How do you evaluate embedded communications use cases?

Any time a business interacts with a customer or a partner is an opportunity to embed communications. Through APIs and communications platform as a service, embedded communications streamline business and add another layer of automation. Communications can be embedded in any instance that involves one or more people interacting, whether it's an interaction with another person or with a machine.

The first step in evaluating opportunities to embed communications is to map the activities of the business while focusing on user interactions, such as notifications about transactions, marketing-related activities or calls of particular note. These kinds of interactions have multiple modalities of use that need to be accounted for when assessing opportunities for embedded communications.

Transactional communications, such as employees calling a customer regarding an order status, is one of the easiest areas to embed and automate communications. Organizations can use APIs or communications platform as a service (CPaaS) to develop transactional notifications to automatically send customers alerts about shipments or order changes. Embedded communications can also support internal communications, such as employee alerts regarding sales leads or special events.

Organizations also have opportunities to embed inbound communications, such as providing customers with multiple ways to contact the business beyond calling or enabling simpler scheduling for clients.

Some API and CPaaS vendors will include suggestions for embedded communications use cases on their websites. These lists provide information on how their customers are using embedded communications as well as what capabilities vendors can offer. It's a good practice to check and see if any of these suggested use cases fit within your own business.

Once you've assessed the opportunities for embedded communications, they need to be prioritized. Use cases should be prioritized by the ROI they bring to the business as well as the effort involved in introducing automation to the business. Implementation costs, time and employee education are all factors that should be considered in this process.