MessageBird, a leading CPaaS provider with their finger on the pulse of the API revolution, recently announced a new solution in its portfolio. The new Inbox service aims to get rid of the stress associated with managing communications while providing better service and experience to the end customer.
The Inbox offering is MessageBird’s attempt to fill a gap in the market for a truly omni-channel communication solution. Already recognised as a leader in the CPaaS environment by Gartner and IDC, this development by MessageBird is bound to further cement the company’s position in the industry and highlight what it can accomplish in the customer engagement world.
I sat down with MessageBird CEO, Robert Vis, to learn more about the customer engagement platform, Inbox, and how it can combine the power of intelligence and automation, with some of the most popular messaging channels in the landscape.
Transforming CX with MessageBird
According to Robert, the new solution aims to overcome the communication issues that today’s businesses face. Robert comes from an interesting background. After selling an online payment processing business, he jumped into the communication world, believing it was a new opportunity to do great things.
Watch the interview with Robert Vis
In 2017, MessageBird earned 60 million in funding, and today the business continues to grow at an incredible pace. When I first interacted with MessageBird almost 3 years ago, it was made up of only 50 people. Now, it’s a 200 million dollar business with hundreds of employees around the globe.
The latest Inbox solution is particularly compelling because it addresses the omni-channel marketplace in a new way. Though many companies have discussed omni-channel in recent years, most of the solutions on the market are either siloed enterprise offerings made by bolting extra features onto an existing tool, or systems that only combine 2 or 3 channels together.
Inbox solves the issue of omni-channel communications by providing the “Slack of external communications.” With a 60-second activation time, it allows users to access everything from SMS and voice messages, to WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, RCS, Apple business chat, and more in the same environment. Regardless of channel, all conversations are combined into a single thread. With webhooks, the platform can also connect with other third-party tools, and comes with integrations like Slack, Salesforce, and Shopify already.
Driving True Omni-channel Communications
In a world that’s growing increasingly mobile, the Inbox solution provides companies with the tools that they need to rapidly create an out-of-the-box platform for customer engagement. You can give your customers access to the communication channels that they prefer and reduce the problems of having to track discussions on multiple apps.
There’s access to 7 languages out of the box, and developers can also access a host of APIs for deeper and more bespoke integrations too. The simplicity of Inbox is what really helps it to stand out in the omni-channel market. Businesses can enable the solution in seconds, with no need to overburden development and customer experience teams.
If you do want to integrate your own solutions, the Inbox offering is also built on top of the MessageBird Flow Builder CPaaS stack. This means that customers can inject data from any source and automate conversations with advanced AI features too. You can tap into natural language processing, sentiment analysis, and more to better understand the customer journey.
Perhaps the most incredible thing about Inbox is how quick it is for companies to start delivering an unforgettable experience for their audience. Setting up only takes a minute, and the service is also going to be available for free! Not only is MessageBird doubling-down on making sure that this product is as accessible and versatile as possible with ongoing development, but they’re making sure anyone can afford to use it too.
The company is essentially taking a Slack approach for its go-to-market. While there are paid add-ons and extensions that you can consider, the base system is free to use.
Get Started at Inbox.ai
If you’ve been looking for a true omni-channel customer engagement solution, then Inbox is definitely worth consideration. I believe that it’s really going to plug a gap in the market, particularly with the unique Slack model that it’s using.
With a free foundational platform, it’s going to be a lot easier for businesses from all backgrounds to get involved with authentic omni-channel messaging, as well as advanced features like real-time analytics and sentiment analysis. This new product is set to disrupt the customer service platform, CCaaS, and contact centre market completely.
