fuzzy. Now, let’s look at some additional considerations: data quality, intangible benefits, and cost of implementation and maintenance. Data quality The effectiveness of your AI models depends almost entirely on the data you use to train those models. Poor data leads to inaccurate models, which then lead to inaccurate predictions and flawed business decisions. Bad data will also mean needing to make corrections and adjustments. So to ensure high-quality data, you’ll need to include data cleaning, validation, and ongoing maintenance in your process. And that will cost you (which may complicate your ROI calculations). Intangible benefits Consider customer loyalty and brand reputation. How do you put a price tag on these? A loyal customer is more likely to recommend your business to others, and that's marketing you can't buy. How does this factor into your ROI? These intangibles might not have a direct monetary value but are all-important to your long-term business success. Let’s imagine you have an AI-powered chatbot that provides exceptional customer service. The immediate benefit might be difficult to measure—especially in dollars—but the long-term impact on your business may be substantial. You’ll probably see reduced customer churn and higher lifetime value (repeat business) for each customer. The benefits of AI might not show up in your immediate ROI calculations, but remember, it’s all about the long term. Cost of implementation and maintenance Setting up an AI solution isn't always cheap. Keeping it running isn’t necessarily cheap, either. Initially, you’ll likely have infrastructure and technology costs. But you’ll also need to train your team to use it effectively. You might even need to hire new talent. Then, over time, you may need hardware upgrades or regular maintenance. Ensuring optimal performance from your AI tools won’t be free. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the most expensive tools are the best ones for your business. The key takeaways here are: Choose an AI tool for its business fit, not just because it’s the latest (and maybe greatest). Don’t underestimate your setup costs. Include ongoing costs, just like any other technology or software tool. 10 essential steps to build an AI-ready organization Explore the foundations of a successful AI strategy and learn how to unlock the true potential of AI for your business. Download now. Alternative ways to estimate and measure the success of AI ROI calculations look at gains versus costs. The gain metrics for a traditional ROI calculation are helpful, but do these tell the whole story? No, not even close. So what else should we look at? Customer satisfaction metrics The net promoter score (NPS) is a pretty good indicator of customer loyalty. Customer loyalty, by extension, relates to long-term revenue. So when your NPS score is high, that means your customers are happy. And when your customers are happy, they’ll be your brand advocates—or even better, brand evangelists. They’ll recommend your brand to others. The NPS might not directly impact your bottom line today, but over the long haul, it’ll translate to revenue. Operational efficiency Automating tasks with AI saves your team time, and that’s a win for your ROI. But how much of a win? The time you save for your team can go toward more strategic tasks, such as tasks dedicated to revenue growth. On one end, you’ll have more efficient and productive operations. And on the other end, you’ll have better capitalization on opportunities. Again, this contributes to long-term ROI, but how this translates to hard numbers is hazy. Adaptability How do you determine the concrete financial gains of being agile? AI helps you adapt to rapidly changing market conditions. Even better, it can help you anticipate those changes. As AI tools analyze market trends and customer behavior, you can get an early warning before significant shifts occur. By being proactive with AI-powered insights, you can avoid pitfalls and seize opportunities. Get started with AI tools with Twilio AI will impact your ROI over the long term, even if you can’t calculate the short-term financial gains down to the dollar. And while the traditional approach to calculating ROI doesn’t quite work for validating your investment in AI, the gains will permeate your organization over the long term. You’ll see improvements in customer satisfaction and operational efficiency while your business decisions become increasingly grounded in hard data. So how do you get there? First, determine how your organization will use AI. Chances are, Twilio has tools that can give you a leg up. Do you want to use AI insights to improve customer engagement? Do you want to improve the customer experience with AI? Do you want to leverage automation in your contact center operations? Do you want to make intelligent virtual assistants a part of your customer service team? With its seamless implementation and data-driven insights, Twilio CustomerAI is your starting point for integrating AI into your customer operations. Contact us or start building with Twilio today for free.

Interested in AI? You’re not the only one. Across industries, businesses and professionals are turning to AI for task automation, data-driven insights, and lots more. AI is a versatile technology, opening the doors for incredible innovations and opportunities. So, “How can AI benefit me or my business?” Well, you’re in the right place. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the fundamentals of AI. We’ll look at how it works, its potential in real-world applications, and ethical considerations that you need to know. Why is AI such a game changer? Let’s find out. What is AI? How does AI work? 5 ways businesses can use AI 5 ways professionals can use AI Using AI responsibly Get started using AI with Twilio What is AI? When you hear the term AI, what comes to mind? Sci-fi movies, self-driving cars, and robots? Well, it’s much broader than that. AI is a branch of computer science focused on creating machines to perform tasks that would ordinarily require human intelligence. These tasks include learning from data, making decisions based on that data, and solving complex problems. Consider all the things you need to keep track of when you drive a car. Imagine yourself stopped at a red light. There are pedestrians waiting to cross the street. A biker approaches from behind. A car waits to turn left. Another car approaches the red light a little bit fast. Maybe a bus pulls into the right lane to drop off riders. There’s so much information to process, and it’s all just to decide how quickly you should accelerate when the light turns green. That data-based decision-making and complex problem-solving requires human intelligence. And with AI, computer scientists create systems to mimic that human intelligence. Imagine computer programs that can recognize your face from among a crowd of people at a baseball game. Or systems that can predict weather patterns with uncanny accuracy. AI is an extremely versatile tool—with applicability across industries and fields—making it an incredibly transformative technology. But how does it work? We’ll discuss that next. How does AI work? At the risk of oversimplifying things, let’s start by saying that AI works by analyzing data—lots of data—to identify patterns. Based on these patterns, AI systems build algorithms (sets of rules or instructions) to do things like: Make data-driven decisions. Predict future events based on historical data. Create entirely new, original content. AI is also dynamic. After a system has learned patterns from data, it can start to make predictions. The accuracy of those predictions becomes new data, which is how the system learns. Over time, the system gets better and better. Some people might phrase it this way: the system gets smarter. But that’s misleading. Maybe a better way to describe it is this: the system has more data to learn from, so it can improve its ability to make predictions. Let’s walk through some key concepts to explain this further: Algorithms are the rule-based instructions that guide AI in decision-making. These can range from basic to complex, depending on the task. Model training is the process of training an AI system on data. As a model gets trained on more data, the accuracy of its algorithms in making predictions or correct decisions improves. Machine learning is a field of AI focused on algorithms that allow computers to learn from new data, improving decision-making capabilities over time. Neural networks are advanced algorithms inspired by the structure of the human brain. These recognize patterns by interpreting and learning from data. Natural language processing is a field of AI focused on enabling computers to understand, interpret, and respond to human language. Predictive AI vs. generative AI is a crucial distinction regarding AI to understand. Predictive AI uses historical data to make future predictions, whereas generative AI creates new content, such as artwork or music, based on its training data. If you’re interested in learning about other AI-related terms, check out Twilio’s Complete Generative AI Glossary for Businesses. Now that you know the basics, let’s explore practical applications. What might it look like for businesses and individual professionals to use AI in their work today? 5 ways businesses can use AI Are you a business leader entranced by the potential of AI? You’re not alone. AI isn’t just a buzzword—it’s becoming a game changer for businesses, big and small. But how would you leverage it? Let’s look at five ways that your business can leverage AI. 1. Data analysis In modern-day technology, it’s all about the data. Your systems—including your website, mobile app, social media channels, customer service channels, and email marketing campaigns—have the potential to pull in a staggering amount of customer data. But what good is all this data if you can’t make sense of it? AI-powered tools can sift through these enormous datasets to identify trends and insights that would be impossible for human analysts to spot. With the help of AI, you can make smarter business decisions and predict future market trends. 2. Personalization Have you ever wondered how some websites seem to know exactly what you’re interested in? That’s the magic of AI-powered personalization. AI systems can analyze customer behavior, identify patterns and preferences, and personalize the user experience for each individual customer. It might sound futuristic, but it’s already here. For more on this, check out the following: 7 ways to use AI to supercharge your marketing strategy Uplevel your customer engagement technology with AI technology 3. Customer support No customer likes waiting on hold. AI can help you with that. Automated customer service solutions, like chatbots, can handle basic queries from customers. This frees up your human agents for more complex issues, reduces operational costs, and scales as your business grows. Learn more about how to improve the customer experience with AI and how to supercharge customer engagement services. 4. Inventory management Based on historical data and current market trends, AI systems can help you predict product demand. That means with AI assistance, you can manage your inventory more efficiently. You’ll avoid overstocking and running out of products, leading to cost savings and more efficient operations. 5. Fraud detection AI algorithms can monitor real-time activity—whether financial transactions, social media interactions, or other user actions—to identify suspicious activities. By learning from historical fraud data, AI systems can flag potentially fraudulent activity and alert you to take immediate action. 5 ways professionals can use AI AI isn’t just for the big names. Even if you’re a solo professional, you can harness the power of AI to enhance your work. Here are five ways that you take advantage of AI. 1. Task automation Mundane, repetitive tasks are the spoilsport for freelancers and budding entrepreneurs. It might be data entry, appointment scheduling, or drafting personalized, cold-call emails. Automated tools backed by AI can handle these tasks for you. Imagine what you could do with all that extra time. 2. Translation and transcription Language barriers—appearing in emails and meeting calls—can be a real nuisance, especially when you work with professionals all around the world. Fortunately, AI-powered tools help remove those barriers. Transcription tools (such as Twilio’s Programmable Voice) can convert spoken content into written form, while AI-powered translation tools can make that information more accessible and straightforward to analyze. Then, you can run your calls through Voice Intelligence to tease out meeting summaries, action items, and spoken sentiment. 3. Research summarization Need to quickly sift through massive volumes of text—such as research papers or market trends reports—and generate concise summaries? AI tools can help you save time and digest content faster. Spend less time preparing for meetings and be better informed when it’s decision time. 4. Content creation Are you in the content creation business? If so, generative AI tools can help you by generating written content, graphics, and basic videos. Maybe you’re a marketer who needs to create engaging 280-character posts. Or maybe you’re a presenter who needs to create some visuals. AI tools can help you produce high-quality content—quickly and efficiently. 5. Health monitoring AI is powering the next generation of wearables and apps for monitoring health metrics. This is good news for anyone in the business of personal fitness and wellness. AI-backed tools can provide real-time insights and alerts to help wearers proactively manage their health. Using AI responsibly There’s no question that AI opens the doors to a world of applications and benefits. But it’s also crucial to consider the ethical implications. As the applications for AI grow, so does the concern around its responsible use. Let’s look at a few specific areas of impact. 1. Data privacy AI is most effective when built and trained on top of a lot of data. Naturally, this leads to data privacy concerns. What do we do about AI systems that require access to sensitive data? How do we ensure proper data handling to avoid breaches of privacy? By ensuring that anybody working in the AI department must collect, process, and store data in a secure and compliant manner, you protect individual privacy. 2. Bias mitigation If AI can make decisions or predict outcomes based on historical data, what would happen if it had skewed historical data? That’s the bias issue. When AI systems get trained on biased data or designed without ethical considerations, this can have serious ramifications for accurate decision-making. Before you adopt an AI-based tool or use an AI model, look into how that model was trained and secured. Then, as you leverage AI, you’ll need to ensure that your AI applications are fair and equitable. 3. Transparency Transparency is a big concern in AI because many people (and organizations) don’t necessarily understand how AI systems work. It’s all still vague to them. Can we just put in inputs and trust the outputs? This fuzziness about the details of decision-making leads to calls for better transparency in the use of AI. Users have the right to know when they interact with AI, along with how AI might influence the choices presented to them. To help address these concerns, Twilio has introduced the AI Nutrition Facts label. The intent is “to give consumers and businesses a more transparent and clear view into how their data is being used, especially when it comes to training LLMs with vendors like AWS, Google, and OpenAI.” If you plan to use AI—and aim to use it responsibly—you can learn more about AI Nutrition Facts. Get started using AI with Twilio In this article, we’ve spanned a lot of topics. We’ve covered the basics of AI, brainstormed some ways you can use it, and highlighted some ethical considerations. Whether a business, an entrepreneur, or a technologist, you’ve probably arrived at this point with some good ideas about how you’ll use AI. When you're ready for some next steps in AI, know that Twilio offers solutions tailored for businesses and professionals. For example, you can enhance customer interactions with intelligent automation by using CustomerAI. Ready to dive deeper? Explore Twilio’s library of resources for AI-related content. Then, familiarize yourself with Twilio’s approach to trusted CustomerAI. Contact us or start building with Twilio today for free.

