How to cope with hyper growth in the AI era

An unprecedented era of business innovation is dawning. Powered by data-rich insights, cloud applications, 5G connectivity and AI-driven automation, businesses have the ability to grow at speeds that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago.

Meanwhile, thanks to advances in cloud communication technologies, almost every person and business in the world is within reach.

The opportunity to scale and succeed in this new landscape is virtually limitless. So it’s essential businesses don’t get held back by their engagement strategies.

It’s not just customer engagement that businesses are going to have to learn to scale, it’s machine-to-machine communications too. As 5G proliferates, it will spur the fast, secure and cost-efficient roll-out of all sorts of smart technologies.

A web of interlinking machine-to-machine, machine-to-human, human-to-machine, and human-to-human interactions will need to be coordinated. It’s time to prepare your communication strategy for the fourth industrial revolution.

This article explains how to avoid the potential pitfalls of scaling at pace, and sets out how you can engage ever-growing numbers of customers, at every stage of their journeys.

For companies properly set up to handle skyrocketing interactions, huge opportunities await. But you’d be right to approach with caution. The wider you cast your engagement net, the greater the chances of potential pitfalls.

Take SMS – still the default communications channel for a majority of businesses. The global messaging ecosystem is infamously intricate (think local regulations, time-to-campaign approval, security and compliance issues, and more).

Translate this complexity to campaigns delivered at scale, and you’ve got even more potential kinks in the chain. Issues that arise when high-volume mobile campaigns are mismanaged include:

The right provider should help you combat potential risks as you scale. Look for a partner with wide global direct reach and proven ability to manage high growth and traffic demands. For example, Infobip has over 700 direct global direct operator connections to ensure you can reach every person, in every country, reliably and securely.

A provider with close relations to all the mobile carriers, as well as encyclopedic knowledge of compliance, will guarantee throughput, deliverability, reliability and swift approval as your interactions escalate.

Many businesses are rightly considering adding more channels to their communications mix to reach people in all the places they can now interact.

Yet, adding new channels using a patchwork of providers can be a complex undertaking, especially as the volume of interactions increases. Tracking so many interactions across a variety of channels and suppliers to get a clear view of customer behavior will prove tricky at best (and impossible at worst).

If you’re considering adding more channels – for example WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple’s Business Chat or Google’s Business Messages – you’ll want to choose a single cloud communications provider that can orchestrate interactions from one platform.

So aim higher than simply finding a supplier. Look for a trusted partner that can help you scale up your offering and grow your revenues. Ensure your partner has a consulting team that can offer guidance on how, where and when to use each channel, and for which use cases.

Scaling to create your own growth success story involves many moving parts, but every business will need to master the following:

Survival in the hyper-growth age means scaling for volume, without compromising everyday interactions. From onboarding and authentication processes to reminders and confirmation via sales and marketing messages, the “bread-and-butter” communications that secure consumer trust matter – perhaps more than ever.

As such, maintaining quality control while you ramp up engagements is crucial. Prepare to orchestrate personalized interactions at precise moments and in exact places on all the channels that suit users, for every use case. Follow this blueprint and you’ll edge ahead of the curve.

At this pivotal moment of technological evolution, your business needs the ability to connect and engage with people in every country, at every stage of their journey.

You’ll need to be able to offer seamless, personalized services, support and fulfillment on all your customers’ preferred channels.

As engagements escalate, joining the one-platform, cloud communications revolution won’t just ensure your survival – it will set you on course for unparallelled growth.