MSG 91 is an A2P communication provider in India. The cloud communication platform mainly caters to businesses (B2B) all over India (and expanding globally) to perform effective and seamless business communications through various channels. The services provided by the platform are BulkSMS, Emails, Voice, Chat, Whatsapp, and RCS. Below is a transcript from a recent interaction between team IT-Voice and Shubhendra Agrawal, Co-founder, Director & CFO at MSG91.
Prateek: How cloud communication companies are helping in evolving the cyber security threat ecosystem?
Shubhendra Agrawal: As cloud-communications solutions are new technology, companies are yet not comfortable with the concept. The complete idea of sharing, files, programs, and customer data which need to be kept securely is new and brings fear of whether the data is safe from cybercriminals? But as most of the time, we have seen that data theft is done through internal perpetrators onsite rather than offsite locations. Though this is all very abstract, after switching to cloud communication, 91% of customers said the cloud makes it easier to keep information safe. The key is the encryption of data being transmitted over networks and stored in databases. By using encryption, information is less accessible to hackers or anyone not authorized to view your data.
Prateek: How adoption of RCS can boost your CX in the future?
Shubhendra Agrawal: We are chatting more than we call, so in that scenario, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Line, and Viber have become the world’s most popular messaging apps. So any multinational business trying to reach or engage with customers they have to make their presence on any of these platforms. As all smartphones support SMS – which is what has made it such a good marketing channel. And also the RCS standard is universally supported, businesses can initiate a conversation and can do so with rich, tailored multimedia content.
Here are a few reasons how RCS going to boost customer experience.
a) Rich cards
One of the USPs of RCS messaging is that it ends up saving a lot of time for consumers. How RCS messaging ensures is by providing an app-like experience to the consumers so that they don’t have to waste their time.
b) Quick replies
RCS messaging ensures that the customer’s time is saved, there is smooth communication and the issues are resolved in no time. The customers just tap a yes button with a message and it can be via any mode be it plain text, a rich card, video, or message.
c) Verified Business Profiles
Customers need to trust that they are interacting with a verified sender. While doing any communication with the customer it’s essential that they are provided with utmost transparency and the RCS messaging service ensures this
d) High-resolution images and videos
RCS provides various ways to businesses by which they can save a customer’s time and keep coming back to the brand. RCS allows businesses to send high-resolution images and videos to customers so that they don’t have to visit the app or the website.
Prateek: What will be the trends in Enterprise Messaging in the year 2022?
Shubhendra Agrawal: Though messaging was seen as becoming obsolete but during the past two years with the onset of a pandemic, messaging has reached a new high.
Every business is investing and focusing on enterprise messaging. It has become a tool for attracting new customers, increasing sales, brand loyalty, customer retention and with all this, it helps in increasing the overall profitability.
a) Push-to-Talk—Direct voice messages through push-to-talk, earlier it was only done through digital radio but now it’s done through messenger apps.
b) Messengers as social intranets- This helps in keeping all employees grooved in internal communications and also helps in the distribution of information on an easy level.
c) Georeferencing- Location sharing is going to be a very important feature, especially among delivery network workers. It’s important for sharing the current location, provide directions, knowing the real-time address of business partners.
Prateek: How can cloud communication platforms be useful for enhanced customer experience?
Shubhendra Agrawal: As consumers are moving towards embracing technology in their professional and personal lives businesses are becoming more digital and mobile-centric. We see behavioral change as customers are looking for instant responses, instant access to information, and instant gratification both at work and home space. This behavioral pattern is pushing businesses towards delivering an effortless experience for the customers. Cloud communication platforms are enhancing this experience.
As customers, we expect brands to provide instant resolution without wait timing. It is no longer acceptable to be placed in a phone queue and to repeat our issue when finally connected with an agent. We look for immediate solutions, and most of the time our choice of platform is the internet. Cloud Communication platforms help in providing fast resolution for the customers. This experience will improve customer loyalty and help businesses to build a legacy-based superior customer care service.
Prateek: How to tackle the risks of conversational AI Security?
Shubhendra Agrawal: Threats and vulnerabilities are two types of risks that a consumer might end up dealing with while interacting with chatbots. Threats are usually one-time events such as Malware and DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service). Customer’s privacy is often being violated and it shows the dangers which chatbots can add to consumers’ lives.
Vulnerabilities are systemic problems that enable scanners to breach easily.
Four techniques can help to protect your system against Chabot risks:
a)Encryption
To ensure safety while interacting with chatbots, you must have come across these lines ‘This conversation is an end to end encrypted’. This statement means that communication would remain between the sender and the receiver, and nobody would be privy to the chat. The chatbot designers keep this thing in mind while designing the chatbots.
b)Authentication process
Chatbots employ a set of security processes that ensure that the user who is using the chatbot service is real and isn’t a fraud. The authentication can be of any type, be it biometric authentication, two-factor authentication, timeouts, and user ids.
c)Procedures and Protocols
HTTP is a security system’s default configuration. According to the security teams, data transfer should only take place between HTTPS and encrypted connections. Other ways are educating your employees, self-erasing messages, web application firewall, etc.
