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In-app voice calling refers to the capability of making and receiving phone calls directly from within a mobile application. This eliminates the reliance on external communication platforms like traditional phone networks or third-party calling apps.

In-app voice calling is commonly used in various contexts, such as customer support, collaboration tools, social networking apps, and on-demand service apps. These multiple use cases are driving the success of the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) industry, which is expected to grow to $102.5 billion by 2026.

This blog will discuss how an in-app voice calling feature improves the efficiency of business operations and enhances customer support.

Key Takeaways:

In-app calling enables users to initiate voice calls directly from the app they are using without the need to switch to a separate phone dialer or messaging application. It brings several advantages to businesses, including improved employee productivity, collaboration, real-time communication, and cost savings.

By facilitating efficient communication, app 2 app voice calling also contributes to better CX. It offers real-time assistance, personalized interactions, and efficient issue resolution.

Businesses can elevate their in-app voice calling capabilities further with technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), voice analytics, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), advanced translation, Natural Language Processing (NLP), etc. The focus must be on selecting technologies that align with the business’s needs.

Exotel offers lightweight SDKs for user-friendly in-app voice calling experiences for businesses. With app-to-app, app-to-PSTN, and PSTN-to-app calling options, businesses can deliver a more sophisticated and immersive customer support experience.

Optimizing Business Processes With In-App Voice Calling

In-app voice calling is a powerful tool that can streamline business operations in various ways, enhancing communication, collaboration, and overall efficiency. Here are some ways in which in-app calling can aid business productivity:

Real-Time and Secure Communication: In-app voice solutions allow employees to communicate with each other in real-time;whether it’s quick updates, clarifications, or urgent matters, voice calls facilitate immediate and direct communication. This saves time and increases responsiveness. Moreover, in-app voice calls can be encrypted, ensuring sensitive business information and customer data are protected during communication.

Seamless Collaboration: Voice calling within business applications enables seamless collaboration between team members, even if they are geographically dispersed. Employees can initiate voice calls from within project management tools, CRM systems, or other collaboration platforms. Businesses can thus create a cohesive work environment and reduce the need for multiple communication tools. Some in-app voice solutions also provide video-conferencing and team messaging features that allow different teams to work together sitting in remote locations.

Enhanced Employee Productivity: By integrating voice calling within business applications, employees can stay focused on their tasks without switching to separate communication tools. Employees can seamlessly handle communication and work-related activities within a unified interface. This reduces interruptions and enhances overall productivity.

Call Analytics and Insights: In-app voice systems often come with call analytics and reporting features. Businesses can leverage these insights to monitor call durations, call volumes, and customer interactions. Such systems also provide important data for performance evaluation, training, and process optimization.

Cost Savings: In-app voice solutions can lead to cost savings for businesses, especially for international communications. By leveraging internet-based calling, businesses can avoid expensive international calling charges and reduce overall costs by 90%.

Enhancing Customer Support With In-App Voice Calling

By leveraging in-app voice calling, businesses can elevate their customer support services, leading to higher customer satisfaction, increased loyalty, and improved overall brand reputation. In-app voice calling enhances customer support in the following ways:

Real-Time Assistance and Reduced Resolution Time: 58% of customers believe that long hold times indicate a bad phone experience. Further, customers are willing to hold an average of just 90 seconds before hanging up their phones.

In-app voice solutions help to avoid such situations by allowing support agents to provide immediate assistance. Moreover, support agents can gather information from customers in real-time, and customers can ask clarifying questions. This leads to quicker issue identification and resolution.

Personalized Support: Voice calls allow for a more personalized customer support experience. Agents can address customers by name, understand their unique needs, and offer tailored solutions based on the context of the conversation. With in-app voice calling, agents also have access to insights related to customers’ behaviour on the app. For instance, support agents can study the ride details to better respond to customers of a taxi-booking app.

In-app voice calling is thus an essential component of an omnichannel CX. Moreover, in-app voice solutions can be integrated with CRM systems. Such integration allows agents to access customer information during calls and understand the context of the customer’s history. In this way, agents can offer a more tailored CX.

Accurate Responses: Voice calls facilitate clearer communication compared to text-based channels. Customers can express their concerns verbally, ensuring that their message is accurately conveyed without the risk of misinterpretation. Likewise, support agents can use their tone and empathy effectively to understand better and address customer emotions.

Complex Issue Resolution: In-app voice calling is ideal for handling complex or technical issues that may require detailed explanations or troubleshooting. Support agents can guide customers step-by-step through the resolution process, ensuring a quicker and more efficient problem-solving experience.

