Omnichannel, SMS and OTT: Moving Forward in the Business Messaging Market

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Ellen Velickovska, Co-Founder & Managing Director at telXira

An increasing number of enterprises are using Short Messaging Services (SMS) and Over-The-Top (OTT) messaging apps for customer communications. Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging is predicted to grow from $66.84 billion in 2022 to $96.73 billion by 2030 according to Research and Markets.

Customers want to communicate with businesses using their preferred communication channels, whether that be via SMS, messaging apps, chatbots or email. This is leading to a sharp rise in demand for omnichannel communications, allowing businesses to provide an uninterrupted customer journey and experience across multiple platforms.

There is a huge opportunity for businesses to open new revenue streams and monetise business messaging, while serving existing enterprise customers’ demands. Businesses like Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Value-Added Resellers, Systems Integrators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can widen their offerings with business messaging and gain a competitive edge in the market.

It can be challenging for service providers to break into the business messaging market, especially with little or no experience in this field, however it is an opportunity too large to overlook. With an experienced partner and comprehensive platform, entering the market does not need to cause any headaches.

Monetisation Opportunities

Knowing what messaging solutions can be resold is important for future growth prospects. Some Communications as a Service (CPaaS) platforms can be fully white labelled, with a wide range of products and features that service providers can resell and monetise.

Some features that can be resold include transactional SMS, two-way messaging and messaging for marketing campaigns with A2P SMS.

Transactional SMS delivers important information sent to customers. This might be a two-factor authentication (2FA) code for accessing data and applications, or information on tracked parcel deliveries, appointment reminders, traffic updates, alerts or weather warnings.

On the other hand, two-way messaging is one of the best ways for enterprises to build trust with customers, as it helps them to feel more valued and engaged with the business. With the right platform, customer service/call centre representatives should be able to see messages from customers across different platforms including SMS, WhatsApp and Viber. They can then pick up where other representatives left off, with a full trail of the customer’s communication history for a seamless experience.

Additionally, A2P SMS is often used marketing campaigns due to texts offering a much higher open rate of 98%, compared to an average of 20% for emails according to Gartner. This is great for service providers entering the market, as it can provide a high return on investment.

With the right CPaaS platform and partner it becomes much easier for businesses to capture new growth opportunities. It is vital to look out for a partner that offers end-to-end support, including step-by-step training, troubleshooting and round-the-clock customer service. Even businesses with no experience in the market should be able to jump in with little difficulty.

The Path to Growth

There are many opportunities for service providers upon entering the messaging market, the largest being the ability to create new revenue streams. Messaging has many use cases, which makes it a popular service to sell onto an existing customer base.

Another key benefit is the ability to grow business on a global scale. The right partner can help a business to grow around the world without incurring huge costs, thanks to utilising existing platforms, networks and solutions. Infrastructure and solution management can be very expensive, so finding a partner with those already in place can be a huge value-add.

As demand grows and customers ask for more ways to connect with businesses, it is becoming increasingly important to serve those needs. A comprehensive CPaaS platform makes it easy to meet growing demands for messaging from customers. Messaging can also easily be scaled up or down as required, in terms of various add-on services, solutions and destinations.

The end result is increased customer loyalty and success, thanks to providing a solution that can drastically improve enterprises’ communications with customers. Ultimately, offering messaging services to customers could be the one thing that differentiates one service provider from another in a fiercely competitive market.

An Omnichannel Future

Service providers need to ensure that they can provide everything their enterprise customers need to succeed in today’s competitive market.

Enterprise needs are constantly changing, whether that be in terms of the communications methods they wish to use with customers, or the type of network they run their services on. The service providers that are prepared to move at the speed of these changes are the ones that will build a loyal customer base who will keep coming back.

Working with an expert partner and CPaaS platform can offer the best opportunity for growth on a global scale, while mitigating risk thanks to expertise and end-to-end support. Business messaging can hold the key to success in today’s always-on society – service providers just need to take the right approach to move forward in the market with confidence.

Ellen Velickovska

Co-Founder & Managing Director at telXira

Ellen Velickovska is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Swiss business messaging solutions and consultancy provider, telXira. Ellen’s unique goal in co-founding telXira in 2013 was to challenge the status quo in the business messaging market and provide user-centric solutions that are delivered with customer service end-to-end.

Backed by over 20 years of telecom industry experience, she has led a talented and dedicated team of professionals to solve complex customer challenges with customer-focused solutions. Ellen played a key role in designing a platform that is intuitive and user-friendly in the way it delivers, manages and optimises business messaging for enterprises and service providers.

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Categories: Industry Viewpoint · Managed Services · Unified Communications