They’re making their lists, checking them twice… I’m not talking about Santa and his elves. I’m talking about your customers! With the festive season around the corner, consumers are beginning to plan their holiday gifts, parties, trips, and more. And all of that means more spending. In 2022, holiday spending in the United States reached $936.3 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Businesses that tap into this shopping spree can significantly boost their revenue, brand awareness, and long-term customer loyalty. In this blog, we’ll discuss the benefits of holiday SMS marketing, some tips to improve it, and how to get started sending marketing messages at scale. 3 benefits of holiday SMS marketing Holiday SMS marketing comes with unique benefits. Let’s take a look at three major ways it can improve your business performance. 1. Instant reach and high open rates SMS messages have an incredibly high open rate—90% of consumers read a text message within three minutes of receiving it. This means your audience sees your holiday promotional messages almost immediately. With consumers busy during the holiday season, the ability to grab their attention can be a game-changer. 2. Direct and personalized communication SMS marketing allows for direct and personalized communication with customers. You can address recipients by their names and tailor messages based on their preferences and purchase history. This level of personalization increases the relevance of your messages and can drive higher engagement and conversion rates. 3. Real-time updates and urgency The holiday season often involves limited-time offers, flash sales, and changing inventory. Over 60% of consumers want to receive texts for time-sensitive events. Holiday SMS marketing enables you to send real-time updates and create a sense of urgency. Additionally, SMS is a high-engagement channel with a 45% response rate. When customers receive notifications about exclusive deals or items back in stock, they may be more likely to take action. 6 holiday SMS marketing tips Here are six steps you can take to make your holiday marketing campaigns as effective as possible this year. 1. Build a targeted subscriber list A targeted subscriber list is the foundation of a successful SMS marketing strategy. Having a list that’s current and specific to your target audience ensures that your messages reach the right people. Segmenting your audience based on demographics and past behavior takes this a step further, allowing you to tailor your SMS campaigns to individual preferences. Of course, only send SMS marketing messages to subscribers who have opted in to receive communications from your company. This will ensure happy recipients, limit the number of unsubscribes, and reduce the risk of being blocked from sending future messages. 2. Craft holiday-specific content Creative and attention-grabbing holiday messaging is key to standing out in crowded inboxes. Think about incorporating limited-time offers, exclusive deals, and messaging that not only captures the essence of the holiday season but also motivates recipients to take action. If you need inspiration, generative AI can help craft compelling content. Holiday marketing is also a great way to foster brand loyalty as customers will look forward to your holiday season events and deals each year. 3. Time your text messages strategically Timing is everything for holiday marketing. Understanding your audience's behavior patterns is essential in determining optimal sending times. It’s critical to strike a balance between maintaining engagement and avoiding message fatigue. Overwhelming your subscribers with too many messages can lead to opt-outs, so thoughtful scheduling and frequency are key to a successful holiday SMS marketing strategy. 4. Personalize your content There are many ways to personalize your holiday marketing content. You can start by collecting customer data, such as names, demographics, preferences, and purchase history. The more data you have, the more specific your messages can be. Then, you can choose which criteria you want to segment your audience by. This will allow you to: Address the recipient by name Provide unique product recommendations Create location-specific offers Time messages appropriately Take a look at these holiday text templates for inspiration. 5. Track your performance Tracking metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates is crucial to measure the impact of your holiday marketing campaigns. Key performance indicators provide insight into what's working and what needs adjustment. Don't underestimate the power of A/B testing, either. Conducting experiments to refine your messaging strategy based on data-driven insights can help you optimize your campaigns, ensuring that each SMS sent during the holiday season is more effective than the last. Plus, you can use this data to inform the following year’s strategy. 6. Choose a reliable SMS provider Reliable providers have established relationships with mobile carriers and adhere to industry best practices. This reduces the risk of messages getting lost or delayed. A reputable provider, such as Twilio, will also ensure your SMS marketing is compliant and secure. Twilio Messaging provides consumers with scalable solutions, expert assistance, and trusted quality. Elevate your SMS marketing program with Twilio Ready to create your holiday SMS marketing campaign? Looking for a reliable way to send these messages to your customers around the world? Leverage Twilio Messaging, a powerful platform with integrations, scalability, and advanced messaging capabilities. Get started for free today!

Text or SMS is a powerful tool for sending holiday messages to your customers. As a strategy, SMS marketing allows businesses to maximize ROI while reaching audiences directly. That means, it can help boost sales and encourage customer engagement while many of us spend more time at home during the holidays. Below, you’ll find holiday text message templates to inspire your outreach this year, spread some cheer, and drive sales. First, let’s start with some tips for holiday text message outreach. 4 tips for holiday text message outreach Consider the following holiday text message templates to save time and help maximize your efforts. 1. Include images or graphics Use images or GIFs to help your text stand out to recipients since a text message offers limited space to make an impact. Include images to show off items on sale or create a graphic that details the sale. 2. Include your name or signature Be sure to include your business’ name in the text message so recipients know who sent the message and stand out. Alternatively, you can sign off text messages with your business name. The goal is to ensure your audiences know who sent the text so they don’t mark it as spam or unsubscribe. 3. Personalize your texts Connect with customers directly and make them feel like they’re talking to your brand through personalized content. Personalized texts perform better with customers and can get you more clicks and conversions. 4. Create a solid CTA Pique curiosity and get customers to take action with the right call to action (CTA). Promotional texts that contain a clear CTA and a direct link that motivates them to take action help your customers know what to do with the text. Holiday text message templates Now, let’s look at 10 holiday message templates you can use this holiday season to reach your customers. 1. Out-of-office messages Create an autoreply message to capture texts that customers send while staff is away if your business is closed at any time during the holidays. Customers won’t feel ignored, and it’s an easy way to set expectations for when you’ll reply to their message. Thanks for your text! Our offices are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday as our staff enjoys some time off. Someone will reply to your message on (insert date) when we reopen. Happy Thanksgiving! 2. Holiday business hours Set up a keyword (like HOURS) that customers can text to see when your business will be open throughout the holidays. You can advertise this keyword in email signatures, on social media, or on signs in your shop or office. Happy holidays! We’ll be open during regular business hours through (insert date), then as follows: 12/23 – (insert time) 12/24 – (insert time) 12/25 – Closed (Merry Christmas!) 12/26-12/30 – (insert time) 12/31 – (insert time) 1/1 – Closed (Happy New Year!) More questions? Reply to this text, and we’ll be with you shortly. If it’s after hours, we’ll reply during regular business hours. 3. Black Friday promotions Use text messages as a marketing tool to promote upcoming sales or discounts this Black Friday. Give customers an incentive to sign up for your opt-in text list by teasing exclusive promo codes they can redeem at checkout. You’re in! Thanks for subscribing to (your business name)’s text alerts. Use offer code (insert promo code) for an additional (insert discount percentage) off your entire Black Friday purchase in store or online. Tap here for the details: (insert link) Reply STOP at any time to opt out. 4. Cyber Monday deals Continue the momentum into Cyber Monday with additional SMS marketing campaigns for your new text subscribers from Black Friday. You could use flash sales to attract customers to limited-time offers. Don’t miss this Cyber Monday deal. Take (insert discount percentage) off (discounted items) only for the next (time frame)! Shop now: (insert link) (insert image of discounted items) 5. Shipping notifications Set expectations about potential shipping delays to ensure that customers plan for timely delivery. After all, the holidays are usually a busy time for shipping carriers. Hi, [first name]! Christmas may be weeks away, but we encourage customers to shop early for timely delivery. Many shipping carriers are experiencing a large volume of orders, resulting in delivery delays. Check out our blog post for more details: (insert link) 6. Helpful content Keep customers engaged throughout the holiday season with helpful tips or product recommendations if you’re a retailer or service-based business. You can offer new ways to use your products or share ideas on how to style apparel and accessories from your store. Hi, [first name]! We love the cold weather, but we don’t love how dry it makes our skin. Did you know about our (insert product and tip)? We’ve got more self-care products: (insert link to line of products) (insert image of a product) Reply STOP at any time to opt out. 7. Event announcements and registration Help drive sign-ups for virtual gatherings. Send out a message with a link to your event’s registration page, then a reminder text when the event date nears. Hi, [first name]! It’s your friends from (your business’ name). Could your Thanksgiving dinner menu use a refresh? Get inspired with (insert name) on (insert date). (Special guest’s preferred pronoun) will share two of their favorite Thanksgiving side recipes with tips on how to create new family favorites. Register here: (insert link) (insert image of special guest or sides) 8. Holiday gift ideas Help customers ease the pressure of finding the perfect gift for friends and family with gift suggestions. If you have a blog, use this as an opportunity to drive traffic to your website. Create a few gift lists, then link them in your messages. Looking for the perfect gift for someone special? We know the struggle. Check out our latest gift guide to find the perfect gift: (insert link) 9. Happy holidays text messages Remember, not all of your holiday text messages have to be sales-driven. Sometimes, customers appreciate a simple message wishing them a festive holiday season. Hi, [first name]! From all of us at (insert your business’ name), we wish you a Merry Christmas! We look forward to seeing you next year. 10. Treat yourself messages Remind customers to keep themselves on their holiday shopping list with a quick message. Hi, [first name]! It’s [my first name] from (insert your business’ name). It’s been quite the year, and you deserve a little something. Treat yourself and take (insert discount percentage) off your next online order with offer code (insert offer code). Shop now: (insert link) Build your holiday SMS campaign with Twilio Messaging Whether it’s a special sale or a festive message to your audience, text messages are perfect. SMS marketing provides the personalization and engagement needed to keep customers loyal and connected. Ready to build your holiday SMS marketing campaign? Twilio Messaging has everything you need to connect with customers and engage them at scale this holiday season. Try Twilio for free today.

