The universal app alert, since we no longer phone each other: the beep and the red dot that says you have an SMS message. But these days it’s more likely to be from a business, taking advantage of the cross-platform ubiquity, deep engagement, and unmatched open rates offered by SMS — with Application-to-Person (A2P) revenues predicted to grow 40% between 2018 and 2023 — and the message itself may appear on your smartwatch, desktop, or any device you choose.
While marketing communications are an obvious use case, Divya Ghai Wakankar, Head of Innovation and Product Management at BICS, pointed out that there are far wider applications for this fast and effective form of messaging — which uniquely works on any phone and any network worldwide:
“As well as customer engagement we’re seeing growth in one-time passwords for two-factor authentication (2FA) — especially with everyone now working from home and having to install or use new software”, she explained. “IoT is also a growing part of life now, and with the BICS A2P API, IoT enabled devices are sending ARNs (Alerts, Reminders and Notifications) for the right action to be taken.” So, rather than getting a text from your friend it might be from your fridge instead, warning that its door has been left ajar.
Straight to Your Customer’s Inbox
The explosion in online retail has driven A2P growth too, with alerts for deliveries facilitating hands-free drop-offs and exchanges. Missed appointments or delivery slots add up to huge costs for various verticals, and with a 98% read rate, texts are the perfect way to confirm and remind. Employee engagement can also be enhanced with SMS, in the distributed environment we all work in today — and perhaps as we return to traditional workplaces, we’ll see sensors using A2P messaging to warn us of overcrowded areas and hotspots in offices and public transport.
But to ensure timely delivery to a user’s single inbox, partnering with the right provider for A2P messaging is critical. In addition to A2P messaging, BICS also provides virtual mobile numbers offering a dedicated long code, for 2-way messaging in 15+ countries.
This helps ensure complete regulatory compliance and messaging interoperability, as well as a range of advanced customisable features. Wakankar explained:
“A checkable mobile number, as the Sender ID, is crucial for the credibility of the message and to exchange a 2-way conversational messaging experience with the end customer”
“For example, when you receive a message from your bank — sadly there are fraudsters taking advantage of the current emergency situation, and if messages originate from a shared shortcode you cannot verify the sender of the message.” With a dedicated mobile number for the business, it instils confidence and avoids scams and exploitation, particularly while many people worldwide await mass public sector alerts and payment information.
Smart protection
Powered by machine learning algorithms, BICS’ approach to fraud elimination helps to tackle spam and spoofing, protecting the reputation of its clients’ businesses as well as the integrity of the medium, because making sure SMS maintains its immediacy, and ‘deliverability’ is vital for the industry. Different regions require different standards and rules, but BICS supports its global user base in understanding compliance and content filtering, as well as providing end-to-end visibility of SMS traffic through a customised real-time data visualisation platform.
As the importance of contextual communication continues to grow in our omni-channel world, the basic ubiquity of text messaging — with us for over two decades — remains central to the way we communicate today, and A2P messaging’s predicted growth shows that no business can afford to overlook its potential.
