Microsoft is integrating WhatsApp and SMS into its customer relationship tools to deepen customer contact and drive sales and loyalty following a partnership with global cloud communications company Infobip.
The move follows Infobip’s deployment of its Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) on Microsoft Azure last year, adding its omnichannel capabilities to Microsoft’s platforms.
Customers increasingly want to message a business rather than call, so brands need to be where their customers are. Responding to this, Infobip has integrated its SMS and WhatsApp channels with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales. Businesses using Dynamics 365 Sales can now use Infobip to build personalized customer communication campaigns using text messages and benefit from WhatApp’s enhanced features such as graphics and video capabilities.
This includes sending personalized coupons to existing or potential customers to increase sales, collecting customer feedback to improve products and services, and sending bespoke event, appointment, or payment due date reminders. Data from a single-view dashboard means users of Dynamics 365 Sales can have a complete view of customer communications across these new channels, where they can see sent and delivered message reports.
Infobip has also integrated its WhatsApp channel with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing, ensuring marketing teams in enterprise companies can interact with customers where they are most likely to engage.
Azure customers will also have the option to use existing Azure credits, as part of the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) program, to access Infobip’s cloud contact center solution Conversations. Through this agreement, businesses can engage customers, partners, and sellers through existing Microsoft procurement relationships, while benefiting from Microsoft’s trusted expertise and its partner ecosystem.
Vincenzo Esposito, General Manager, Central & Eastern Europe, Microsoft, comments: “Companies like Infobip add value by integrating their solutions with Microsoft Dynamics 365. This ensures that businesses, no matter where they are or their channel preferences, can harness the benefits of digital transformation. Together we are enabling omnichannel communication to deliver impactful business solutions.”
Pamela Clark-Dickson, Principal Analyst at Omdia, adds: “One of the major trends currently underway in CPaaS is the vendors’ transition from enabling communications for better interactions with customers to putting the customer experience at the center of their strategic and technology roadmaps. That means that CPaaS vendors like Infobip, closely examine how consumers wish to interact with their service providers, with communications just one of the (very important) enablers that they can put in place to enable those interactions. This next step in the collaboration with Microsoft underpins this’. Businesses globally will gain the benefit of expertise from these two global leaders to advance their innovation agenda.”
Veselin Vuković, VP of Strategic Partnership at Infobip, says: “The evolution of our collaboration with Microsoft demonstrates our commitment to ensure businesses can communicate with their customers using their preferred channel. In doing so, we help improve the customer experience, enhance loyalty, and ultimately boost sales. Our network delivered 200 billion messages last year and is connected to 65% of the world’s mobile devices via 700 global telecom partners. We’re delighted to be a Microsoft partner and our new integration will make it easier for customers to make use of our global reach and rich channel mix.”
