Our current attitudes to communications as organisations are missing the mark. As mass communicators both internally and externally, we’re increasingly contributing to the noise and not paying enough attention to our audiences. Better yet, our people.
Because the truth is, the market treats the market horribly. This is not prevalent just in Southeast Asia, this is a global issue.
The noise of notification blasts
We’re all completely addicted to our phones now more than ever because software companies have tapped into current-day fundamental, psychological triggers.
In place of considered, audience-appropriate messaging, communications have fallen prey to bulk blasts and selective hearing. All driven by instant gratification.
Technology has made messaging more disposable than ever. A double finger tap on a social media post is the new audience attention-span benchmark. A result from the equation: notification received/ sent equals instant, yet momentary, dopamine reward.
Every day we’re blasted with alerts, all fighting to get our attention. Which is really harmful to society – nobody can focus on a task for longer than two minutes.
The truth is, the messaging space is often highly predatory. Most organisations essentially spam the public and are satisfied with mediocre engagement rates. Very low click through and goal attainment rates is what people have come to expect as the new normal.
What this means is organisations seem okay with harassing 98% of the public with messages most of them don’t even want, and we believe this is a problem worth solving.
Instead of asking people to hearthe message, we’re asking them to likethe momentary event of communication. Sometimes without even stopping to consider the real value of the message.
If we can actually reduce down the noise for the public as well as increase message engagement, we can really solve not just a business problem, but a cultural one.
This creates a deeper relationship with our customers and who they’re communicating with. A relationship born from the re-imagination of communications; using automated intelligence to easily and effectively master connection and engagement with real people.
One that’s built on respect. Respect of time, and respect of well-being.
Shifting the value from commodity to organisation: Not the what, but the who
There are two ways a company will position itself in the messaging space.
The first, a focus on commodity value – this is where organisations talk to the price per message or how many features they get for a licensing fee over intelligent design and performance.
This space is quite a challenge to compete in longer-term as the costs will always head to zero.
Resulting in a costs driven approach to communications strategies to the detriment of message value and audience-targeted strategy.
The second, and arguably, the better position, is a focus around delivering organisational value. Aspire to have genuine and sophisticated conversations about helping people meet their financial goals, or assisting with keeping their staff safe during a global pandemic.
This stance promotes an emphasis on the return on investment per message over macro communications.
This stance allows organisations to justify the cost of premium tools in return for authentic engagement and move away from conversations about messaging costs.
Human vs Computer Performance
When making any plans for the future, including communications strategy, it’s important to take into account where we are in computational history.
Right now, software-as-a-service (SaaS) communications organisations and customers sit at an inflexion point.
For many, benchmarking computer advancement is to compare the increase of machine learning and computing power of the present versus the standards of 1950s Alan Turing’s artificial intelligence doctrine.
Now, with leaps in technological growth, we are about to discover what the world will look like, and specifically how our economy will operate, in the face of advances in computational intelligence.
Nobody knows for certain when this change will materialise, but what is certain is that we must face it, and somehow integrate our plans into that reality.
Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, says this technology will be more significant to humanity than the discovery of fire, so it would be wise to plan with this in mind if we are to not just survive the next 10 years but to really thrive in it and create great returns for investors.
From messaging service to communications intelligence
The conjugation of digital communications and machine learning doesn’t just make the messages we send more effective, we’re actually adding a great deal of value to each message.
As we integrate sophisticated tools to communications, we insert higher levels of intelligence, allowing our customers to extract better outcomes, learn new insights and fundamentally make better decisions each day.
This takes us to a place where the intelligence we bring to the platform is where the value is.
In an industrial revolution with intelligence at its core.
“The organisations who will thrive over the next 10 years are those who create and enrich indispensable data sets which will form the foundations on which all future communication strategies will be built.
This is more than AI washing a company, this is about doing with authenticity what many organisations wish they had the courage and the muscle to do.
- The first idea is about prediction. This is where SaaS communications companies build features that can see around corners. By creating solutions with the power to predict who will respond to a message before they open it.
By being able to look into a crystal ball and see the outcome before it happens, organisations can save customers huge amounts of wasted effort. To stop customers from sending messages to people about trains being late if they are not catching a train that day.
- Second, detection is about seeing something as it happens and helping customers avoid making mistakes. If organisations can detect if a message is poorly written before it goes out, they can ensure customer’s strong brands are upheld. Equally, the ability to detect if an SMS has the wrong tone of voice or spelling mistakes. Allowing SaaS customers to make better moves, one message at a time.
- Finally automation. Organisations need to automate as much as they can. Automate the setup of accounts, automate the onboarding process so customers can extract value faster and of course, automate the message sending and receiving, leveraging off workflows.
Instead of asking people to likewhat we’re saying, refocus on the importance of hearing what organisations are saying
Machine learning and automation in company with data-driven customer insights will ensure the message can cut through the noise and speak with purpose.
About the Author
Brad Dunn is the Chief Product Officer at Whispir (ASX: WSP), with extensive knowledge of software services and communications.
In addition to his tenure at Whispir, Brad is a prolific writer, machine learning enthusiast and premium tea nerd.