Sinch has agreed to combine with Wavy to advance innovation globally and to build a leading position in next-generation conversational marketing in Latin America and around the world. (You can read more here ). Each company has a people-first culture that powers its success. Sinch’s guiding principle is a belief in delegating responsibilities, not tasks. This is partly based on basic Scandinavian…, Big innovation, bigger dreams , Wavy’s people and culture truly makes this combination a whole that is much larger than the sum of its parts. We are particularly taken by the “move fast and break things” ethos espoused by Wavy’s CEO, Eduardo Henrique, which he picked up during his half-dozen years as a technology leader in Silicon Valley. Under his stewardship, Wavy encourages its self-described company of “nerds” to be…
Type: Blog Article
Michael Ricci is the Master Principal Solutions Architect at Oracle. As a key contributor to Oracle's Digital Marketing Center of Excellence, Ricci works closely with enterprise customers to architect solutions to their complex digital marketing challenges, and unify customer data to deliver true one-to-one personalization across the entire digital customer experience. In this two-part series, we…, Where do you think enterprise marketers should be investing today to prepare for the future of mobile customer experience?, I’m a little bit biased, but fundamentally, I think it’s all about data — and you’re seeing that play out in real time. Marketers more and more are trying to begin to bring together data that used to be in silos — be it a mobile silo, an email silo, a web silo, an analytics silo, so on and so forth. And they’re doing that because what they’re trying to do is understand intimately the behaviors,…, What do you think the biggest hurdles are … be those financial, operational, or even shortcomings of mindset?, I think it all boils down to operational hurdles. And by “operational hurdles,” what I mean is, historically, what’s ended up happening is, marketers have embraced these best-of-breed solutions and they’ve siloed data. So in that sense, they are their own worst enemies. The process of breaking those silos down is tough work. And it requires a different mindset and a partnership with IT. The last…, What would you say are the indicators of companies that are on the path to growth, innovation versus those that aren’t?, We’ve become an internet-centric culture and consumer, if you will. You and I, today, shop on Amazon. We’ve become very reliant on the notion of going, finding the best price, getting that item shipped directly to our doorstep. That’s fundamentally changed the nature of brick-and-mortar retail. Look around you. We’re seeing malls close. We’re seeing brick-and-mortar retailers downsize their…, You mentioned earlier that mobile is a very personal experience: It’s in your pocket; you’re looking at it all day., Can you talk a little bit about the challenges companies face, given that very personal connection? What are the “must dos,” and well as the bright lines companies should not cross?, It’s fascinating to me, working for a company that delivers email, social and mobile experiences. The vast majority of marketers we see don’t have a mobile strategy. They treat mobile as a channel. They treat it almost as an extension of their email messaging program, and they approach it the same way — meaning that the same failed technique that’s been in play with email for eons, which is this…
Type: Blog Article
Michael Ricci is the Master Principal Solutions Architect at Oracle. As a key contributor to Oracle's Digital Marketing Center of Excellence, Ricci works closely with enterprise customers to architect solutions to their complex digital marketing challenges, and unify customer data to deliver true one-to-one personalization across the entire digital customer experience. In this two-part series, we…, Can you talk about how culture plays into digital innovation? What type of organizational culture might support the right approach — or is that the wrong question?, No, it’s a good question. I think that those organizations that have gotten their minds around the need to bring together this data are invariably the ones that are switching onto the notion that mobile’s not just an extension of email; mobile’s not just another messaging channel. Mobile is the future. Mobile’s where consumers are going to transact, and therefore we need a mobile-specific…, In the first part of this interview, , you mentioned the big players like Uber and Amazon. These are brands all of us agree are innovative., Can you think of any companies that surprise you, in a good way, at how they’re using mobile? Maybe brands we don’t immediately think about as mobile innovators. , One of them that I would applaud is Sephora. I think that they’ve done a really, really good job of marshaling data and creating personalized experiences. Also, they’re amazingly bright in how they mine transactional history and behavioral analytics to create personalized relevance. When I think of brands like Sephora, I think they get it. When I think of brands like CVS, and the way in which…, Sinch recently sponsored research that shows consumers say they want to interact with brands on their phones. They want things like alerts about their bank accounts, delivery notifications, message-based prescription refills … but even though they say they want these things, they aren’t using them to that same degree., What do you think accounts for that gap? Is it a consumer adoption problem or an enterprise problem?, I think it’s more of an enterprise problem. The consumer has low tolerance for impersonalized experiences. And the vast majority of enterprises are not using data to create personalized relevance. I think it’s a matter of rethinking mobile, and I think a lot of enterprises are switching on and starting to rethink how they approach mobile and get outside this notion that it’s all about the mobile…, One other finding from the research was that nearly 9 in 10 consumers say they’d rather all messaging takes place in the native phone messaging app, rather than separated out through Messenger, WhatsApp, branded apps, etc., Does that finding surprise you?, No, not at all. Honestly, we live in a complex world — and consumers are in search of simplicity. Many consumers, especially millennials, use that messaging app to communicate with the outside world. Why wouldn’t you want to consolidate it? Why do I need Line and WhatsApp and all the rest of these messaging apps in order to communicate? I think people are looking for more simplicity in their…, I’m going to turn the tables on you and ask you to put yourself in my shoes. What question should I be asking you?, What’s a really hard-hitting question that a leader in customer experience should be asking themselves?, That’s a good question. I guess the question would probably be more in the nature of: Given that we’ve seen all this disruption taking place with brands like the Amazons of the world that are mining all this data, that are succeeding wildly, why aren’t more brands embracing that? I think that’s an interesting question. And the answer, as you can expect, is elegantly simple: This is hard work. It…, What’s a skill that you think customer experience leaders lack today that they should be developing?, Data centricity. When you think about it, invariably customer experience is all about using data smarter. And there’s a lot of people who are CX professionals who don’t have necessary data backgrounds. I think it’s about data and analytics going forward. And the people who understand that and who are able to mine insights from data and use data, marshal it to create these personalized experiences…, Want to find out more about what inspires Ricci? We asked him what book has changed his thinking over the last six months. He says, Digital Transformation,, by Tom Siebel of Siebel Systems, “focuses on this notion of what’s happening from a digital transformation standpoint, what tomorrow looks like.” , Want to learn more about how messaging is reshaping the consumer experience? Read our Mobile Consumer Engagement 2020 report here .
