Hats off to the SMS.
Quick, direct, penetrative: it’s not surprising that it’s the communication channel enterprises rely on most to connect effectively with customers.
According to research, virtually every SMS message is read by recipients; a highly- compelling reason for brands to invest in the technology that enables it all to happen.
One-time password validations, appointment confirmations and reminders, marketing offers, customer support messaging: it’s a brilliantly-effective way of engaging, but the speed and simplicity of front-end delivery can often be out-weighed by the cost and complexity of the back-end process.
Complicated regulation, registration red tape, global geographical anomalies, sender aggregation, carrier dependence: it all makes sending a simple text far less straight-forward than it looks.
Consequently, it pays for enterprises to pick a provider with not only a value offering but also the scale, expertise, and smarts to navigate smoothly through this most bureaucratic of landscapes.
“There is a whole host of things that companies need to understand in order to maximize their investment in SMS messaging, such as the different options for sending in each country and how they may affect the strategy. You can’t just get a phone number and begin sending globally. It’s not that simple. There are many different hoops and jumps involved to deliver an SMS,” says Tyler Holmes, Senior Specialist Solutions Architect at AWS, whose Amazon Pinpoint enterprise messaging platform delivers billions of texts every day.
“Organisations go in, they get a single phone number, and then think they can send wherever they want, but that’s just not the case. First, they should ideally know which countries they need to send to, the volumes they anticipate, and how fast they need to send them.
Based on that information we can guide them through the different functionality options for different types of phone numbers and different options for different countries.
“Then there is the carrier to consider. In the US, it's the likes of Verizon and AT&T and T-Mobile. But in other countries, multiple different carriers own the infrastructure that gets an SMS to a handset, and they, along with government, have a large say in regulations and the registration process that may be required in each country. SMS costs and regulations can change frequently, so it benefits organisations to choose a provider that can help navigate that complex landscape.”