Voice technology has become increasingly popular as more companies use it to create an efficient customer service experience and memorable interactions. In today’s digital landscape, AI often powers voice technology, enabling a computer to understand and respond to spoken language. This makes using AI for voice crucial in creating more natural, successful conversations between humans and computers and driving growth. In this blog, we’ll discuss how voice generators work, the benefits of using voice AI, and some ways to use AI-powered voice technology. How AI voice generators work AI voice generators use text-to-speech technology to convert written text into audio. Let’s review the step-by-step process of how these generators create speech. Step 1: Text processing The first thing the voice generator does is convert the written text phonetically and linguistically. Step 2: Linguistic modeling Then, the generator utilizes linguistic rules to determine pronunciation, emphasis, and intonation for the AI voice. Step 3: Acoustic modeling Next, the voice generator maps linguistic features to acoustic patterns of human speech. Step 4: Prosody modeling The voice generator then applies various techniques, such as pitch, inflection, and speed, to make the audio sound more natural. Step 5: Waveform generation Finally, the voice generator creates a continuous audio waveform from these acoustic patterns, generating the final product. Together, these interconnected models collaborate to produce coherent spoken output from text input, making AI voice technology suitable for appointment reminders, customer support, music, and more. Benefits of AI voice generators AI voice generators offer numerous advantages over traditional voice recordings. Let’s explore common advantages to using AI for voice. 1. Efficiency and scalability Voice generators are efficient, cost-effective, and don’t require special software or skills to operate—so you don’t have to hire a voice actor or sound engineer. These AI voice generators automate the process of creating voice content, enabling businesses to create a large volume of audio material quickly. As a result, businesses can scale content creation efforts without compromising on quality or incurring excessive time and resource costs. 2. Consistency and personalization Voice generators can generate a range of voices, allowing businesses to create more diverse characters and voices for target audiences. Businesses can then develop unique brand voices for various applications, maintaining a consistent tone and style across all interactions and platforms. This personalization enhances customer engagement and recognition, fostering a stronger connection with consumers. 3. Accessibility and inclusivity Voice generators increase the accessibility of digital content to diverse audiences, including the visually impaired. With converted written text into natural speech, businesses can provide audio versions of content, ensuring inclusivity and reaching more users. This feature is particularly valuable for e-books, online articles, educational resources, and other digital materials. Use cases for voice AI The diversity of AI applications has great potential, including reshaping the way consumers interact with businesses. Here are some popular ways to use AI-generated voice content. 1. Customer service Powered by conversational AI, interactive virtual assistant (IVA) systems can transform customer service with automated yet personalized interactions, reducing the need for a live agent. This allows businesses to offer instant responses to common queries, guide users through troubleshooting, and process routine transactions. Additionally, voice AI frees up human agents to handle more complex issues. 2. Marketing and advertising Marketers can use voice AI to create unique audio content that includes customized brand voices for advertisements and marketing campaigns. Businesses can also use voice AI to develop AI-generated voice-overs for commercials, podcasts, and interactive advertisements. Additionally, voice AI can facilitate personalized marketing campaigns by addressing customers by name and tailoring messages based on their preferences. 3. Appointment reminders While appointment reminder texts remain popular, many businesses also incorporate IVA to streamline communication with clients. IVA enables you to send timely reminders, reducing no-shows and optimizing scheduling. AI voice systems can then provide essential details, like date, time, and location. Additionally, recipients can confirm, reschedule, or cancel appointments through voice commands. 4. E-learning Businesses can develop engaging educational content with AI-generated voices, thanks to voice generators converting written material into spoken words. Additionally, voice AI can assist language learners with pronunciation practice and offer real-time feedback, making it an invaluable tool for improving language skills and comprehension. 5. Entertainment Voice AI can also aid in the production of many creative pursuits. For example, these generators can create realistic voice-overs for animations and video games, where AI-powered characters can respond dynamically to player inputs, creating immersive and engaging gameplay. Additionally, for music, AI-generated voices can narrate stories behind songs or artists or produce new songs. Create custom call experiences with Twilio Programmable Voice Increasingly, voice AI generators are a popular component to successfully achieve business communication strategies—and it’s no wonder why with its diverse use cases and applications. Now that you know how to incorporate AI-powered voice to create custom call experiences, give Twilio Programmable Voice a try. Programmable Voice enables you to reach customers reliably as you scale your operations. Plus, at SIGNAL 2023, we unveiled the CustomerAI Perception Engine, a new way to build rich customer profiles by using AI to harness data within Voice conversations. Ready to start using Programmable Voice? Sign up for free today.

In today’s digital landscape, SMS marketing is a pivotal tool for engaging customers and driving business growth. It enables businesses to connect directly with audiences efficiently—in fact, 90% of consumers read an SMS within three minutes of receiving it. That makes healthy SMS marketing programs crucial to successful customer engagement. From startups expanding customer reach to established enterprises boosting brand loyalty, mass SMS marketing is a versatile and efficient means to customer interactions: E-commerce businesses can send personalized order updates and exclusive offers via SMS Local businesses can leverage location-based targeting to increase local traffic Healthcare providers can send SMS for appointment reminders and vital health tips However, tailoring text messages to diverse customer segments can be challenging. Enter generative AI, an innovative concept that empowers us to create compelling SMS content within seconds. Generative AI crafts personalized copy that resonates with consumers by analyzing customer preferences and behaviors. Here, we’ll explore a few generative AI tools available, why you should write with AI, and the best AI prompts to get started on your next SMS marketing campaign. Understanding generative AI for SMS copy At its core, generative AI algorithms learn patterns and styles from a given dataset and generate new content that aligns with those patterns. This process involves training a model on vast data, enabling it to understand context, language nuances, and artistic or creative elements. Since generative AI algorithms encompass text, images, music, and more, it’s a great writing assistant for SMS copy. Learn more about generative AI. Now that you know what generative AI is and how it can expedite your SMS copywriting, let’s look at some of the generative AI tools available and the advantages to writing with AI. 3 generative AI writing platforms and tools 1. ChatGPT ChatGPT is an advanced language model developed by OpenAI that generates text in a conversational manner. Trained on a vast and diverse range of sources, it can understand and yield coherent responses in natural language. ChatGPT can comprehend prompts, answer questions, have conversations, and write creatively. 2. Writer Writer is a leading generative AI tool for businesses. Each Writer customer receives an API that allows them to set brand guidelines and train a language model. It also flags noninclusive language, gives in-line suggestions as you write, and provides custom templates for your specific business use cases. Although trained on a similar model as ChatGPT, businesses can tailor Writer to reach customers. 3. Jasper Jasper is an AI tool that creates marketing content (text and images) for businesses. Its Everywhere extension guides you in creating content everywhere online: social media, email, content management systems, and more. You can also train Jasper on your brand voice, style guide, and tones for different content. Benefits of using generative AI writing platforms and tools 1. Saves time and money Generative AI tools streamline the content creation process by generating high-quality text based on user prompts swiftly, which significantly reduces the time required to draft content manually. 2. Enhances creativity and diverse content creation Generative AI opens new creative possibilities by offering unique perspectives and content styles otherwise not considered. When you write with AI, you can diversify the range of tones, formats, and approaches in your content. 3. Enables personalization and targeted messaging Generative AI platforms analyze user input to craft personalized content. For example, when you feed an AI tool consumer data and preferences, it can generate text that resonates with specific audience segments. This enables businesses to deliver targeted messages that feel relevant and meaningful. Generative AI also ensures that each piece of content speaks directly to the intended recipients, enhancing engagement and connection. How to create effective AI prompts for SMS copy The key to quality SMS marketing copy is an effective AI prompt. Here’s a step-by-step guide on using generative AI tools and optimizing your prompts continuously for the best content output. 1. Determine your use case First, decide what you want to communicate and to whom. For example, do you need to summarize, brainstorm, write, or synthesize text? Whether it’s an outline for your blog, short quips for an ad, or ideas for a series of texts part of an SMS marketing campaign, determine your use case before you write with AI. 2. Structure your prompts Next, determine how you want to structure your prompts (aka prompt engineering), as it’s key to the type of outputs the generative AI will deliver. Your AI prompt should include the role, task, context, format, and constraints. Role: Ask the generative AI to take on a role, such as an expert SMS marketer Task: Tell the generative AI what to create for you, such as three text messages about an upcoming sale Context: Provide the context for your task, such as a summer sale with 50% off and a final reminder for the sale Format: Tell the generative AI what format to use for the copy, such as a text message Constraints: Provide any constraints the AI should follow for the prompt, such as 200 characters 3. Customize and refine the AI prompt Now, it’s time to give your chosen generative AI a try. We’ll use ChatGPT to demonstrate how to refine AI prompts by creating text messages for an example SMS marketing campaign. Let’s ask it to write three different text messages about a fictional clothing company’s summer sale. Notice how ChatGPT doesn’t consider any specific discount codes, branding, tone, or character limit. Our input was vague, so it gave us a general output. Let’s make the prompt more specific to see what happens. See the difference? It even used emojis. So the more you specify what you want, the better the output. 4. Re-prompt as needed Finally, as you A/B test the texts in your SMS marketing campaigns, always come back to the generative AI to improve upon those text messages—remember, generative AI can act as a writer, thought partner, or a critic of your copy. This is re-prompting, and it allows you to engineer your existing prompt to get better and clearer results or start again based on the results of your first campaign. Best practices for using generative AI in SMS copywriting Now that you know which generative AI tool you want to use and how to engineer AI prompts, here are a few best practices to write with AI successfully. 1. Ensure message clarity and readability Despite learning new information daily, the content generative AI tools create still requires a human touch. Always review your AI-generated content for coherence, relevance, grammar, spelling, and more to ensure that the content effectively communicates the intended message. 2. Incorporate personalization and brand voice Do you segment your customers? Generative AI can help you write personalized SMS copy for each unique audience. However, when starting out with these tools, tailor the AI-generated content to match your brand’s tone and style. Then, infuse personalization elements for effective customer engagement. Over time, your generative AI tool will learn your brand’s personality and generate content accordingly. 3. Test and refine AI-generated SMS copy A/B testing is essential for gauging the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Marketers can identify which versions resonate better with their audience by presenting variations of AI-crafted SMS messages to different segments. You can also fine-tune your messaging strategies with iterative improvements driven by user feedback and comprehensive analytics. Reviewing and refining AI-generated SMS copy regularly maintains the quality of communication and ensures that the content consistently aligns with your audience’s evolving preferences. Embrace the future of SMS marketing with Twilio With the recent developments in AI, marketers have various generative AI platforms at their disposal to help create personalized campaigns that drive engagement. However, balancing automation and human input remains crucial, as human oversight maintains the authenticity that customers appreciate. Additionally, for the right message to work, it has to reach the consumer on their preferred channel. That’s where we come in. Twilio Messaging empowers you to reach your customers within seconds on a single, scalable platform that facilitates SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp. Plus, you can leverage the power of AI with Twilio’s CustomerAI technology, a set of capabilities woven throughout Twilio’s products that couples the power of large language models with real-time customer data flowing through Twilio’s Customer Engagement Platform. CustomerAI will help you personalize customer experiences, transform the quality of your customer service, and surface key insights about your customers and their behavior. Ready to create your AI-generated SMS marketing campaign? Sign up for a free account today to get started.