Type: Blog Article
Mobile carriers are missing out on a huge revenue opportunity thanks to grey routing – a way for ‘sharp’ operators to exploit loop-holes in mobile phone networks by sidestepping the termination fee to the receiving network. Typically messages offered to enterprises via a grey route are cheap, but lack any important KPIs like speed of delivery (if delivered at all) and security. It’s a problem…
Type: Blog Article
Mobile Marketing Magazine caught up with Sinch Chief Evangelist and Co-founder Robert Gerstmann at MWC19, to have a chat about RCS, OTT, and the challenges of navigating a fragmented messaging landscape. Check out our video , and see how RCS is set to shake things up when it comes to enterprise messaging. Find out how RCS can help brands approach message flow in new ways, and make P2A messaging a…
Type: Blog Article
Of equal, if not more, importance is the effect that grey routes have on brand reputation and consumer trust. Perhaps you’ve been woken up by your phone beeping an alert at three in the morning offering you a 2 for 1 deal on a pizza? Typically messages that are offered to enterprises via a grey route are cheap but lack any important KPIs like timing and speed of delivery (if delivered at all). …
Type: Blog Article
Mobile Marketing Magazine sat down for a chat with our very own Robert Gerstmann, to get the low down on our recent rebrand and how the face of customer engagement is changing right before our very eyes. Take a look at our video , where David Murphy from Mobile Marketing Magazine grills our Chief Evangelist and Co-founder on the thinking behind our rebrand, how it will help us on our journey…
Type: Blog Article
Mobile first enterprises like Uber, Airbnb and any given challenger bank, are winning the battle for customer loyalty and attention. Their approach has enabled them to leapfrog the time and cost associated with changing legacy IT systems, giving them the edge when it comes to adapting to new consumer trends and technologies. Now the battle-ground for precious loyalty and attention is shifting to…
Type: Blog Article
What does the modern enterprise need in terms of messaging? Why is the context of the consumer so important? CLX co-founder and chief evangelist Robert Gerstmann talked to Capacity Media’s James Pearce to explain…, What is omni-channel messaging, in a simple phrase? And who will use it?, Omni-channel messaging is business messaging orchestrated across any mobile channel including SMS messaging , RCS messaging , chat apps and MMS messaging . Increasingly a good customer experience is the primary way in which businesses compete. As consumers increasingly move to smartphones to perform a wide range of tasks, it follows that omni-channel messaging is for any company that is serious…, How complex is it for businesses to use parallel technologies and parallel channels to communicate with consumers?, The truth is that achieving omni-channel communication is complex. Enterprises want two things; a single customer view gathered from multiple communication technologies, and to be able to reach consumers on the platform most relevant to them. Add to this the contextual dynamic – the message may only require a 160-character SMS or need something more two-way like a chatbot session including…, What are the obstacles to overcome in this aim – including the still embryonic state of RCS?, With RCS in particular, the route to mass adoption has various simple obstacles that are the responsibility of different parts of the ecosystem. Firstly it’s up to mobile operators to adopt MaaP and Universal Profile so that RCS is enabled. This is happening at pace, with several operators, including Sprint, AT&T Rogers and Vodafone already live with A2P RCS and many more operators expected…, How do the costs (versus benefits) differ across the different platforms?, For RCS, it’s too early to say where pricing will be set. This is subject to intense discussions across the ecosystem. A combination of per transaction and per session pricing with the payload, which can be much heavier in terms of data than SMS, being included in the charge somehow looks likely. Whilst pricing levels aren’t yet nailed down it’s likely that RCS will cost more than SMS but in…, How long do you think it will take for RCS, OTT and other “new” messaging systems to achieve a significantly larger market than SMS?, It will take at least five to ten years for the combination of RCS and OTT messaging options to eclipse SMS, as SMS today is trusted and ubiquitous and doesn’t require a data connection. Even with consumer acceptance of new messaging formats, SMS will still be widely used as the most appropriate channel for specific messaging tasks depending on the specific use case, cost, handset, network etc..…
Type: Blog Article
Application to Person (A2P) SMS messages continues to reign as the channel of choice for customer engagement , notification and authentication. It’s trusted and ubiquitous. Last year, CLX conducted a major survey with analyst firm Ovum on messaging in the enterprise. Ovum’s analysis showed that use of A2P SMS continues to surge, forecasting 1.28tn messages by 2019, up from 1.16tn in 2016. "The…
Type: Blog Article
