Using SMS, Voice, and Video to Stay Safe and Stay in Business

As employees return to work and customers start trickling in to restaurants, gyms, spas, and movie theaters, business owners are charged with the dual responsibilities of keeping their employees and customers safe. Although top-notch sanitation practices should continue to take priority, we can take a look at how to improve or streamline other practices that, although required and ad hoc during a quarantine, have room for improvement and can continue to be leveraged during the “normal” course of business. Two opportunities for innovation are providing niche video streaming solutions and text-only apps that allow businesses to schedule text messages to relevant customers at appropriate times.

Live Streaming: Zoom and Facebook Live are not the only options

During quarantine, businesses, churches, musicians, teachers and many others have taken to various streaming apps to provide services, meetings, sermons, or shows. The livelihood of anyone that relies on an audience depends on, first, reaching that audience and, second, being paid or otherwise supported by that audience. Although a stop-gap measure, popular services like Zoom or Facebook Live have the following drawbacks, even for the most experienced performer or public speaker:

-      Lack of tightly-integrated payment or donation option

-      High fees for streaming to large groups

-      Unwanted content recommended to the viewer

-      Lack of interactive whiteboard tools

Here’s where a solution that integrates with a cloud communications platform like Twilio comes in. A homeschool education provider might want to add a streaming video component to give more interactive experience to its students. A platform catering to music fans may want to integrate an SMS feature to alert fans when their favorite bands are about to do a live (from home) performance. And on the backend, the musicians and teachers on both platforms might prefer a custom user interface with which to manage their schedule, stream their content, and receive payouts and notifications, all in one place.

Interested in learning more about streaming video? Contact The SilverLogic, your south Florida web development services company.

Keep your customers happy and safe with automated SMS

Automated SMS is a relatively lightweight way to improve or streamline business communications both internally and externally. There are no apps to download and no UI to agonize over. SMS is easy to use, it’s quick, and it’s flexible. For example, a specialty grocery store interested in optimizing sales might use:

-     An pre-scheduled SMS to alert customers of special deals during holidays

-     An automated SMS to a local farmer informing them that a re-supply will be needed soon

-     A confirmation message once a vendor has been paid or an shelf-space opportunity has been listed or filled

Automated SMS doesn’t just serve as a simple reminder or a notification either. Automated SMS can stretch to being a personal assistant, a more advanced Siri, or an easy way to satisfy customers requests. Automated messages can satisfy a majority of customer requests, from automating answers for frequently asked questions to a legal practice, a personal assistant that may help with apartment hunting, or simply a simpler way to reach businesses in our digitized world.

If you’re interested in learning more about business automation, automating your SMS flow, or video app development, drop us a line at [email protected].