At Twilio, we recognize that artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the way we work, live, and interact with the world around us. We believe its use will give us the ability to improve our products and services and create new opportunities for our customers. We also believe the true value of AI is unlocked when companies like yours are able to safely and compliantly harness all of the data across their business—including the signals from each interaction with every individual customer—and use this deep understanding at scale, consistently improving the next interaction that every customer has with your brand in real time. This data-driven flywheel—iteratively understanding and growing deeper relationships with customers—is precisely what Twilio makes possible. That’s why we’re incredibly excited about the value that Twilio’s CustomerAI technology will unlock for the brands and enterprises we serve. That said, we recognize that AI does not come without risk and are committed to helping our customers use AI in an ethical, legal, and responsible way. Our legacy of trust, squarely at the center On June 6, 2023 we announced CustomerAI, which couples the power of large language models (LLMs) with rich customer data that flows through Twilio’s Customer Engagement Platform. Ultimately, CustomerAI accelerates how companies unlock the potential of their customers across the entire customer journey, including marketing, sales and support, onboarding, authentication, and more—enabling companies to create a flywheel unlike anything they’ve had before. Twilio Segment enables companies to personalize interactions with golden profiles assembled from events and behaviors. But now with CustomerAI, we can better interpret communications—identifying traits and important details, and updating the customer profile. The flywheel effect means that our customers better understand every interaction, enriching the golden profile and, in turn, better personalizing every touchpoint. CustomerAI starts with its foundations in trust and the commitment that all of your data is yours. While privacy concerns have come to the forefront with AI, Twilio has always taken data privacy seriously. We maintain a commitment to building privacy and security by design into our product development lifecycle to support our customers’ compliant and responsible use of their data with our products and services. For example, we have created a Privacy Pattern for our Flex, Console, and SendGrid products that empowers developers to build privacy directly into their applications. We offer Segment Privacy Portal, a data inventory feature that allows customers to automatically identify and classify data (e.g. high, medium, low risk). You can set rules to manage risk exposure and proactively block data to comply with your company’s privacy policy. In addition, Twilio encrypts data both in transit and at rest utilizing industry standard encryption algorithms. It offers controls for customers to manage their customer data and to delete personal data relating to their users as needed. As we continue to deliver powerful AI solutions across the Twilio platform, we’re committed to the same level of rigor and trust, especially when it comes to protecting customer data privacy. Our commitment to privacy: CustomerAI trust principles and privacy ladder We view the use of AI and the protection of privacy as a shared responsibility between our customers and Twilio. To support this, we have adopted a set of CustomerAI trust principles to guide the responsible development, use, and deployment of predictive and generative AI across all of Twilio’s products and features. CustomerAI Trust Principles Transparent We provide transparency about our use of AI and give our customers the ability to control their data. We help our customers make informed choices about whether to use different types of AI models by being fully transparent about the AI vendors and type of models we are using, and how customer data is used by those models. One of the ways we provide transparency to customers is through our AI Nutrition Facts Labels (more on this below). These labels are assigned to each AI-driven product and feature that we launch, bringing all of the key details front and center in a simple and easily understandable format. Responsible We select responsible AI vendors and strive to use—and help our customers use—AI in a way that respects privacy, keeps data secure, and minimizes the risk of bias or other harms. Twilio performs a privacy and security assessment prior to working with any AI vendor to ensure they meet our privacy and security standards and requires specific contractual commitments. These include a specific commitment not to use customer data to train their models. Accountable We monitor the functioning of AI to address harms and fitness for purpose in partnership with our AI vendors and customers. Twilio exercises auditing, logging, and monitoring to ensure our AI is operating as intended. Additionally, we offer a number of guardrails to ensure fitness for purpose, ranging from human-in-the-loop to monitoring for toxicity and other harms. CustomerAI Privacy Ladder In addition to Twilio’s CustomerAI trust principles, we have introduced our CustomerAI privacy ladder. For each AI-driven product or feature that you may opt to use, this ladder (and its levels) show the type of data used by the model, and whether the model is exclusively for your use or the use of multiple customers. While some customers may only prefer to use isolated models, we know that others may be open to sharing data and benefitting from models that use broader, more representative data sets. Level 1: Models with your data for your use, without PII Level 1 is the lowest privacy risk option and identifies models that use your data for your exclusive use without any personally identifiable information (PII)—that is, information that, when used alone or with other relevant data, can identify an individual. Level 2: Models with your data for your use, with PII Level 2 offers more value and requires more caution than the first level as it identifies models that use your data for your exclusive use, including PII. Level 3: Models with your data for multi-customer use, without PII Level 3 offers the highest level of value and need for caution as it identifies models that use your data and other customers’ data for multiple customer use but does not include any PII. This may include PII data that has been anonymized prior to being used by the model. We view Twilio’s CustomerAI trust principles and the privacy ladder framework outlined above as critical to ensuring that, as a customer of Twilio, you’re equipped to make well-informed decisions about which CustomerAI products and features you and your organization are prepared to adopt. Introducing Twilio’s AI Nutrition Facts Labels Finally, in addition to Twilio’s overarching CustomerAI trust principles and privacy ladder framework, we’re excited to introduce Twilio’s AI Nutrition Facts Labels—a clear, consistent, and transparent way to understand exactly “what’s in the box” when assessing all of Twilio’s CustomerAI products and features across the platform. Our AI Nutrition Facts Labels provide key information about an AI model’s privacy level and design elements in an easily understandable format, mimicking the food nutrition labels you’re likely already familiar with today. Below, you’ll find an example of the AI Nutrition Facts Label for Twilio’s Generative Journeys and Generative Content (both in Engage) as well as Voice Intelligence—all of which were announced today at SIGNAL. You’ll see how each label highlights critical details like: Ladder level Model type Base models and owners A detailed breakdown for how data is used by each model Additional links to supporting, public-facing resources. All of the products and features that are powered by Twilio CustomerAI will feature this label within the product UI/UX, but we haven’t stopped there. We want you to have the ability to create and share AI Nutrition Facts Labels in ways that instill trust and a commitment to the privacy of your customers. To help make this possible, we’ve launched nutrition-facts.ai, a new AI Nutrition Facts Label generator, powered by Twilio, allowing our customers, partners, and the industry as a whole to easily and thoughtfully create their own AI Nutrition Facts Labels. Bringing trust and privacy to life through CustomerAI At Twilio, we’re incredibly excited about the value and efficiency AI will bring to our customers while, at the same time, remaining aware of the associated risks and complexity. As we continue to deliver on our mission of building the world’s most trusted customer engagement platform, we’re committed to being transparent, responsible, and accountable in how we use AI in our products and features. We’re also committed to adapting our AI efforts responsibly as best practices and regulation continue to evolve. Amy Holcroft is Twilio’s Chief Privacy Officer. She brings over 20 years of experience in privacy and manages Twilio’s international team of privacy lawyers, risk, and compliance professionals responsible for Twilio’s global privacy program. Kathryn Murphy is Twilio’s Senior Vice President of Product and Design at Twilio, focused on Segment, Engage, and CustomerAI. She brings over 20 years of experience in product management, design and engineering with deep domain expertise across retail, commerce, payments, customer data platforms, and multi-channel marketing.

Conversational marketing is a customer-centric marketing approach in which businesses interact with customers one-on-one in real time. Businesses that adopt a traditional marketing approach might broadcast a general message to a large audience hoping to attract a few interested leads. In contrast, conversational marketing uses direct and personalized conversations to make each customer feel heard and valued. Here, we’ll look at the importance of conversational marketing and its benefits. Then, we’ll explore conversational marketing examples, such as SMS and chatbots. Finally, we’ll provide some guidelines for how to effectively integrate conversational marketing into your overall strategy. Let’s dive in. Why is conversational marketing important? The customer experience you provide will directly impact your business’ success. So if you want to foster genuine connections with your customers, a conversational marketing strategy is essential. There are three primary reasons why. First, modern consumers have high expectations for the speed and quality of service that businesses provide. They expect instantaneous, accurate, and always-available support. Additionally, they want to feel valued and understood. Conversational marketing meets consumer expectations for personalized and immediate communication by providing real-time personalized responses. Second, relationships—not transactions—lie at the heart of any successful business, and conversational marketing facilitates a meaningful, two-way dialogue with customers. This open communication strengthens customer relationships through meaningful engagement, allowing businesses to build trust and rapport that fosters customer loyalty over time. Finally, traditional marketing methods often cast a wide net hoping to win over some customers, which can waste time and resources. Conversely, conversational marketing targets individual customers with tailored messaging, a tactic that drives business growth by increasing conversion rates. By engaging customers individually and in real time, businesses can address questions promptly, accelerating the customer journey from interest to purchase. In short, conversational marketing is more than necessary. It’s critical. Let’s continue by exploring some examples and benefits. Conversational marketing examples Unlike traditional marketing, conversational marketing has many forms and is personalized to the target audience. Businesses use these methods to improve customer engagement and retention. Let’s take a look at some popular conversational marketing examples. 1. Chatbots Chatbots can engage customers in multiple ways, including basic customer support, lead generation, customer satisfaction surveys, and product availability and recommendations. Additionally, chatbots can personalize recommendations to users, help mitigate long wait times, provide support outside of business hours, and reduce costs for businesses. 2. Live chat Live chat allows customers to connect with customer support agents directly on a business’ website for issues that arise and need more tailored support than a chatbot. Agents can message customers directly to provide support and send direct links and instructions. 3. Messaging apps Messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, are organic and paid channels to engage prospective customers. A prospective customer can send your brand a message via Facebook Messenger while viewing your Facebook page. On Instagram, customers can message you directly, or you can add a click-to-message link in your Instagram bio. This link will take prospective customers directly to WhatsApp, where they can message you to learn more about your business. Many brands also run paid click-to-message ads on Facebook and Instagram to connect with customers via WhatsApp. A prospective customer can reach you directly by clicking a link from that advertisement. Learn more about setting up click-to-message ads for WhatsApp. 4. Text messages Text messages are part of many businesses’ conversational marketing strategies. One example is sending a personalized text message with tracking information for a recent order shipment. Some brands also choose to run click-to-text ad campaigns or use click-to-text links in email marketing efforts. When a customer clicks on one of these links, their texting app opens and shows a pre-populated message to the brand’s phone number. Learn more about engaging customers with click-to-text. Benefits of conversational marketing Conversational marketing is advantageous for business operations and customer experiences alike. Here are three of the top benefits: 1. Enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty Tailored communications to the individual help businesses form more personal connections, which leads to customers feeling valued. This increases customer satisfaction and deeper brand loyalty. 2. Improved customer insights for better decision-making Communicating directly with customers helps businesses gain access to a wealth of first-party data. By mining this data for insights, businesses can understand customer behavior, preferences, and pain points better. This leads to better data-driven decision-making. 3. Efficient and effective customer service Conversational marketing can significantly improve the quality of businesses’ customer service by providing immediate, real-time responses. This results in quicker resolution of customer issues and reduced wait times. What does conversational marketing look like when applied to SMS marketing or chatbots? Let’s shift our focus to consider these two angles. Conversational SMS marketing SMS holds several advantages that make it ideal for a conversational marketing strategy. These key advantages include: Reach: SMS is highly accessible to reach a broad audience since most consumers own a mobile device. Immediacy: SMS messages are typically read within minutes of receipt, ensuring that your message gets to your audience promptly. Engagement: SMS is more personal and direct, leading to higher engagement rates compared to other marketing channels. In fact, the average open rate for SMS marketing messages is 82%. Now, let’s consider an example: Annie is a customer who purchased a product from your online store. Within seconds of completing her purchase, she receives a personalized SMS message to thank her for her purchase and provide an estimated delivery date. Over the next few days, Annie receives personalized updates about her order status. Additionally, when Annie reaches out with an inquiry, she receives a timely and helpful response. From these interactions, Annie feels valued and connected to your business. Her enhanced customer experience will increase her loyalty and the likelihood of future purchases. Chatbots and conversational marketing As indicated earlier, chatbots also play a key role in conversational marketing, offering availability, personalization, and human-like interactions. Unlike human support agents, your chatbots don't require rest or have limited working hours. This means your business can leverage chatbots to facilitate 24/7 customer interaction. Your business can engage with customers in real time, anytime, promptly addressing customer inquiries and consistently meeting customer needs. AI and automation also enable modern chatbots to deliver personalized and timely responses. Chatbots can analyze customer data to understand their behavior and preferences, then tailor the responses accordingly. This can potentially lead to an AI-powered chatbot being more successful at delivering effective customer personalization than a human agent. However, businesses must balance using chatbots with human-led interactions. Even with advancements in generative AI to provide human-like interactions, addressing a complex issue or providing a more empathetic response require a human touch. Therefore, creating a balance between automated and human-led interactions is crucial. Effective conversational marketing strategies often use chatbots for initial interactions and common queries, then transition to human assistance when the interaction requires more nuanced understanding or decision-making. Now that we’ve considered how to think about conversational marketing in the context of SMS or chatbots, let’s transition to some helpful best practices. Conversational marketing best practices As you get started, consider the following best practices for conversational marketing: 1. Align your conversational marketing with overall business goals Every business has goals for its marketing strategy: build brand awareness, boost sales, improve customer satisfaction, and so on. When you adopt a conversational marketing approach, ensure that your efforts directly contribute to achieving your overall business goals. Otherwise, you may only pursue conversational marketing in the short term because of its novelty. Aligning conversational marketing and your overall business goals ensures your business will take a focused approach. Additionally, you can measure the success of your initiatives by analyzing the direct impact on your business goals. 2. Segment your audiences for personalized communication As we’ve noted, one of the significant advantages of conversational marketing is engagement with your customers through personalized, one-to-one interactions. However, effectively leveraging this requires you to segment your audiences appropriately. You might segment your audience based on factors such as demographics, buying behavior, or preferences—any of which will have a significant bearing on how you personalize your communication. Then, after segmenting your audiences, you can tailor your messages to resonate with each segment. The result will be more engaging and fruitful customer interactions. 3. Ensure a seamless transition between marketing channels Increasingly, customers expect an omnichannel experience in interactions with businesses. For businesses, this means being available, reaching out across multiple channels—social media, email, voice, chat, SMS, and more—and providing a consistent experience across these channels. To properly leverage conversational marketing, your business must maintain the momentum of a customer conversation, even if the customer switches from SMS to a chatbot to a video call with a human support agent. By providing a seamless transition between channels, you communicate to the customer that you hear, understand, and value them, building deep customer trust. Build an effective conversational marketing strategy with Twilio Now that you know conversational marketing builds real-time, personalized, and engaging interactions with customers in contrast to traditional marketing strategies, it’s time to build one for your business. Twilio has the tools to help you implement conversational marketing using SMS and chatbots, vehicles that extend businesses’ reach while meeting the customers’ expectations for immediacy and availability. When you’re ready to take your first step, take a look at Twilio MessagingX, a centralized messaging platform that enables you to engage your customers on their channels of choice. By using Twilio’s Programmable Messaging API and Conversations API, you can quickly get to market with globally scalable conversational messaging. To get started, sign up for a free account today.

