Organisations today are using online service delivery to expand their reach and reshape their offerings. In fact, Gartner suggests 91% of organisations are engaged in some form of digital initiative. What’s more, digitalisation is a top priority, and businesses are accelerating digital transformation projects in record numbers.
But fostering long-lasting customer relationships requires more than just moving online and implementing standalone digital projects. Businesses need to deliver personalised, seamless customer experiences that reach their audience where, when, and how they want it. Successful customer engagement can build loyalty and trust, which is why businesses need to have a solid digital communications strategy to effectively reach out to customers at every point of the customer journey.
Hence, many organisations are turning to customisable messaging APIs to enable them to build robust, flexible customer engagement solutions that can be integrated with online services--with minimal fuss.
Unlocking telehealth for previously unreachable communities
Businesses--and their developers--aren’t the only ones bolstering digital communications. Momentum is building across a host of sectors. Take the efforts of medical services worldwide, for example, which are seeking to bridge vast distances in new ways to improve their communications and patient care.
This is especially pertinent amid the current shortage of healthcare workers--a situation worsened by the pandemic in recent years. WHO estimates a projected shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030.
Telehealth can ease that burden in a number of ways, ranging from reduced travel time and expenses for healthcare providers, to the more cost-effective delivery of services through higher patient flow and time savings. But this requires telehealth platforms to deliver easy-to-use and reliable services regardless of where their patients are located, even for those living in remote areas with limited connectivity.
This was one of the key challenges faced by telehealth pioneer GPNow. It needed to deliver consistent high-definition, diagnostic-quality video under low bandwidth to all clients. Plus, it needed to be able to launch services quickly in response to crises.
Using Twilio’s messaging API building blocks, GPNow was able to provide a range of telehealth services across vast distances. It has supported victims of bushfire in Australia through the BushFireCare Program; quadriplegic and paraplegic patients through the Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA) initiative; and people potentially infected with COVID-19 through the Coronaviruscare.net initiative. During the 2019 - 2020 Australian bushfire season, GPNow also used Twilio Programmable Video to quickly launch mental health support via video consultation for affected communities.
These achievements in providing a patient-centric approach have helped GPNow to make inroads and changed the perception of what the future of healthcare could look like in the Asia Pacific region.
Providing smarter support services
Besides telehealth, we’ve also seen the demand for online learning reach unprecedented levels during the pandemic. According to UNESCO, it has been estimated that some 1.6 billion students globally were affected as many educational institutions defaulted to online classes, while remote learning offers students greater flexibility and access to more options. It's tricky to recreate an online experience that mimics a live classroom--one that allows students to work with a professor over email or during office hours, especially if students often face connectivity problems.
Edureka, an online learning platform, saw how inadequate online classroom support often resulted in poor course completion rates. It recognised the urgent need for an interactive 24/7 student support service to effectively provide quality remote education. Instead of a support system that simply answered student questions, Edureka wanted a system that encouraged students to continue learning; checked in on their progress; and applauded accomplishments - without relying on solutions that required high bandwidth.
As such, Edureka turned to Twilio for a voice solution that assisted with global connectivity during support calls, and which delivered a smoother, more consistent user experience to help students complete courses. Using Twilio Programmable Voice API, Edureka is able to take some 2,000 calls daily from international students from almost any device, anytime, anywhere. This has helped Edureka become the fastest growing online education marketplace in the industry, with the highest course completion rates to boot.
Personalising communications to address social issues
Similar to the healthcare and education industry, community services have also become more reliant on Digital services to reach isolated communities in need and gather support. Organisations in the community services sector often need to communicate with potential volunteers and donors via diverse channels, be it through SMS, WhatsApp, or voice calls. In order to encourage donors to take action, organisations need to personalise their communications at scale and do so swiftly whenever help is needed.
These donor communication challenges were the focus of one episode of The Apprentice: ONE Championship edition, a TV show that aired in 2021. Contestants on the show were tasked with streamlining non-profit organisation Habitat for Humanity Singapore’s communication strategies using the Twilio platform.
Working with Twilio developers, the contestants used the fully programmable contact centre Twilio Flex to build a demo that centralised Habitat for Humanity's communications in one place. This helped in providing a highly personalised experience for potential donors and donors dealing with the non-profit.
The team produced a contact centre that let them load and edit customer data from Habitat for Humanity's CRM system all within Flex, allowing them to provide a highly personalised experience for everyone on their journey to becoming a loyal donor and beyond.
These achievements are just some of the powerful outcomes that can be achieved by using the building blocks of modern, customisable messaging.
Digital communications are a powerful and vital tool. Using customisable messaging, organisations can build sophisticated services that deliver demanding applications to users with poor connectivity. They can cater to users’ preferred ways of communicating and make those interactions engaging. And they do all this quickly, which is vital in today’s unpredictable world.
Building long-lasting customer relationships is an ongoing process and require more than just a one-off investment. Organisations need innovative ways to connect and interact with customers, especially if they want to develop a sustainable and loyal relationship with their audience. We will see even more businesses build flexible, tailored engagement strategies in the coming years, and organisations that wish to stay ahead of the curve need to act now.