Feedback and Continuous Improvement: Customer feedback can be seamlessly integrated into the in-app calling process. This is especially useful when customers are dissatisfied with a business service. Shifting to a different communication platform, searching for toll-free numbers, spending money on international calls, etc., can further add to their negative experience. This can result in customer churn.

Similarly, with too many steps involved, customers may postpone and ultimately forget to share positive feedback. Providing the facility of app 2 app voice calling makes it easy for customers to share reviews. This allows businesses to measure customer satisfaction and gather insights for continuous improvement of their support services.

Integrating Technology to Improve In-App Voice Calling

In-app voice calling can be significantly improved with the help of the following advanced technologies, which can enhance its capabilities and user experience.

AI and NLP: By the year 2025, 95% of all customer interactions will be powered by AI. AI can also add to the efficiency of the in-app voice feature. Incorporating AI and NLP into in-app voice systems can enable intelligent voice assistants that can understand and respond to natural language queries. Further, AI-powered voice bots can deal with routine inquiries, leaving complex customer interactions for human agents.

Voice Biometrics and Analytics: Voice biometric technology can be combined with in-app voice calls for enhanced security and authentication. Voiceprints can be used to verify the caller’s identity, reducing the risk of fraud. Moreover, voice analytics technology can help businesses study customer sentiment during voice calls. Businesses can identify improvement areas and optimize the customer support process by analyzing the tone and context of conversations.

Real-Time Translation: For global enterprises, it is crucial to provide multilingual customer support. The freedom to interact in their native language makes customers feel like they are talking to a friend. It breaks down language barriers and eliminates misunderstandings. Advanced language translation technology can facilitate real-time translation of conversations between customers and agents who speak different languages.

Video Calling Integration: Combining video calling capabilities with in-app voice calls can enhance communication. It can allow customers and agents to engage in face-to-face interactions when needed. Video calls can be beneficial for visual support, product demonstrations, and troubleshooting.

AR and VR: AR technology can be used along with in-app calls to provide visual guidance and support during customer interactions. For example, AR overlays can help customers visualize how to set up a product. In specific industries like gaming, entertainment, or virtual events, VR technology can create immersive experiences and enhance customer engagement.

Drive Efficient Interactions with Exotel’s In-App Voice Calling

Exotel’s lightweight SDKs enable businesses to deliver their customers a better quality calling experience. Businesses can set up app-to-app calls, app-to-PSTN calls, or PSTN-to-app calls to boost call connectivity rates. Moreover, customized dialer screens can help achieve more engaging interactions. Other benefits include:

No Lead Leakage: Lead leakage is reduced as all calls are initiated and terminated through the app itself.

Better Pickup Rates: In-app calls are considered safer by customers and thus have higher pickup rates.

Increased Trust: Encryption ensures that user data remains safe and all the sessions are secure.

Superior Audio Quality: IP and PSTN intermixing improves call connectivity and reduces call drop rates across network conditions.

Cost Savings: The option to switch from PSTN to VoIP calls allows businesses to cut down their call costs.

Continuous Improvement: Businesses can track and analyze calls to identify the scope of improvement.

Cloud Contact Center Solution for Enterprises

Exotel's Cloud contact center solution offers seamless omnichannel customer experience, including inbound and outbound calls, SMS, WhatsApp, live chat, and even video conferencing. A cloud contact center solution manages your complete customer communication, including inbound and outbound calls, chatbot interactions, text messages, social media engagement, and video communications—all facilitated through an internet connection.

Customer support is the range of services offered by a business to its customers before, during, and after a purchase. It involves addressing customer inquiries, resolving issues, providing guidance, and offering solutions to ensure a positive customer experience.

Customer support can be provided through different communication channels. It is, however, crucial that businesses maintain a presence on channels that are actively being used by their audience. With 2.44 billion users worldwide, WhatsApp has established itself as the go-to platform for businesses to engage with their audience.

Benefits of WhatsApp Business

WhatsApp Business is a platform designed specifically for businesses to interact with their customers. It facilitates customer communication, support, and engagement. Here are some of the key benefits that make it the right choice for customer support operations:

i) Enhanced Customer Communication

WhatsApp Business provides several messaging tools to enhance customer communication. These include automated greetings to welcome customers, quick replies to frequently asked questions, and alert messages to inform customers when you’re unavailable.

ii) Efficient Management of Chats

Businesses can organize and categorize customer conversations using labels. Labels allow you to identify easily and sort chats based on various criteria, such as new orders, open issues, high-priority, or specific customer segments.

iii) Continuous Monitoring

Businesses can get insights into your messaging performance with WhatsApp Business’s built-in statistics. You can also track metrics such as the number of messages sent, delivered, and read, helping you analyze the effectiveness of your customer interactions.

iv) Improved Trust

With WhatsApp Business, you can easily apply for a verified badge to add authenticity and credibility to your WhatsApp Business profile. The verification process involves confirming that the account belongs to a genuine business.

v) Secure Payments

In some countries, WhatsApp Business supports in-app payments, allowing customers to make purchases and complete transactions directly within the WhatsApp conversation. This helps maintain the security of the payment transactions.