Customer service has evolved from an ancillary hassle that businesses dealt with to a defining aspect of modern brands, with nearly all consumers reporting that it’s a factor in choosing where they shop. And 86% of customers consider it crucial to communicate with a real person at a given business. Without a quality connection, these customers have no problem saying goodbye and finding new brands that offer better service. Of course, we all know that retention is a huge aspect of business success. You can either invest a little to keep your current customers or spend a lot to acquire new ones. Even math-averse entrepreneurs can crunch those numbers. With increased competition in nearly every industry, customers expect more, and the status quo isn’t enough. If you’re not creating memorable experiences, you’ll get left behind. The ideal channel for human connections It’s clear that you need direct and meaningful ways to communicate with your audience. And there’s no better option than Short Message Service (SMS). Why is it so effective? For starters, 97% of Americans own a cell phone and spend five to six hours a day on those phones. Furthermore, 90% of that time is on messaging apps and social media rather than surfing the web. Rarely has there been a more captive audience. And a sizable portion of smartphone users don’t even own a computer or have internet service at home. Their phones are an essential portal to your brand. That’s why text messages are the ideal method for reaching most customers. Your messages get seen and have a higher chance of getting a response than other channels. What is text-based customer service? When you provide support to customers via SMS, it falls under the umbrella of text-based customer support. This allows businesses to answer questions and deliver solutions to customers without a spoken word or face-to-face interaction. And in less time than previously possible. There are multiple reasons for this expediency. Given the brevity required in text messages, communications move smoother and with better clarity. And when customers already have their phones in hand (or at least close by), there are fewer lags in the exchanges. But one of the biggest game changers is that SMS technology allows customer service representatives to assist multiple people simultaneously. On regular phone calls or video chats, it isn’t feasible to do this, as bouncing back and forth between conversations would be disruptive to customers. Texting is different. With messages coming in from multiple customers, a representative can compose concise responses without delays. Then, if assistance is necessary from a different team, the representative can forward the conversation efficiently. Benefits of SMS customer support 1. Saves you money With representatives empowered to assist more customers, SMS customer support is cost-efficient. This is great news for organizations that struggle with rising labor and equipment costs. Speaking of equipment, you can run an efficient SMS customer service operation from basic computers. So you won’t need to purchase expensive phone systems and incur costs related to traditional communication methods. 2. Aligns with customers’ preferences Modern consumers want direct access to information and are less patient when waiting for it. With text-based customer service, you can deliver prompt responses that direct people to the resources they seek. For example, let’s say a fly reel manufacturer’s customer has a question about how to put a new fishing line on their reel. In a phone conversation, the customer service representative might tell the customer to check out the FAQ section on the website. Or they could ask for the customer’s email and send a link to an informational video. Each of those solutions requires extra steps on the customer’s part, which is a nuisance. But with text messages, the rep can send a link directly to the best resource, saving the customer time and effort. 3. Frees up your top representatives With individual representatives able to manage multiple conversations, you’re better able to direct the highest-priority inquiries to your most experienced employees. This selective routing frees them up to spend more time where needed: addressing more complex issues. Start by triaging your inbound messages from customers. Then, assign standard inquiries to the general team and specialized needs to the relevant experts. 4. Builds brand trust Customers crave a connection with the brands they follow. And SMS customer service provides those one-on-one interactions that reflect your unique brand personality and showcase how much you value your customers’ time. It’s also worth noting that SMS is more reliable than many other communications channels. With text messages transmitting over a cellular network, you’re not reliant on internet connections. By providing reliable service and a human connection, text-based customer service helps you elevate your brand and set the stage for years of loyalty. Best practices for best text-based customer support Even if your organization currently uses SMS technology for customer support, there are always opportunities for improvement. These recommendations will help you deliver better experiences and create more success stories. 1. Personalize whenever possible SMS and email communications are desirable because you can automate them, making it possible to scale in record time. But the downside is that this automation can leave messages sounding, well, automated. Remedy this problem by personalizing your messages with the customer’s name and dynamic content, like order number or product details. 2. Enable two-way texting The beauty of SMS technology is that it allows effortless exchanges between your customers and employees. But some platforms only offer one-way communications, negating all the key benefits. To show your customers your dedication to their happiness, enable two-way texting and make it as user-friendly as possible. 3. Keep other channels open Even though SMS is the ideal channel, it’s not the only channel. Make sure your customer service team is available via at least two other channels, such as phone and email. Offering multiple options helps you engage with customers through their preferred communications channels and demonstrate your commitment to innovation. 4. Gather customer feedback Many businesses struggle with customer blind spots that end up hurting them. For example, it’s rare for customers to voice their concerns or frustrations. Instead, they’ll just head over to a competitor. And if they do speak up about their experience, it’ll probably be a complaint about the business to their friends and family. You can prevent a lot of these problems by seeking feedback through your text-based customer service system. After interacting with a customer, ask them to rate your service. Even the negative responses can provide a crucial opportunity to make things right and potentially retain the customer. 5. Make your text-based offering known on other channels Remember that not everyone has the same communication preferences. While some people might prefer legacy channels, such as phone lines, you can encourage them to try out your SMS option by promoting it elsewhere. For example, add a message to your interactive voice response system, post about it to your social media channels, reference it in your emails, or add a call to action button on your website. 6. Choose the right SMS partner It’s vital to work with a reliable, effective, and dedicated customer service platform to ensure your success. Partner with Twilio for scalable text-based customer service With MessagingX, Twilio has helped clients serve customers in more than 180 countries and create more than 900 million tasks annually. We’re here to help you deliver omnichannel experiences that make life easier for your customers, build loyalty, and drive revenue. Ready to get started? Take your customer service to the next level by creating your free Twilio account. We don’t require a credit card to get started, and you’ll get access to all our proven tools and resources.

