Multi-channel communication strategies grown increasingly essential in recent years. To effectively engage, support, and convert customers throughout the purchasing cycle, business leaders need to be able to communicate with their audience, wherever they are.

Using a combination of traditional communication channels (like calls and email), alongside digital solutions such as push notifications, video and online messaging, businesses can effectively differentiate themselves from their competition and improve customer retention.

Though there are many nuances involved in creating the perfect multi-channel messaging strategy, leading digital vendors like AWS are developing new and improved tools to help organisations accelerate their transformational journey. The Amazon Communication Developer Services (CDS) toolkit, otherwise known as AWS Communication Developer Services, makes it simple to create highly personalized, unique communication strategies, ideal for reaching customers wherever they are.

Here’s how today’s teams can leverage AWS Communication Developer Services for multi-channel communications.

An Omnichannel Approach

Amazon offers a comprehensive omnichannel portfolio of communication solutions. As customer purchasing cycles grow more complex and digitized, companies can utilize a variety of tools to reach new audiences, generate leads, and nurture prospects.

Communication Developer Services from Amazon Web Services provides access to a range of cloud-based APIs and SDKs, which leverage the power of AWS solutions like Pinpoint, the Amazon Chime SDK, and the AWS SES (Simple Email Service). With these tools, companies can leverage a host of communication channels, including:

  • SMS: Direct one-way and two-way text messaging across 240 regions and countries.
  • Push/In-app notifications: Pay-as-you-go instant messaging for web and mobile apps.
  • Email: Scalable email automation from a service sending 2.2 billion emails per day.
  • Chat: Secure, recordable chat with AI-enhanced functionality
  • Voice: SIP trunking and PSTN audio for voice prompts, routing, and recording.
  • Video: WebRTC video and livestreaming for any application or system

Communication Developer Services allows companies to not only access each of these platforms but utilize convenient tools for developing cross-channel campaigns that deliver consistent, connected customer experiences across every channel.

Cross-Channel Campaigns

Companies can leverage Amazon’s Pinpoint solution to start building omnichannel messaging strategies and creating personalized campaigns for audiences. Pinpoint is a scalable, flexible outbound and inbound communications service. It comes with options for segmenting customers based on a range of factors, so teams can build more personalized, relevant communication strategies.

Plus, campaign journeys allow organizations to set up strategies that boost their chances of reaching the ideal customer, at the right time. Pinpoint supports push notifications and in-app notifications, as well as SMS and messaging campaigns, voice, video, and more.

Within the Pinpoint ecosystem, companies can utilize a comprehensive sandbox environment to experiment with different messaging campaigns and set up custom triggers for when messages should be sent. There’s even access to real-time and historical reporting tools, so business leaders can track the impact of their campaigns over time. What’s more, Pinpoint comes with access to other Amazon services, such as Amazon Connect (for the contact centre), Amazon Lex, and Amazon Personalize.

Companies can use these tools to engage users in real-time with breaking news and updates, proactively surface order status changes, or even send one-time passwords to customers to help them access their account securely.

Amazon also offers the Pinpoint SMS channel. This solution allows companies to send SMS messages to mobile devices in more than 200 countries and regions. Additionally, in some locations, you can also enable the two-way SMS feature to receive messages from your customers.

You’ll need to enable the “SMS channel” in your project to start using the service, but there are some excellent features in place, such as a dedicated sandbox to help control your monthly spending.

Unlocking the Power of Email

The Amazon SES solution built into the Communication Developer Services toolkit gives business leaders the freedom to unlock the power of email for their comprehensive marketing, sales, and service campaigns. The “Simple Email Service” is built on the AWS platform responsible for sending around 2.2 billion messages to customers every day.

Using the Communication Developer Services platform, companies can build email functionality into their existing apps and workflows, without using an on-premises SMTP system. The cloud email service provider integrates with any application, for bulk email sending, and supports a range of deployment options, from dedicated, to shared and owned IP addresses.

Companies can use the service to deliver marketing emails globally, utilizing personalization and segmentation, automate transactional messages about purchases or shipping information, or keep customers up to date with new information on products. There’s even a comprehensive environment available for tracking email results and metrics.

Building Voice, Video and Messaging into Existing Apps

Truly effective omnichannel communications take place not just through messaging apps, but via voice and video environments too. Amazon Chime, included in the Communication Developer Services solution, allows developers to add real-time messaging, voice, video and messaging into their applications in a matter of minutes. There are options for:

  • PSTN audio: Build custom telephony applications with voice prompts, recording, call routing, and other features into existing apps and tools.
  • SIP trunking: Connect on-premises phone systems to the Amazon communication and AI services, such as Amazon’s Transcribe, Translate, and Comprehend services.
  • Messaging: Build secure custom chat features capable of supporting millions of users with integrations to Amazon AI/ML services and Amazon Pinpoint.
  • WebRTC with live transcription: Leverage WebRTC media sessions for real-time audio, video, content, and screen sharing in both web and mobile applications.
  • WebRTC with PTSN audio: Combine PTSN functionality with WebRTC solutions for a fully reliable way to meet, chat, and connect with customers in a single application.

The full Amazon Chime SDK can support everything from powerful multi-site routing techniques to next-level customer service with intelligent virtual telephony assistants. The solution is easy to use, and comes with a comprehensive developer guide for business leaders.

Adding a Layer of Intelligence

Not only does Communication Developer Services offer companies all of the functionality they need to bring voice, video, chat, notifications, email, and SMS into their workflows, but it also integrates with crucial AWS tools. All Communication Developer Services, from Pinpoint, to SES and Amazon Chime, integrate natively with Amazon’s analytical and AI/ML services. Users can access these developer friendly tools for:

  • Insights into real-time data: Build dashboards to track trends in communications and adjust future touchpoints based on the needs of each audience.
  • Self-service solutions: Design and deploy chatbots without having to worry about training, hardware, or infrastructure. Amazon AI solutions understand intent, track context, and even offer automation opportunities in a range of languages.
  • Transcribe and record calls: Automatically record interactions and transcribe speech into text across multiple channels, with Amazon APIs.

One of the major advantages of incorporating AI and ML into these channels is that they eliminate the need for a lot of manual effort for users. These solutions do not eliminate the need for humans; instead, they remove a large chunk of the tedious, time-consuming work that would need doing without them.

By plugging machine learning into a communication system, organizations can make analytics and reporting richer and more insightful. Doing so turns data into meaningful insights that can ultimately be game-changing when it comes to delivering great customer service.

Get Started with Communication Developer Services

The comprehensive Communication Developer Services toolkit provides companies with all of the resources they need to build truly intelligent, contextual communication features into any existing app, infrastructure, or workflow. With easy-to-use resources, powerful developer documentation, and extensive support from Amazon, anyone can get started in no time.

To find out more about Amazon CDS, visit AWS.



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