AI and the New Normal - Upcoming Trends in Cloud Telephony

By Vidhu Nautiyal

In the past two year’s world has observed a massive shift from cloud-assisted to cloud-dependent supremacy. Businesses across the globe had no other option but to adapt work from a home model, organisations switched to a solution that enables them to receive calls on their mobile at home — securely and efficiently. This is where cloud telephony comes into the picture, it plays a major role in authorizing organizations work-from-home.

In the year 2020 itself, 50% of businesses have shifted to the cloud to streamline workflows and achieve customer goals. Since then, cloud adoption has seen escalation, with the global cloud computing market projected to attain USD 832.1 billion by 2025.

Driving down the initial cost

As per the report from future market insights, Cloud telephony is all set to experience exceptional growth during 2021-2031. The magnificent thing about cloud telephony systems is, you can easily integrate them into your calling system without any additional hardware or software. No need of adding any wires or servers to your purchases, all you need is your laptop or mobile device where you can have your business communication set up using APIs. Driving down the cost is the main concern for any SMEs or start-ups. Cloud telephony eliminates the initial costs for any flourishing business by up to 90%.

This is the reason why most of the micro-level businesses such as coaching centers, local tours, travel agencies, doctors, and even solopreneurs, also Large enterprises are getting into cloud phone systems. By using this system they not only track incoming and outgoing business calls but also can avoid loss of data. To keep your call costs in check, you have the flexibility to remove or add any extensions.

Cloud Telephony will enable Hybrid work culture

According to a survey, the majority of employees prefer Hybrid work, but many prefer to work from the office at least once a week. To gratify the growing preference for work from home working modules, companies are shifting to cloud systems to enable their teams to securely and effectively work from different devices and different locations. Cloud computing platforms are 40 times more cost-effective than IT systems. So, in 2022 we will see cloud technology setting up more smooth and impeccable coordination among customer support, sales, and relationship management teams.

AI-powered chatbots

All businesses today are competing in this hyper-competitive marketplace to gain customers’ attention.  For engaging with the customers, new-age brands should adopt a strategic approach with the right message, at the right time, and also from the right channel. From market research, it has been found that modern customers are more driven to personalized engagements and choose self-service over speaking to company representatives.

AI-powered chatbots are one of the emerging tools for brands that are looking to offer their customers personalized, round-the-clock, self-service support to customers. Well versed with machine learning and data analytics capabilities these AI-powered chatbots can look into customers’ recent and past purchases, analyze customer sentiments, and make unique clusters of information on cloud-based services. This unique cluster of information allows brands to deliver swiftly, timely, and be consistent in customer satisfaction.  These will lead to more businesses adopting AI-powered chatbots into their engagement strategy this year.

Unified customer experience

According to one survey, 78 percent of customers expect to have consistent interactions with companies, whereas another survey found that 59 percent of customers feel a disconnect with the brands, dealing with different people every time.  From a business standpoint, this is paramount, unsatisfactory customers can lead to a decline in customer loyalty, downsize sales, and result in an unfavorable brand image.

In 2022, forward-minded brands will incorporate centralized solutions to streamline their communications and deliver unified customer experiences. Businesses will strengthen Customer Data Platforms, helpdesk telephony, cloud-based CRM telephony, and custom API telephony integrations to extract data from traditional information silos across storage environments and use it for customized and enhanced customer experience.

Smart caller IDs and IP messaging solutions

One out of every three Indian customers has received sales-related spam calls, resulting in being the fourth most affected country in spam and fraud calls. Customers have cut down or completely stop taking up these calls that do not have verified caller IDs.

To ignore such things this year, brands will use smart caller IDs and IP messaging solutions for sending messages and calls. This will help new customers identify the brand logo, name, and the purpose of the call, which would be a must-have for any company who are looking to establish better customer relationship based on trust.

New-age solutions for better engagement

With the current third wave this year, brand-customer engagement will continue to take place primarily on digital platforms. However, businesses also need to offset the digital fatigue they have experienced over the last two years by providing their customers with an interactive, immersive, streamlined experience. This need facilitates the adoption of new eras of communication solutions such as video chat, RCS messaging, and inter-app calling.

From the starting of the pandemic, businesses all over the world have shifted to digital platforms, remold their modules to accommodate new work settings, and moved on to new channels for improved customer interactions. The key in 2022 is to streamline these diverse tasks through cloud telephony solutions and make both in-house and online engagement more consistent, transparent, and sustainable.

Mr. Nautiyal is Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, CloudConnect Communications Pvt. Ltd