As communication methods have evolved and adapted to the digital age, the demand for real-time interactions has increased. Live chat has emerged as a vital tool to provide personalized customer support. Just as you wouldn't expect needing to email an in-store associate to ask a question, online customers shouldn't either. But many ecommerce businesses do just that—prompt customers to email or call if they require assistance. Modern consumers don’t have time for that. They want a personalized experience and the option of live chat. What is ecommerce live chat? A platform that allows you to communicate with customers in real time on your website is live chat. It’s live because it delivers personalized responses in the moment, rather than prepared messages from a chatbot. And it’s chat because an exchange occurs. In other words, live chat is a direct link between a business representative and a customer. The standard form of live chat is reactive, meaning it doesn't activate unless a customer clicks a button to indicate they have a question for a representative. Many platforms also offer proactive live chat, which is a pop-up window or other tool that invites customers to chat if they have lingered on a page or appear ready to leave your website without purchasing the items in their cart. Live chat brings livelier results Proactive chats make a positive impression on site visitors and lead to a higher chance of converting on individual sales. One study revealed that 66% of American web users have a more favorable view of brands that offer proactive customer service notifications. Positive customer service experiences lead to greater brand loyalty and increased sales. Let’s look at six benefits of using live chat. 1. Increases efficiency Live chatting saves time. Customers can get the information they need in seconds, rather than minutes or hours. And because time efficiency is often a priority above other elements of customer service, live chat is a powerful way to value your customers and their time. And when questions get addressed at the origin, customers don’t have time to hesitate. Live chat creates momentum that carries through the entire transaction. Live chat is also great for business. Your customer service representatives can assist multiple customers simultaneously, maximizing their time. Rather than lingering on the phone with a single caller, they can triage inquiries and offer resolutions. With phone queues removed and email delays eliminated, everybody wins. 2. Saves money With live chat, your teams can handle simultaneous conversations more efficiently. Devoting 30 seconds to proactively answer a simple question avoids a frustrated caller that would take much longer. And when you reduce task time, a reduction in cost follows. 3. Gives access to real-time feedback While there is merit to post-transaction email surveys, you’ll get the purest responses by asking customers to complete a survey directly following an interaction. Live chat platforms provide a powerful opportunity to ask customers for feedback. Seeking feedback through the established connection of the platform, rather than using a separate channel, also saves money. 4. Creates documentation Session transcripts get created automatically with live chatting. This makes quality control audits a breeze, as is access to revisit the details of chats if you need them. Live chats also provide analytics on things like response rates, resolution rates, average handling times, and first response times. You can use these insights to assess individual performances and set benchmarks. These transcripts and analytics make future communications with customers better, as agents can review past interactions to deliver the most accurate and effective assistance. 5. Boosts the number and size of sales Live chat also enables you to proactively assist and persuade customers. This is essential because customers have no problem abandoning digital carts if they have unanswered product questions or haven’t yet had a positive experience with your brand. The more present you are in the buying experience, the more confident the customer will feel about making a purchase. Staying connected with customers throughout the ordering process also allows you to cross-sell and upsell. Thus, most ecommerce brands that use live chat see an increase in average order size. 6. Brings a welcome touch of humanity to your website Whether your brand is about friendliness, expertise, or something else, live chat enables you to deliver it to customers. For example, if your brand has a reputation for warmth and honesty, you could greet customers with casual humor and share authentic feedback on the products they consider. In other words, live chat creates a fusion of the best elements of the ecommerce experience and the traditional retail model. Despite these benefits, many of your competitors don't use live chat. So incorporating it into your website, positions you to strengthen your brand, deliver superior customer experiences, and enjoy better financial results. Build stronger connections with your customers with Twilio Twilio knows how important it is to have a multichannel approach to customer communications. That’s why we created a single API that allows for scalable, multichannel, multiparty conversations. Whether it’s live chat, MMS, Facebook Messenger, or WhatsApp, we’ve got you covered. Experience the full range of options in our Chat API solution by creating a free account. There’s no credit card required, so get started today.

As the world adapted to lockdown and other unique factors of the COVID-19 pandemic, things like contactless payment went from seldom-used efficiencies to mainstream functions that helped us continue running our lives and businesses. Restaurants, hotels, and manufacturing facilities, among others, were particularly keen to embrace contactless technology, as it gave people easier access and greater independence—both vital for frictionless customer service. Of course, the safety element is also essential. For example, there are strict protocols when you visit a laboratory that handles sensitive materials. So it’s counterintuitive to have visitors walk into the lobby and begin using a tablet for check-in, especially at the risk of increasing contamination. Contactless check-in solves this issue. It’s the best way to grant access without introducing shared objects, unnecessary hurdles, and germs—whether you run a hotel or a food processing plant. But how do you go contactless? This guide shares crucial strategies for implementing an effective contactless check-in process and tips for using SMS technology to elevate it even further. Delivering an ideal contactless check-in experience for guests As technology has improved, the check-in process has evolved from touchless to contactless. And that’s what people want. If your business doesn’t offer contactless, you risk not retaining customers and getting left for a competitor. It’s similar to the trend that has emerged with retail shipping. Once Amazon began offering expedited shipping as a standard option, other retailers had to adjust or lose customers. Walmart was an early adopter of the new shipping options that consumers had come to expect, while Shopko and Sports Authority stuck to original models. It’s no coincidence that Walmart has gained market share while Shopko and Sports Authority didn’t. However, in some ways, check-in processes are an exception to consumer expectations. Yes, people want to use their phone or tablet to check in. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they want to use an app to do it. While apps have become an indispensable way for many businesses to connect with customers and provide a great experience, these end up being a roadblock in some situations. For example, let’s say you scheduled an appointment at a local spa. It would be advantageous to confirm your appointment and check in from your phone rather than waiting for someone to help you at the reception desk. You can control your experience and avoid unnecessary interactions. But this spa appointment might be a one-off, with no guarantee that you’d return. So it would be an inconvenience if you had to download the business’ app to check in. Plus, downloading an app and figuring out the functionality takes time and effort, which is contrary to the ease of a contactless check-in. That’s where SMS can make the difference. The SMS check-in solution With text messaging, you can offer contactless check-in that’s independent of an app or works with an app. The advantages of text messages are clear: Works without an internet connection Gets noticed more than other messaging methods Gets higher response rates than other channels Doesn’t require a separate app or system Makes it easier to track data than handwritten forms To leverage these advantages, incorporate SMS into your system processes. Then, when the customer checks in for their appointment, you’ll receive a notification, triggering the proper steps. Here’s an example of how the process might look: Determine how far in advance a customer can check in for their appointment using SMS, ranging from five minutes up to an hour. Decide whether you’ll permit customers to check in late after their appointment time passes. Draft the check-in messages you’ll send (or choose from a template). Choose which employees will receive the check-in messages from customers. Send an SMS message to a customer 10 minutes prior to their appointment, instructing them to text the word “Here” once they arrive. Update the customer’s status in your system to “Checked in” once they arrive and send the “Here” message. Ensure relevant employees receive a notification when the customer checks in. Send the customer a message with instructions on what to do next. Using a basic framework like this, you can customize the steps for maximum internal efficiency and the best user experience. Then, based on feedback from your team and customers alike, continue to refine the process. Tips for creating a successful contactless check-in Communication is essential anytime you unveil a new offering to customers. So to ensure that your contactless system is a success: Include all the right information in the most accessible way. Anticipate questions and be proactive in your solutions. Let customers know that they have options—in some situations, contactless check-in will be a necessity, while other times, they don’t have to use it. Include the customer benefits of contactless check-in so they understand what they get from it. Beyond these customer communications best practices, add a section to your website that mentions contactless check-in and its key benefits. You can also promote it on your social channels and in email campaigns to get the word out. All these touchpoints provide an opportunity to share why you offer this feature and how it can make a customer’s life better. Collect customer data Good customer data is at the heart of a smooth, contactless check-in. At a minimum, this means collecting their full name, email address, and mobile number. So make these mandatory fields on your booking or contact form. Then, based on your unique needs, you may determine that there are other customer details you require. Add these to the initial steps of the process. You’ll also need to determine if there are limitations on who can use your contactless check-in. Many businesses make the process available to all customers, but some situations require a more selective approach. For example, if a customer has physical limitations or technological limitations that prohibit them from using contactless check-in. Also, if you determine that fraud or misuse could be a problem, you might consider requiring photo identification or making contactless check-in only available to returning customers. Get your timing right Once you’ve determined the qualifications and initial communications, send instructions at the right time. Standard operation is to send contactless check-in communications to a customer the day before or morning of an appointment. That’s because if you send them too early, customers will forget about it by the time the check-in arrives. And if you send them too late, you could cause undue hardship or anxiety for customers because they won’t have what they need prior to arriving. Solve these issues by determining the ideal timing, then automate the messaging to avoid human error in the timing of the sends. The benefits of contactless check-in As we’ve explored above, contactless check-in offers a better way to manage your daily operations across industries. To recap, here are some of the top benefits: Provide a more convenient guest experience. Reduce hassles and headaches for your administrative team. Establish good communication with customers. Collect valuable customer data. Make your business more competitive. Elevate your contactless check-in with Twilio SMS messaging Ready to improve your business’ communications and take the customer experience to the next level? Twilio can help. We partner with businesses and organizations of all sizes to optimize communications and get better results. Our SMS solution offers developer-friendly APIs, compliance software, routing, and the scalability you need to accomplish your goals. Start today by signing up for your free Twilio account (no credit card required). Then, enjoy all the tools and resources needed to upgrade your check-in processes and maximize your overall SMS strategies for an elevated customer experience.

Call deflection is a game changer for busy call centers. Picture the following scenario as a customer and as a business representative: on a busy day at the contact center, customer calls pile up fast. As wait times grow, so does customer frustration. Staff may make mistakes in this stressful environment. They may accidentally misroute callers or provide irrelevant or redundant information. With each passing moment, team morale declines. After all, speed and accuracy are crucial for customers and service representatives. But neither of these priorities seems possible. Call deflection is a proven solution for these situations. Customers feel empowered to locate answers faster and have more productive conversations with customer service representatives enabled to deliver better service. What is call deflection? As the name suggests, call deflection deflects calls. Although often interpreted negatively, the word is a positive action because deflection redirects callers to alternative destinations that can meet their needs better. For example, let’s say a customer calls a bank’s service line to make a credit card payment and hears a menu of options through the interactive voice response (IVR) system. “To hear your account balance or make a payment, press 2” is one of the choices. Coincidentally, the customer is also curious about their account balance. Call deflection allows the customer to immediately check their balance and make a payment. Without that option, they’d have to hold for a customer service representative to assist them, a conversation that would take longer due to verification protocols. It also reduces inbound call volume and transforms the customer experience by providing quicker resolutions. Here are some of the channels for deflecting calls: Relevant section on your website White papers or webinars on your website FAQ section of your website Live chat Chatbot Virtual assistant Social media platforms Call deflection and IVR You should also consider implementing call deflection throughout the entire customer interaction, as offering an alternative channel at the beginning of the call saves everyone time and effort. For example, a recorded message on your IVR system provides your business hours, address, and other basic business information. And enabling your customers to make a payment with a touch of a button improves the efficiency of your call center team. Call analytics and IVR Insights learned from call analytics enable you to update your IVR message to proactively address the most common requests from customers. For example, you might discover that many people who wish to speak to a representative want to update the PIN for their account. So rather than providing basic business information in the IVR message customers hear while holding, use your call analytics insights to create a PIN change option during the call hold period. And if you really want to be proactive, don’t wait for your customers to call. Use your analytics to identify the top reasons customers call and craft text messages, emails, or newsletter updates to share the alternate channels they can use to resolve their issue. Benefits of call deflection Call deflection isn’t one dimensional. It simplifies tasks for your employees and customers, and when satisfied, your business will undoubtedly thrive. Let’s explore five key ways call deflection benefits your business: 1. Helps your employees deliver better service When your contact center receives a high volume of calls, it can compromise your customer service representatives' individual effectiveness. By redirecting callers with simple queries to alternative solutions, your representatives can focus on providing specialized service where needed most. There will be fewer calls and shorter wait times. And these positive experiences will set your brand apart from the competition and convert casual contacts into loyal customers. 2. Reduces your costs Factoring in critical customer service situations, call deflection still results in time savings for your employees. This means they can assist more people and accomplish more in a typical day. This enhanced efficiency can yield significant cost savings. For example, you might find that your newly empowered employees can effectively compensate for attrition since call deflection takes unnecessary work off their plates. 3. Decreases turnover Call deflection leads to increased job satisfaction and motivation among your workforce. With employee loyalty strengthened, they can feel confident using their skills to deliver great results. Companies that effectively use call deflection typically see increased employee satisfaction and decreased turnover. 4. Creates better customer experiences Each time a customer has a positive experience with your call deflection system, they’ll develop greater trust for future interactions. This positive momentum can lead to more purchases and fewer complaints. However, it’s not only customers with complex inquiries who benefit from call deflection. It’s also callers with basic questions that can find alternative resources built into your system. Autonomy through self-service doesn’t feel like a downgrade—it feels empowering. 5. Optimizes your overall operations When your customers have the best information, they follow the best processes. So you can expect your call deflection successes to ripple throughout your entire organization. For example, let’s say you’re an institute of higher education and set up call deflection within your IVR system. Analytics reveal that students get confused about where to find tuition assistance information and when payments are due for on-campus housing. After adding a recorded message that directs students to resources for these two topics, you find that 25% more students get tuition assistance, and late payments reduce by 18%. Your efforts extend far beyond the contact center, streamlining operations for teams across your organization. Put your call deflection strategy into play with Twilio’s IVR APIs There’s no doubt that call deflection can improve your business operations and the customer experience. Twilio’s IVR APIs allow you to create custom workflows that adapt to best serve your customers’ needs. Additionally, Twilio Flex helps you integrate multiple channels to create a seamless customer experience. The first step is to create your free Twilio account. There’s no credit card necessary, so click here today to elevate your organization’s overall performance.

