Mobile CX with Two Way Text: HeyWire is Bridging the Engagement Gap

Consumers have many varied ways to communicate in the digital age, and it can be difficult for companies to meet customer expectations across or even within channels. Adding to the complexity, customer experience is about engagement, so it is not enough to simply have a presence in the customer’s channel of choice, it needs to allow for meaningful interactions. Consider automated text messages that send notifications requiring a consumer to then call or go to a website to complete a transaction. HfS recently learned about a technology provider that is seeking to bridge that gap by enabling two-way texting and integration with multi-channel communication for the contact center. HeyWire enables text for any existing phone number, such as 800 numbers for a contact center, allowing agents to receive and respond to texts coming from customers. It integrates directly with CRM systems like Salesforce.com, where text exchanges sync automatically with the customer record.

HeyWire’s capabilities play an important role within the multi-channel customer communication strategy by integrating text with contact center, allowing customers to have interactive, and therefore meaningful, engagement with businesses via text, a channel that has been known primarily for simply pushing notifications. It can simply make a customer’s life easier, which is an effective way to build loyalty.

For example, a customer texted a restaurant that she had picked up the wrong take out order, but was miles away, making it inconvenient to return. The agent receiving the text was able to arrange for another restaurant closer to her current location to have her correct order ready for pickup. HeyWire messaging has tremendous potential for the retail/CPG vertical, considering the type of interactions that the channel could support, such as checking on pricing and availability, loyalty card balance and information, and checking on orders or returns. This is where the CRM integration is so valuable by giving visibility into the customer’s profile and interaction history to provide context and enabling more personalized interactions.

In addition to making a text more interactive, relevant, and connected with a customer’s profile, this interactive text exchange capability can also make agents more productive. According to HeyWire, an agent can handle up to nine text message conversations in the same time frame as a typical customer support phone call. HeyWire’s usage is currently 75% human but the technology has already demonstrated the ability to connect to natural language understanding platforms, and in some cases is using chatbots to interact with customers.

The key for HeyWire’s future success will be to continue to build strong relationships to further connect the dots in a seamless way for companies and their customers within the omni-channel ecosystem. We believe the Salesforce.com integration strategy is a move in this direction. One challenge to watch out for—and perhaps address head on by bringing it into the ecosystem—will be consumer free texting (i.e., WhatsApp) as it grows in popularity and has the potential to usurp text/SMS as a preferred mode of communication. Continuing to focus on creating better customer engagement in a channel that has been known primarily for simply pushing notifications.