“Software is eating the world” - stated Marc Andreesen in 2011. Today, we are over a decade away from this claim and it seems to be more right than ever, as the popularity of APIs services is constantly increasing and their wide availability and high quality are accelerating the creation and adoption of software.
Thanks to API implementation, startups don’t need to build everything from scratch as it provides many out-of-the-box capabilities and enables them to focus on core product development. APIs find a useful application in payment infrastructure companies like Stripe to make online payment processing easy and convenient, as well as in cloud communication platforms like Vonage to help effectively improve customer experience.
So now, let’s focus on the Communications APIs specifically and find out how you, as an early-stage startup, can benefit from them.
What are Communications APIs?
Communications APIs support startups in expanding their communication system by scaling some aspects of the business quickly and cost-effectively. They enable you to add features like Authentication, Video, Voice, Messages, etc. to your product while using a global network and fully compliant practices. Companies like Airbnb, Aramex, and Uber, use communications APIs to create two-step verifications that authenticate sign-ins and enable chatbots, conversations, delivery status tracking, SMS campaigns, and much more.
Having known that, let’s take a closer look at the top reasons why your startup should implement communication APIs to build better customer experiences.
1. Avoiding distractions and focusing on your startup goals
Early-stage startups are usually fully concentrated on fundraising, hiring the best team members, building out operations, ensuring product-market fit, building go-to-market strategies, and other business development-related issues.
Startup founders should spend most of their time on building unique selling points to achieve product-market fit, so by implementing communications APIs they are able to easily include additional functionality and communication touchpoints with their customers instead of starting from scratch and wasting time, resources, and money. APIs are like building blocks that can be added to your product in many different ways without shifting focus.
2. Saving time and money
One of the major struggles for most early-stage startups is how to effectively manage the financial resources and time in order to avoid running out of money before the proper kick-off or scaling. Therefore, financial considerations have significant implications in every decision that startup team members make.
Hiring developers with specialized experience in building communications technology from the ground up is extremely expensive and it requires a lot of time to be implemented correctly. Communications APIs, on the other hand, have advanced features and at the same time are a cheaper and more flexible option for early-stage startups willing to build their communications infrastructure.
3. Achieving improved customer experience
Exceptional customer experience should be one of the highest priorities for startups, as they not only need to reach a new audience but also retain current clients and make them satisfied in order to increase retention and profits and decrease churn.
To keep customers engaged, your startup has to make interaction fast and in the most convenient way for each of them. That’s why all communication possibilities need to be carefully considered before approving the final version. In order to understand how communications APIs can transform the user experience, let’s see an insurance company app functioning as an example.
1) After downloading the application and creating an account via Authentication API, the customer receives a One Time Passcode via SMS to verify the identity, which increases safety and security.
2) Then a VoiceBot or ChatBot is used to gather the initial client’s information concerning the reason for the consultation. It is convenient for the agent and more comfortable for the user.
3) Next, the user books the appointment with an insurer in the app and receives an SMS or Whatsapp reminder, which saves time.
4) The customer then joins the online consultation through the app powered by a Video API, which is very convenient.
5) As soon as the appointment is completed the user receives the next steps on his phone (SMS or Social Messages API), so he/she has all necessary information in one place.
The customer has seamlessly attended the consultation and at the same time received secure and up-to-date information while using the application from home. This is just one example of how APIs can be used to manage customer touchpoints and design exceptional customer-facing products.
4. Creating a scalable product
The startup journey kicks off when you already have a few users testing your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and, ideally, when you are close to achieving product-market fit by satisfying strong market demand. During the whole process, your startup should aim to create a product that provides the best functionality and customer experience no matter if your clients are counted in dozens, thousands or even millions.
Let’s continue with the example of the insurance company app. Along with the product adoption growth, the application still needs to manage increasingly more in-app voice conversations, verifications, video consultations, and additional scheduling messages. A huge benefit of communications APIs is that with the same ease you can communicate with 1 customer or 1000 customers, or 100,000 of them, with almost no changes in the technology implementation. Therefore, investing early in your communication infrastructure can allow your startup to scale quickly and reach more customers without any impediments. Moreover, when your product adoption increases, economies of scale will be achieved (cost per unit declines as unit sales grow).
5. Building the final product fast and easily
Startups should be able to act with great speed and efficiency, no matter if it’s about implementing an additional feature or hiring new team members. Various product interactions and constant feedback from users are the bread and butter of an effective startup functioning. Only, through proper communication with customers, and repetitive actions your startup will be able to find out what to improve, develop, implement, and add to your offer.
Communications APIs can help you test, and remove communications channels easily and without any consequences until you find the right mix of possible ways to interact with your customers. This helps a startup to build the final product fast, so it will be able to enter the market sooner than you expected, and consequently, maintain a competitive edge even at an early stage.
All things considered, Communications APIs help a startup build scalable products fast and easily, save time and money, ensure a great customer experience, and at the same time, won’t distract startup founders on what matters the most - constant business development.
Vonage for Startups
Vonage for startups aims to help early-stage companies to boost productivity and improve collaboration and connectivity which significantly influence customer experience and increases their satisfaction along with the quality of the provided services. Vonage for startups has been built with a founder-first approach, as each startup has different needs and can benefit from Communications APIs in a variety of ways.
If you want to integrate Communications APIs, join Vestbee platform to access the Discount Marketplace with a wide array of supporting resources combined with free startup credits on Vonage services.
In order to deepen your knowledge about communications APIs, we encourage you to check our workshops on “How Communications APIs boost the customer experience?” run by Przemysław Wyszyński, Head of CEE, Russia & CIS at Vonage API.
If you have any additional questions, please contact us here.
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