The Verify API is a specialized one-time passcode (OTP) solution that harnesses the power of Twilio's Programmable Messaging API with added channels, capabilities, and features specifically targeting user authentication. Verify manages the ever-growing complexity and compliance requirements, so you don't have to maintain an in-house OTP solution and can focus on your business logic. Join the companies migrating to Verify for the same global reliability and unparalleled delivery at scale as Twilio's Programmable Messaging with the added benefits of: Fraud Guard Managed compliance Ongoing routing optimization Managed number pool Turnkey API Multi-channel and passwordless delivery Insights and reporting Localization and translations Global technical support Learn more about why the Verify API is a great solution for adding user verification to your application or migrating verification use cases from the Programmable Messaging API. Fraud Guard Prevent SMS pumping and save money. Verify Fraud Guard protection is an industry leading solution to block SMS traffic pumping. Included with the price of Verify, Fraud Guard will automatically block suspicious traffic and only allow legitimate SMS OTP traffic in your application. With three Fraud Guard protection modes, the feature can be balanced to fit your risk tolerance. Customers have saved over 26 million dollars with Verify Fraud Guard. Managed compliance Stay compliant in an ever changing regulatory environment without constant vigilance. Avoid the complexities of ever-changing carrier and government registration requirements with managed solutions for things like A2P 10DLC. Verify's managed compliance will help minimize overhead, maximize delivery, and avoid potential fines. Stay insulated from the near-constant changing Know Your Customer (KYC) and sender requirements. The Verify API also provides pre-approved OTP templates to stay compliant with local SMS requirements and avoid carrier filtering. Ongoing routing optimization Verify more users, faster–and without risk of interruption. Verify provides high delivery and conversion rates with a dedicated team to monitor and improve OTP delivery performance. You benefit from our experience managing a dedicated service for hundreds of customers. Verify uses premium telephony routes on Twilio's Super Network to prioritize deliverability and speed. For example, if a delivery route in Western Europe is temporarily degraded, Verify has built-in redundancy to a secondary global network for failover and delivery optimization. Managed number pool Decrease your time to market – globally ready on Day 1 Verify includes a sender phone number pool, including short codes, long codes, toll free, and global alpha-sender IDs (pre-registration required for alpha sender IDs in certain countries outside of NAMER). Local numbers are used where available to enhance global delivery. This means you have less setup to think about, can save money on phone numbers, and can get up and running globally faster. Verify managed senders also help you future proof your implementation for simple global expansion or unexpected peaks in traffic. If you want to use your own sender IDs, Verify supports that too. Turnkey API Focus on your business logic instead of verification nuances. Verify provides a stateless API for handling OTP generation and checking (with the option to still bring-your-own code!). Along with providing sender IDs, this means less code for you to manage and maintain. Send millions of OTPs a day out of the box, with the support to scale higher if needed, including best in class support for spiky traffic. In addition, our security team conducts regular penetration testing and phone number checks to ensure data integrity. Multi-channel and passwordless delivery Switch OTP delivery channels seamlessly. Verify includes multi-channel support for SMS, WhatsApp, SNA, voice, email, push, and TOTP. Optimize for conversions across channels with considerations for global, use case-specific, and risk-balanced options. Verify is also future ready: our team is constantly investing in bringing new channels and features to the solution. Insights and Reporting See actionable insights and conversion rates by channel and country. Verify dashboards provide conversion and success rates per region and channel, and Verify SMS Fraud Insights provides regional trends and conversions to optimize against fraud and illustrates the impact fraud could have had without Fraud Guard protections. Localization and translations Delight global customers with translated templates in dozens of languages. Improve user experience with templatized OTP message translations in over 40 languages, including real spoken translations for voice calling. Integrate translations into any of our pre-approved templates. Global technical support Lean on Twilio's global support team if you need us. Whether you have a question or something goes wrong, Twilio will own the fix. Our global support team has hundreds of agents available for live, follow-the-sun support. Get started building today Migrate from Twilio's Programmable Messaging API to the Verify API in a few simple steps. Still have questions about Verify? Learn more about how to get the most out of your account security project or visit our documentation. We can't wait to see what you build and secure.

One of the most important functions of a contact center is to create a seamless experience for the customer. That’s true whether they connect with your business via phone, chat, email, or all of the above. To create that seamless experience, contact center agents need the right tools to: Access customer data and context of previous interactions Communicate with customers and other team members on various channels Analyze past interactions and identify trends And more Integrating the right apps and software into your cloud-based contact center helps you combine these tools in a single platform. Not sure where to start? Let’s look at the top five contact center software integrations that could benefit your business. Plus, we’ll go over how to integrate these apps and software with Twilio Flex—our world-class cloud contact center solution. 1. Customer data platforms (CDPs) Customer data is at the heart of an efficient contact center—it’s what allows you to know and understand your customers. And giving agents access to customer data in a centralized place allows for better personalization, which is key to creating a positive customer experience. But while 46% of brands report providing excellent personalization, only 15% of customers agree. So what prevents businesses from providing personalized support? The answer is often data silos that make it challenging for agents to access the necessary context to achieve personalization. That’s why it’s vital to integrate your contact center with a CDP. This facilitates the flow of customer data between your contact center and CDP, giving agents access to real-time data from a single platform. With the context of a customer’s previous interactions, purchase history, and browsing history, agents can provide tailored support without asking the customer repetitive, time-consuming questions. This reduces friction and contributes to enhanced customer engagement. Flex will soon have out-of-the-box CDP integration with Flex Unify, announced at SIGNAL and currently in private beta. This data management integration unifies back-end enterprise systems to build real-time “golden” customer profiles and generate predictive and inferred traits. Plus, it enables agents to tailor customer experiences and route customers efficiently. 2. AI tools There are many ways to leverage AI tools to automate tasks in your contact center and improve personalization during virtual agent and live agent interactions. Powered by Twilio CustomerAI, Flex Unify will provide agents with the necessary information to hyperpersonalize customer experiences. The AI capabilities include: Using real-time data from “golden” customer profiles to personalize virtual agent conversations Leveraging inferred and predictive traits to help live agents customize responses and product recommendations Analyzing customer sentiment and previous purchases to guide agents in cross-sell and upsell opportunities Other ways to use AI include text-to-speech transcription and data analysis to identify trends and common topics. Off-loading some of these tasks from employees can improve contact center efficiency and provide valuable insight on how to serve customers better. Our partnership with Google Cloud’s CCAI helps businesses integrate AI into a Flex contact center and tap into these opportunities for increased efficiency. 3. Messaging applications An omnichannel contact center enables businesses to connect with customers on various integrated channels to create a consistent, seamless experience. This is key because many modern customers favor text-based support on messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Discord. Messaging can be particularly effective for sales: 74% of customers report that messaging simplifies the purchase process, and 67% have purchased a product or service after messaging a business. Integrating messaging apps into your contact center makes it more convenient for customers to reach you and creates a frictionless customer experience. Plus, it allows agents to swiftly switch between channels while maintaining the context of previous interactions. Flex natively supports communication via email, voice, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WebChat—all on one platform. This enables businesses to engage customers on their preferred apps, and agents don’t need to toggle between channels. You can also integrate Flex with messaging apps like Discord and add sentiment analysis capabilities. 4. Translation platforms Offering support in the customer’s preferred language can take personalization to the next level, especially for global businesses. But it can be challenging for contact centers to offer multilingual support when few agents can speak multiple languages. One solution is to integrate AI-powered translation into your digital, text-based channels. This allows agents to communicate with customers in their primary language and helps expand your contact center’s reach. The Flex integration with Lionbridge Language Cloud enables multilanguage support for chat, SMS, and WhatsApp. This integration uses real-time, AI-based neural machine translation that allows the agent and customer to communicate across languages in real time. 5. Workflow automation platforms Many businesses use workflow automation platforms like ServiceNow to handle IT tickets, escalations, alerts for outages, and other incidents. But sometimes customers need to communicate with an agent in real time instead of waiting for a ticket resolution. Integrating a platform like ServiceNow with your contact center can help. With this integration, customers can connect with a live agent directly from the ServiceNow platform when they need additional support. Plus, agents can access previous incidents or escalations to get the full context to support customers in a more personalized experience. Using Twilio Studio and Flex, you can integrate ServiceNow with your contact center so customers can reach an agent directly from ServiceNow with the push of a button. Integrate your existing apps with Twilio Flex Twilio Flex is a flexible contact center that empowers your business to deliver personalized customer experiences across various channels from a single powerful platform. Plus, you can integrate Flex with the apps and software you already use and work with our trusted partners to extend your contact center’s functionality. The contact center integrations mentioned in this post are just the beginning. Check out Twilio’s integration partners to discover everything you can integrate with Flex, including analytics tools, workforce management, payment clouds, and more. Ready to give it a try? Contact our Sales team to learn more about what you can build with Flex.

