Businesses are always looking to improve communications and increase efficiencies. The introduction of VoIP unleashed rich features, such as auto attendant, visual voicemail and more to power these improvements and efficiencies for SMBs. In recent years, VoIP has evolved to Unified Communications with mobility, messaging and integrations with key business tools for advanced productivity. Along with the voice communications improvements, other tools like email, instant messaging and more have been continuously evolving as well. All of these forms of communications have pros and cons, but today we will take a closer look at a solution to help simplify communications in the office and with customers: Business Messaging from Cytracom.
Before we look at Business Messaging, let’s review a couple of challenges faced by businesses today.
First challenge: the prevalence of SMS or text messaging. Mobile phones are ubiquitous in the US, with an estimated 265.9 million smartphone users (1). These mobile phones are used for both personal and business, and lines often get blurred between the two personas. Here are some statistics:
- 47% of consumers prefer native SMS to message businesses compared to 34% of consumers who prefer native SMS to message family and friends (2)
- 58% of consumers indicated they would view a business more positively if they offered SMS capabilities (3).
- 78% of US consumers say receiving a text message is the fastest way to reach them for important service updates and purchases (4).
As you can see from these statistics, SMS is a very popular way to communicate and people want to communicate with businesses through texting. One of the biggest challenges caused with the growth of mobility is the blending of personal and business personas. Since SMS has taken off, now business employees and customers are texting more. This is great, but what happens if the employee leaves the company? If that employee used a personal mobile device, the business can potentially lose contact with the customer. And how do you track messages? You cannot as they are all stored on the mobile device.
Second challenge: email. There are an estimated 124.5 billion emails received and sent everyday (5). Of course, email is critical for communication and transactions with customers, vendors, and other contacts to maintain business operations. However, traditionally email has also been used (and overused) for interoffice communications. How many times have co-workers sent simple one-line messages to others with a question or a snippet of information. This causes a two-fold problem. First, it adds more emails to the inbox. Secondly, if there is an important piece of information in that email, the user has to go back and search to find that information. It has become an inefficient way to communicate.
The solution to these two challenges: Cytracom Business Messaging. Powered by the Cytracom Apps, you can use Business Messaging on either your mobile device or on your desktop. Communicate internally with team members using direct messaging or externally with key stakeholders using SMS.
From the Cytracom Mobile app, you can quickly respond to an SMS message on the go. If you are at your office, your Desktop App will allow you to read and respond to any SMS messages as well. Both of these options allow messaging from your business phone number, not your personal mobile number, to another person’s mobile phone. The other person does not need any special apps. They only need standard SMS capabilities, which are available on all modern mobile phones.
With Business Messaging, all communications are in a thread that you can reference. If there were any files sent, you can download and review them.
Within the office, you can use Business Messaging to reduce interoffice email between team members. Instead of sending an email to your co-worker, now you can send a direct message that you can reference with a quick search. The direct message also works with SMS, so you can keep all of your communications handy on the desktop.
If you have a team assigned to complete a project, you can create a room to collaborate with others. A room provides a central place to send and review messages, share files, and more. Reduce or eliminate internal emails for projects and rely on Business Messaging rooms to help lead your project to success.
Cytracom’s Business Messaging simplifies communications across the organization and with your valuable customers and partners.
If you would like a deep-dive demo of Business Messaging, please reach out to your channel manager. If you are not already a partner, sign up today to get your free demo account and see the power of Cytracom Business Messaging for yourself!
1) Source: Statista
2) Source: Twilio Messaging Consumer Report, 2016
3) Source: Flowroute Nationwide Survey, 2016
4) Source: Transactional Messaging Consumer Report by Vibes, 2016
5) Source: Campaign Monitor