Applications of WhatsApp Business for Customer Support

39% of customers prefer WhatsApp Business for customer support and service. Let’s explore the use cases of WhatsApp Business:

Instant Query Resolution: Customers can reach out to businesses via WhatsApp, and support agents can respond promptly to their inquiries, ensuring swift problem-solving. The chat format allows for a conversational approach, making it easy for agents to engage with customers, address their concerns, and offer personalized assistance.

Feedback Collection: Using WhatsApp Business, companies can collect valuable feedback from customers in a more informal and convenient manner. Surveys or feedback forms can be sent through WhatsApp, enabling customers to share their opinions, suggestions, and overall experience with the brand.

Order Tracking and Notifications: After placing an order, customers can receive updates on their delivery status, shipping information, and expected delivery time directly through WhatsApp. This proactive approach keeps customers informed and reduces the need for them to reach out for updates, enhancing the overall customer experience.

Personalized Offers: Through WhatsApp Business, businesses can deliver customized offers, discounts, and promotions to their users. This personalized approach makes customers feel valued, improving brand loyalty and repeat business.

Multimedia Support: WhatsApp Business supports various multimedia formats, including images, videos, and voice messages. This feature helps enhance customer support, as it allows agents to send visual aids, instructional videos, or step-by-step guides to assist customers in a better way. The ability to share multimedia content adds depth to customer interactions, making it easier to convey complex information.

Broadcast Messages: WhatsApp Business’s broadcast feature allows businesses to send messages to multiple recipients simultaneously. This feature is ideal for sending out announcements, updates, or promotions to a targeted group of customers. Broadcast messages help businesses efficiently disseminate information and keep customers engaged without overwhelming individual inboxes.

Best Practices for the WhatsApp Business Platform

By following these best practices, you can leverage WhatsApp Business for customer support and build strong relationships with your customers:

1. Set Clear Expectations

Clearly communicate to your customers how and when they can reach out to you on WhatsApp. Set expectations regarding response times and availability, so customers know when a reply can be expected.

2. Optimize Business Profile

Create a comprehensive business profile with accurate and up-to-date information. Include your business name, address, contact details, website links, and product catalog. This helps customers find relevant information easily.

3. Maintain an Active Presence

Regularly respond to customer inquiries and messages in a timely manner. An active presence shows your commitment to customer service, builds trust and ensures that customers feel heard and valued. While being active is crucial, it’s equally important to avoid spamming your customers with unnecessary messages.

4. Create WhatsApp Message Templates

WhatsApp Business allows you to create message templates for common customer interactions. These templates can be used for order confirmations, shipping updates, appointment reminders, and more. Templates save time, maintain consistency, and help streamline your customer support processes.

5. Use Automated Greetings and Quick Replies

Set up automated greetings to welcome customers when they initiate a conversation. Create quick replies for common queries to save time and provide instant responses.

6. Use of Data Analytics to Send Personalized Messages

Utilize data analytics to gather insights into customer behavior, preferences, and purchase history. This information enables you to send personalized messages and offers that are tailored to each customer’s interests and helps in increasing engagement and conversion rates.

7. Run Direct to WhatsApp Ads

Incorporate WhatsApp Business into your advertising strategy by running direct-to-WhatsApp ads. These ads allow customers to engage with your business directly from the ad, initiating conversations with just one click. It reduces the barriers to communication and encourages more interactions.

8. Add Clickable Predefined Button to Messages

Enhance the interactivity of your messages by including clickable predefined buttons. These buttons can be used to confirm appointments, select preferences, or access specific information. They simplify the customer journey and improve the overall user experience.

9. Form a Community on WhatsApp Groups

Consider creating WhatsApp groups to form a community of engaged customers. These groups can be used to share exclusive offers, conduct polls, host Q&A sessions, or provide early access to new products or services. Building a community fosters a sense of belonging and loyalty among customers.

10. Maintain Professional Tone

Maintain a professional tone in your conversations with customers. Use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation to convey professionalism and attention to detail.

11. Train and Empower your Support Team

Provide adequate training to your customer support team on effectively using WhatsApp Business features and handling customer queries. Empower them to resolve issues independently and provide exceptional support.

