Imagine you’re using a mobile banking or e-commerce app and you hit a snag and require technical support.

Usually that means exiting the app in order to call or email your bank.

Less than ideal, this adds to your frustration and hassle of browsing other channels outside the application.

This is where CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) comes into picture.

Let’s get detailed insights into CPaaS, its benefits, CPaaS trends and more.

What does communications platform as a service mean?

For your business:

CPaaS is a cloud-based platform that enables you to have conversations with your customers on any channel within your web or mobile application.

CPaaS means you don’t need to invest in developing complicated solutions to speak to your customers.

CPaaS entails SDKs and communication APIs that can be easily integrated into any apps to offer real-time communication services viz. audio calls, video calls, SMS, chat and file sharing.

For your customers:

CPaaS is a communications platform that allows real-time conversations between you and your customers.

In today’s fast paced world, customers want their issues and queries to be resolved immediately and for this, CPaaS platform is one of the best solutions.

For your developers:

CPaaS means SDKs that can be effortlessly integrated into any web or mobile app for adding various communication channels into the app.

CPaaS providers do the behind the scenes work to keep up with channels so that you don’t have to.

What should you expect from a CPaaS provider?

In simple terms, a CPaaS provider offers a vast pool of SDKs (Software Development Kit) and APIs (Application Programming Interface) that can be integrated into any application.

With a CPaaS provider, you can adopt as many or as few channels that are relevant to your business.

A CPaaS provider should offer you support in the form of API Docs.

These are documentations either to get you started with the software or to help your developers integrate APIs into your existing applications.

A top CPaaS provider will also offer live technical assistance.

One of the main advantages of approaching a CPaaS provider is that it reduces the development burden and frees your developers from infrastructure issues.

CPaaS providers are also able to leverage the volume of messages clients send. Taking that as reference, they offer more affordable pricing to businesses.

They should have strong links with both the channels themselves, as well as communication networks.

It is utmost important that the CPaaS provider remains relevant in terms of new functionality and new channels, so that your business reaps more benefits.

What does CPaaS offer?

To have a clear picture of how cloud-communication platform helps your business, it’s important to understand the various integrations available to you.

Communications Platform as a Service market is flooded with endless CPaaS competitors with extensive offerings like…

1. Video calls:

Who doesn’t like to experience virtual face-to-face conversation? With CPaaS, in-app video calling is possible with video recording facility.

2. SMS:

The flexible CPaaS architecture allows developers to integrate promotional and transactional SMS within the application.

One of the primary advantages of CPaaS platform is its security.

With CPaaS, OTP and two-factor authentication codes can be sent via SMS within the app.

3. Chat:

Customers can chat with support staff and also participate in group chat and share files (images, docs, video and more) within the app.

4. DID Number platform:

DID numbers support inbound and outbound calls and SMS.

Businesses can integrate toll-free, missed-call service, IVR, call center solution, voice broadcasting, call forwarding and more within the application.

5. Audio calls:

Customers can get connected to support staff via in-app audio calls and app-to-landline or GSM mobile calls.

Additionally, businesses can integrate click-to-call functionality in the app directly to encourage more customer reach.

Benefits of integrating CPaaS platform:

1. In-app communication:

With integrated communications, you can also send appointment reminders via SMS and in-app chat.

CPaaS platform acts as a complete framework with everything developers need to bake real-time voice, video, SMS and chat features into their apps.

2. Economical & developer-friendly:

Because your developers won’t spend as long building chat features or maintaining a back-end framework, creating apps with CPaaS is both cheaper and faster than traditional development.

It allows a business of any size to employ integrated real-time communications at only a fraction of its usual cost and complexity.

3. Enriching customer communication:

CPaaS provides companies with more options for customer engagement and enhancing their communication strategy.

Customers and businesses can stay connected within the app via voice calls, video, SMS, chat and file sharing.

4. Building contextual communication:

By integrating CPaaS and communication APIs into your applications, you can save upon time and build contextual communication.

For instance, by enabling click-to-call functionality in your web or mobile app, you can directly address customers’ issue by building the context of the communication.

You can even send OTP and two-factor authentication codes within your application for safe and secure interaction with customers.

5. Communicate the way consumers want:

Nearly 64% of customers prefer texting for customer service.

Based on customers’ requirements and the way they want to communicate, you can choose voice call, SMS, chat or even video call for assistance.

CPaaS use-cases:

The growth of the CPaaS market aligns with emerging CPaaS trends in customer communications.

The need for contextual communications is one of the biggest drivers of the CPaaS market.

Let’s go through some handful industry use-cases of CPaaS.

1. Click-to-call:

With click-to-call, customers can get connected to support staff immediately without memorizing or dialing any phone number.

2. Video assistance:

Video-enabled support service allow customers to receive more personal and engaging service than traditional channels.

3. Two-way SMS:

Businesses can also use contextual information about each customer to provide more customized service by sending reminder SMS within the app and allowing customer to reply on the same thread.

4. Authentication & security:

Authentication is another area where businesses can benefit from integrating CPaaS platform.

Industries such as BFSI or healthcare can use a CPaaS to implement password verification and transaction security.

5. Phone number masking:

Masking phone number has gained popularity in transport and food delivery services. With this, the actual phone number is masked with a virtual number.

6. Notification & reminders:

Customers can be informed about offers, discounts, appointments, payment reminders by sending SMS, in-app chat or push notifications.

How the emerging CPaaS trends look like?

The CPaaS market is not easy to define with CPaaS leaders emerging with myriad offerings.

CPaaS market is made up of a mix of independent software vendors, service providers, and software developers.

For service providers, the CPaaS market is an opportunity to boost revenue and build relationships with businesses who want to expand beyond traditional communication channels.

For companies, CPaaS is an opportunity to enhance applications and business processes at a low cost.

The flexibility and scalability of CPaaS platform drives CPaaS market and can be very appealing for technology to offer real-time communication tools.