For decades, landline phones reigned as the main communication method in homes and businesses alike. This was especially true for call centers, where landlines were the heart of the business. But today, businesses are doing away with traditional phones. Thanks to innovations in communication technology, outdated landline telephone systems are no longer the best option for call centers. Instead, many call centers are switching to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Want to know why? Let’s look at the top five reasons why VoIP is the best option for your call center. What is a VoIP call center? A VoIP call center solution uses the internet to make and receive calls, as opposed to the Public Switched Telephone Network, which traditional phones rely on. If you’ve ever made a call via Skype, Zoom, or Messenger, you’ve used VoIP. But this internet-based phone system isn’t just for personal calls or work meetings. Increasingly, businesses have adopted VoIP systems for call centers thanks to the ease of setup and expanded functionality compared to landline phone systems. Whether inbound or outbound, call centers using VoIP need only a few elements to work: A stable internet connection A computer or mobile phone A built-in or external microphone A VoIP system This makes VoIP call center solutions more accessible for businesses compared to the complex, costly hardware and infrastructure that traditional phone systems require. What are the benefits of a VoIP contact center? VoIP can help you run a more efficient call center and improve the customer experience. Let's dive deeper into the top five reasons to consider VoIP for your contact center. 1. Lower costs Cost is probably one of the most pressing questions on your mind, so let’s address it first. VoIP calls are cheaper than calls through traditional landlines. For example, with Twilio, it costs $0.0140/min to make local and toll-free calls, while it costs $0.0040/min to make VoIP calls through a browser or app. This means switching to VoIP will save your business money—even with the following associated costs. Outside of staffing, the main costs of VoIP call center software are the usage fees and a reliable internet service—which you probably already pay for. This means you don’t need to purchase costly new equipment or worry about setting up a wired phone infrastructure. Plus, if you make the switch from a traditional phone system, you may be able to keep using your current phones or headsets, though you might need an adapter for certain landline phones. Learn more about the equipment requirements for VoiP contact centers. 2. Flexibility Flexibility is key for contact centers to adapt to evolving needs, and VoIP systems offer this in a couple of ways: Devices: You can use various devices to make VoIP calls, including mobile phones, desktop computers, laptops, or desk phones. This means you can get started with your current hardware or give agents the freedom to use their devices as their VoIP call center phones. Locations: Your agents can make and receive calls from anywhere as long as they’re on a stable internet connection—which is useful whether you have multiple offices or a remote workforce. Plus, your phone number is virtual, so you can keep the same number anywhere you go. 3. Scalability Scaling up as your needs grow only requires purchasing additional lines and setting up access for new agents on their devices once your call center VoIP software is in place. In other words, there’s no need to order new equipment or add wired phone lines. This contributes to the low costs, as you don’t need to make big infrastructure investments to expand your program. With Twilio’s VoIP offering, you only pay for what you use, so it’s equally straightforward to scale down if your call volume decreases. Plus, thanks to SIP trunking, you can communicate with customers through additional channels like SMS, MMS, and more. Twilio also allows you to expand your coverage globally without having to navigate the communications infrastructure and regulations in each country. 4. Actionable data insights Analyzing your call data is vital to maintaining and improving your call center performance and providing a positive customer experience. VoIP systems make this data readily available. With Twilio Voice, users can take advantage of Voice Insights to identify anomalies and call quality issues to address, such as packet loss and latency. Tracking these metrics will help you improve call efficiency, agent productivity, and customer experience. Plus, Twilio’s Voice Intelligence can help you track more granular call data and personalize customer experiences. Voice Intelligence combines call transcription and AI-powered language operators to give you the full picture of call performance and caller sentiment, helping you to make adjustments as necessary. 5. Advanced features VoIP systems offer advanced features that a landline system can’t provide. This typically includes all the basics—call tracking, voicemail, caller ID, call forwarding—plus features such as interactive voice response (IVR) and intelligent routing. Twilio’s CodeExchange library offers quick-deploy applications that allow you to launch a feature in minutes, with no coding required. These features can increase your call center’s efficiency and create a better experience for the customer. For example, basic IVR lets the user select the purpose of their call and routes them to the appropriate agent or automated message. This allows the customer to get the information they need quickly without inundating agents with basic questions like hours of operation. Plus, you can integrate your customer relationship management software with your VoIP call center, allowing agents to access customer information, purchase history, and all the context they need to provide personalized service. This is crucial, as 86% of consumers state that personalization increases their brand loyalty. And while 46% companies claim to provide excellent personalization, our The State of Customer Engagement report found that only 15% of consumers agree. Plus, good personalization is harder to achieve with traditional phone systems that you can’t integrate seamlessly with your existing software and processes. Build a custom VoIP call center with Twilio Twilio gives you all the tools you need to transition to a VoIP contact center. First, Twilio Voice empowers you to build a custom VoIP calling solution for your business and add the necessary features as you scale. Plus, the Twilio Super Network gives you a reliable, high-quality connection worldwide. Want an even more robust contact center solution? Twilio Flex offers everything you need to deliver an exceptional customer experience across platforms, including SMS, WhatsApp, live chat, and more. And if you already have a call center, you can add new cloud-based channels with Flex without having to replace your existing systems. This allows you to scale and integrate new platforms seamlessly as your needs change. Check out an interactive demo to discover everything you can do with Flex.

Many of us dread calling a call center, daunted by the prospect of long queues and frustrating holds. But interactive voice response (IVR) technology removes a great deal of those grievances, enabling contact centers to give callers a streamlined, personalized experience. Thanks to innovations like IVR, call centers no longer have to have a poor reputation. Instead, contact centers can be a valuable customer resource, all while helping businesses save money and provide better customer engagement. IVR is a game changer—there’s no doubt about it. Let’s discuss everything you need to know about this tool, including how it works, how it benefits businesses, and best practices for a successful one. What is IVR? IVR is the technology that allows call centers to route calls based on customers’ spoken responses or touch-tone input. These systems use automated menus to categorize and group inbound callers and connect them to self-service options or call center agents. In traditional call centers, agents manually routed and connected incoming calls, often leading to long wait times and queues that frustrated customers and businesses alike. Today, IVR systems help eliminate those problems by replacing the traditional switchboard operator with an automated call routing process, allowing customers to direct themselves to the support they need. Learn more about related systems, like interactive virtual assistants and automatic call distribution. How does IVR work? IVR combines existing physical phone systems with Voice Over Internet Protocol technology to create a call routing system. In doing so, IVR software supports this system with automated menus that direct calls to the appropriate departments, live agents, or databases based on the caller’s selections. For example, say there’s a cold snap in your city, and you need to contact your property manager regarding frozen pipes in your apartment building. Because the complex has many residents, the maintenance hotline uses IVR to prioritize issues and get residents the help they need as quickly as possible. When you call in, the IVR system directs you to dial 1 if your maintenance issue is an emergency or dial 2 if it’s not urgent. If you dial 2 for nonemergencies, it directs you to leave a voicemail with your contact information and issue. But if you dial 1, it connects you to a live agent in the management office. As simple as this IVR system is, it makes all the difference in organizing maintenance requests and retaining good response times. Automated IVR menus typically use voice recognition software or dual-tone multi-frequency touch-tone keypads to receive and interpret customer input and automated call distribution software to direct calls to agents. Benefits of IVR IVR call center systems can help businesses improve the customer experience by providing a seamless routing infrastructure to efficiently connect customers with the resources they need. This technology allows contact centers to connect calls quickly, saving businesses and customers time while improving customer relationships. Let’s take a closer look at the top benefits of IVR for businesses. 1. Cost-effective A well-executed IVR system can be the key to running a more cost-effective contact center and increasing your business’ revenue. As we found in our Playbook for a Modern IVR: Positive communication experiences can lead 67% of customers to give more business to a company. The cost of resolving a customer need with IVR can be 48x lower than resolving it with a live agent. Additionally, IVR automation can help improve lead conversion by getting qualified leads to your sales team faster. 2. Scalable and straightforward to implement IVR-enabled contact centers are more flexible and scalable without the physical constraints of traditional call centers. With an agile cloud-based solution, you can quickly create and update IVR menus and workflows as needed. And you don’t even have to be a developer to get started—Twilio Studio provides a powerful drag-and-drop builder to help you create and adjust custom workflows and processes in your IVR system, no coding required. 3. Access to data and analytics Software-based solutions like IVR enable you to track call data and contact center metrics—like customer satisfaction score, call abandonment rate, and service level agreement metrics—from a single dashboard. This data is crucial for measuring the performance of your contact center and agents. Additionally, if you integrate IVR with your omnichannel contact center, agents can access customer data quickly. This gives them the necessary context for every customer interaction, allowing your agents to give callers more personalized and efficient service. 4. Flexibility to build innovative solutions Modern IVR systems can do more than direct callers to press 0 to speak to an agent. When implemented thoughtfully, IVR allows customers to find the resources they need quickly and easily. Long holds to hear the status of an order or prescription should be a thing of the past, as should waiting in endless queues just to get redirected to a new department. IVR systems are more innovative than ever and can help you provide agile solutions for the diverse problems businesses face today. Let’s look at an example of an innovative use of IVR: In a case of pandemic ingenuity, developers Amber Case and Ben Greenstein created a choose-your-own-vacation IVR solution to help fill people’s need for travel. They created an immersive audio experience for callers using an IVR phone tree model. When they called in, the IVR dropped callers off in the middle of an (imaginary) highway, where they chose every step of the way by dialing numbers corresponding to menu options. Learn how the developers built it by checking out their core files in Twilio CodeExchange. IVR call center best practices Follow these IVR best practices to give customers the best possible experience when they call your call center. Use a human-sounding voice. Customers may associate an outdated robotic voice with a poor IVR experience, so make a strong first impression with a human-sounding voice. You can achieve this with professional voice-over recording or sophisticated text-to-speech technology. Keep the main menu simple and succinct. The main menu sets the tone for the customer’s experience. Keep it short—under 30 seconds—with clear options to help direct the caller to the right agent or resource quickly. Make it easy for the caller to reach a live agent. You may offer self-service options in your IVR menu, but some callers know they need to connect to a live agent to resolve a complex issue. Don’t make them go deep into your IVR menu to do so—this will only lead to frustration. Instead, offer callers the option to connect directly to a live agent in the main menu. Offer multiple languages. Language options are crucial to meet the needs of your typical callers. For example, in the US, it’s common for call centers to offer support in English and Spanish. If you have customers from all over the world, expand your language offerings accordingly. And be sure to carry their language selection throughout the entire call, routing the caller to resources and agents in their preferred language. Give the caller an accurate wait time. It’s easier for callers to be patient if they know how long they can expect to wait. When they reach the queue, let the caller know their position in the queue or how long their wait will be. And if it’s a long wait, update them on their queue position at regular intervals or consider offering a call-back option. Use the wait time wisely. Ideally, the wait time for callers in the queue should be relatively short. But you can use this window to promote additional communication channels, like email or a chatbot on your website, or highlight a current promotion. This information would overwhelm callers if you shared it in the main menu, but it’s less intrusive to play it while callers wait to connect to an agent. Don’t forget about the hold music. Similar to a robotic voice, low-quality hold music can reinforce callers’ negative connotations of IVR. Make the hold music pleasant and high quality to create a positive experience for the caller. Integrate IVR with your omnichannel engagement strategy. An omnichannel contact center enables agents to engage customers on multiple channels from a single platform and provide personalized support without asking repetitive questions. Integrate your IVR call center with the rest of your channels to provide a seamless customer experience, ensuring the context of a call carries to other channels and vice versa. Review the IVR menu regularly. A regular cadence to review the IVR menu helps you remove outdated messaging. For example, if you launched a new website 3 years ago and have been promoting it during the wait time message ever since, it’s probably time to remove that information. Keeping your IVR messages and menu up to date will help generate trust with callers. Build an IVR system with Twilio Modern IVR systems should be straightforward to build, deploy, scale, and iterate—as long as you have the right tools. We’re here to help. Twilio’s IVR APIs help you build custom workflows and solutions you can ship in a matter of days and continually adapt as needed. Whether you’re new to coding or are a developer by trade, you can create intelligent solutions with Twilio Studio using a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to build without code and Twilio CodeExchange, which provides coding samples to help you get started. Then, when you’re ready to build, we have you covered with thorough tutorials on how to build a phone tree and a call screening and recording system. The next step is to integrate your IVR system with the rest of your contact center channels. That’s where Twilio Flex comes in. This fully programmable digital engagement center enables you to orchestrate and integrate channels to provide a seamless customer experience. With full control over how you communicate with customers across channels, you can remove friction and drive customer loyalty. Check out an interactive demo to discover everything you can build with Flex.