12. Ensure Compliance

Familiarize yourself with the WhatsApp Business API‘s terms of service, privacy policy, and any applicable local regulations. Adhere to the guidelines to ensure compliance and maintain the trust of your customers.

Enhance Your Customer Support Efforts With Exotel

Exotel’s WhatsApp product suite allows you to build customized WhatsApp solutions for your business. Trusted by 7000+ clients around the globe, our scalable solutions can help you provide efficient customer support, engage with customers, and streamline communication to enhance the overall customer experience.

Finding applications in marketing, sales, and customer care, Exotel’s one-stop WhatsApp Business Platform offers the following benefits:

Better Marketing Campaigns: The no-code campaign module is easy to set up. Moreover, it is powered by robust analytics, facilitating automated marketing promotions.

Convenient Shopping Experience: Customers don’t have to move between apps to get verified and can receive OTPs faster within WhatsApp itself.

Increased Conversions: As customers can complete the entire purchase journey on the same platform, they are more likely to close the sales.

Instant Support: AI chatbots will help you to automate support and engage customers across the funnel.

Human Touch: With live agent chat, customers can present queries and get help in real-time from a human agent.

Increased Contact Center Efficiency: By diverting customer calls to WhatsApp as a self-service channel, the load on contact centers can be substantially reduced.

Omnichannel CX refers to a customer-centric approach that provides an integrated experience across multiple channels and touchpoints, such as a website, mobile app, social media, physical store, or call center. For example, a customer might browse products on Instagram, request a catalog on WhatsApp, complete the purchase through the mobile app, and seek after-sales support through email.

By integrating channels and sharing data, the customer’s journey becomes seamless, removing the friction points that often occur when customers switch between channels. The concept of omnichannel CX has rapidly gained traction, empowering customers to engage with brands whenever and wherever they choose. This aligns with customer expectations. In fact, a recent survey has found that 60% of millennial consumers expect companies to provide consistent experiences across engagement channels.

As we step into 2023, the opportunities for enhancing omnichannel CX are immense. This guide will explore the key predictions for omnichannel CX in 2023, shedding light on the advancements in technology, shifting consumer behaviors, and heightened customer expectations.

Key Takeaways

The use of emerging technologies like AI and predictive analytics to deliver personalized experiences is gaining prominence. This not only leads to better targeting but also makes customers feel valued and understood.

The metaverse presents an immersive environment for customer interactions. It strengthens brand engagement through features like gamification, virtual try-on, and digital community experiences.

Empowering customers with the ability to find solutions independently through resources like FAQs, AI chatbots, and community forums has become pivotal. Moreover, backend AI is finding applications in omnichannel contact center operations.

Phygital experiences combine the trust-building aspects of in-person encounters with the efficiency of digital channels. They are being prioritized along with conversational experiences.

Exotel offers a customer engagement platform that includes a voice platform, contact center, messaging, and conversational AI solutions. These solutions empower businesses to optimize customer service, thus staying ahead in the omnichannel CX landscape.

Key Priorities of Omnichannel for 2023

This year, the intersection of technology and customer-centricity takes center stage, presenting an array of opportunities for businesses to create meaningful interactions that resonate deeply with their audiences. From hyper-personalization and the metaverse to self-service solutions and backend AI, these trends are poised to shape the way brands design omnichannel experiences.

Let’s discuss them in detail:

1. Hyper-personalized Interactions

Studies reveal that 71% of buyers expect brands to provide personalized interactions, and 66% are disappointed when brands fail to meet this expectation. While adopting omnichannel strategies, businesses are thus investing in emerging technologies like AI, Machine Learning (ML), predictive analytics, etc.

This approach helps them to consolidate data from the different channels and gain insights into customer preferences. Data related to past online searches, purchase history, spending amounts, time spent searching, etc., is studied to deliver customized support across all channels.

Advantages of Hyper-personalization

Leads to effective market segmentation and targeting

Helps understand customer needs better

Makes customers feel valued

Helps deliver individualized experiences

Applications of Hyper-personalization

Send personalized promos and updates based on what matters to customers

Recommend new products based on browsing or purchase history

Share content that aligns with their interests, such as through personalized webpages

Use the preferred mode of communication based on demographic data

2. Metaverse Experiences

Metaverse is a virtual environment built on technologies like blockchain, AI, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), spatial computing, and more. It is being considered by CX experts as the future of customer interactions, as 25% of people are expected to spend a minimum of one hour per day in the metaverse by 2026. Before adopting a new channel as part of the customer engagement strategy, businesses must therefore analyze if the channel can be optimized for the metaverse.

Advantages of Metaverse in CX

Helps deliver an immersive experience

Strengthens customer engagement and brand loyalty

Boosts customer confidence

Increases the time spent by customers on the brand’s website/app

Applications of Metaverse in CX

Use features such as gamification, virtual try-on, and avatars to engage customers

Allow customers to experience new products before launch and seek their feedback

Provide a better view of the product to assure product quality to the customers

Create a digital community experience

Develop loyalty programs, with rewards including digital assets such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) or virtual events

3. Self-service Options

Businesses can foster more robust customer relationships by offering avenues for independent problem-solving. Integrating ai chatbot and other automation technologies in multiple engagement channels can empower customers to find solutions on their own.

In this way, providing self-service opportunities on different CX platforms reduces reliance on agents, nurturing a favorable brand perception. This sentiment aligns with findings from the recent ‘The New Rules of Customer Engagement’ report, which reveals that 76% of global consumers prioritize seeking self-guided solutions over reaching out to customer service.

Advantages of Self-service Facility

Provides faster results

Saves costs

Provides autonomy to customers

Offers easy scalability

Applications of Self-service Facility

Provide resources like FAQs on the website, along with AI chatbots and help widgets

Create community forums

Allow customers to track order delivery

Provide AI search functions

4. Backend Artificial Intelligence

Amid the swift strides in CX technology, the age-old debate of technology versus human involvement has lost its relevance. Instead, a fresh perspective has emerged, underscoring the symbiotic relationship between the two, especially in omnichannel contact centers.

Businesses that integrate technology into their existing operations stand to gain the most. They can substantially improve efficiency while maintaining a human touch. For instance, backend AI in omnichannel contact centers can assist agents in responding promptly to customer queries without feeling burdened. Other advantages and use cases of backend AI are listed below.

Advantages of Backend AI

Automates manual tasks

Helps to offer real-time support

Supports scalability of operations

Ensures consistent experiences across channels

Improves employee as well as customer satisfaction

Applications of Backend AI

Receive insights into customer history and interactions on other platforms

Get suggestions regarding the next course of action

Offer multilingual support

Facilitate sentiment analysis

Receive in-call reminders, like when to offer a discount to an unhappy customer

5. Phygital Fusion

The omnichannel CX approach is not just limited to providing and integrating the several digital channels of customer conversation, such as social media, email, SMS, etc. It also extends to the integration of physical and digital touchpoints.

Customers now seek the best of both worlds- trust-building aspects of physical interactions combined with the convenience and speed of digital channels. This inclination has led businesses to channel their efforts into crafting “phygital” experiences—a fusion of physical and digital channels that craft a holistic customer journey.

Advantages of Phygital Experience

Ensures alignment with the overall brand image

Helps provide customers with more information on the products

Gives customers the autonomy to choose their preferred mode

Applications of Phygital Experience

Scan items to get information on prices, inventory levels, reviews, and stores

Connect with a contact center bot before talking to a human

Insert QR codes in advertisements to direct customers to the online application or website

In-store robots help customers find the right product speeding the shopping

Location-based push notifications to inform customers about ongoing discounts when they are around the store

6. Conversational Engagement

The growing importance of conversational experiences in the CX realm stems from their remarkable ability to foster genuine engagement. Conversational interactions, spanning omnichannel platforms like SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook, and in-app chats, offer a dynamic two-way channel for real-time communication. Unlike traditional modes, such as email, where customers might wait for responses, conversational experiences provide immediate resolutions, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Advantages of a Conversational Engagement

Builds a long-term relationship with customers

Creates connection

Improves brand image

Achieves quick problem solving

Offers convenience to customers

Applications of a Conversational Engagement

Make onboarding smoother by providing tutorials and answering FAQs

Instantly resolve customer queries

Follow-up with customers in case of abandoned carts

Send delivery status updates on both the chat app and SMS

Ask customers for reviews, testimonials, or referrals without being intrusive

By embracing the above trends, organizations can unlock new avenues for customer engagement, loyalty, and business growth.

Exotel’s Omnichannel Contact Center Solution

Exotel is a leading CX solutions provider that is trusted by over 7,000 businesses worldwide. Its contact center has been designed to help organizations be at the forefront of the omnichannel CX revolution. Exotel’s omnichannel contact center helps businesses stay ahead of the curve and interact with their customers #LikeAFriend while offering the following benefits:

A. Consistent CX across multiple communication channels without losing context

B. Data-driven decisions in real-time with the help of a centralized dashboard

C. Increased agent productivity facilitated by workflow automation

D. Personalized interactions enabled by CRM integration

E. Faster issue resolution with a comprehensive view of the customer journey