Why do I love being an engineer at Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform? Because I get to work not only on the real-time communication tech we build but also on integrations with other amazing technologies. Case in point: Nexmo just became the preferred voice integration partner for IBM Voice Gateway, a SIP endpoint that you can use to connect phone calls with IBM Watson speech and conversation services. Through the IBM Voice Gateway and Nexmo platform integration, you can direct voice interactions with a cognitive self-service agent—IBM Voice Agent with Watson—or access real-time transcriptions of ..read more

This time of year brings with it three certainties: the local electricity utility will need to bring in reinforcements for that one neighbour on your street who overdid it with the lights resolutions will be broken just as quickly as they’re made and even the most sensible of people are tempted to make predictions for the coming new year. Rather than break tradition, I’ll stick my neck out and make six predictions of what will be the main themes of customer communication in 2019. Okay, here goes. 1. Omnichannel will be the new default Let’s start with an easy one. In 2019, customers will begin ..read more

For the last 8 years, Nexmo has helped developers enrich their applications with communication capabilities such as SMS and Voice. These implementations created a personal connection between brands and their customers, no matter where they were located. Today, I’d like to introduce the newest channel to our family — Nexmo In-App Video. Based on WebRTC, our In-App Video solution includes a full cloud video global infrastructure that enables developers to easily integrate video into their solutions with just a few lines of code. As a result, service agents and customers will now be able to see e ..read more

We’ve all done the same dance. You’re visiting someone at their office. As you wait in line at the reception desk, you email your friend. “In the lobby!”, you write. When your turn comes, the receptionist takes your name. He hands you a book of carbon paper. You write your name and it comes out as, “Pele”; the cross of the “t” lost in the carbon reproduction. The receptionist folds the paper into a plastic badge holder and you wonder, “Anybody ever look at these visitor books?” The receptionist apologises. He can’t reach your friend on the phone. He emails. You email. He calls the desk beside ..read more

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Head of Platform Marketing Francisco Kattan and Head of Voice Products Roland Selmer for the debut episode of our video series Communications in Context. The conversation centered on emerging trends that are defining how savvy businesses need to engage their customers. It was a rich topic that led to insightful discussions about concepts such as contextual communications, omnichannel customer experiences, and human plus conversations. Watch the full video here or to read the full transcript, scroll below the video. The Communications Trends Defi ..read more

After you’ve chosen a solution that will help your business meets its goals, all that stands between you and those desired results is implementation. Depending on the solution you choose and the provider’s commitment to customer onboarding, that implementation can range from a seamless deployment path to a painful process mired in complexity and missed expectations. If ease of implementation wasn’t a key criterion in your selection process, it quickly becomes one when go-live dates keep getting pushed back and you start obsessing about the opportunity cost of easier solutions you could have pu ..read more

Forward-thinking companies stay on the pulse of evolving consumer demand—especially when it comes to communication preferences. They tune into how—and where—their customers interact and meet them on those channels. Because they know that soon enough customers will expect to engage with businesses on those channels, too. And if they don’t, customers will simply look elsewhere. Is Your Business Ready for the Next Big Customer Communication Channel? In our consumer report—Video Chatterbox Nation—TokBox (now a part of Nexmo, the Vonage API platform) examines one of the fastest-growing communicatio ..read more

Over the coming five years, augmented reality (AR) will profoundly change how businesses and their customers communicate. In this post, we look at what AR means for customer communication, with a view to helping you make sure that your business is ready. First up, what is augmented reality? What is Augmented Reality? Augmented reality takes live video and combines it with data to make something more useful than either would be on its own. One popular application of augmented reality is flight tracking. Using a smartphone, many flight tracking apps let the user point the phone’s camera at a pla ..read more

2019 is the year of automation in customer communication. But what’s coming next? While you’re developing your strategy around chatbots, virtual assistants, and other forms of automation, you should have one eye on video. And not just straightforward video calling. The next big theme in customer communication will be augmented reality. In this briefing, we’ll look at the fundamentals of augmented reality—including unpacking the differences between AR, VR, MR, and XR—with a view to understanding their impact on customer communication. Why Video? We live in a video-centric world. Television has ..read more

Filling out forms can be stressful. There’s even a social media term for it: formophobia. But, for most people, it’s unavoidable. Taxes, financial applications, healthcare all require that we concentrate hard and answer questions on subjects most of us have barely a passing acquaintance with. Perhaps the worst part is feeling alone, lost in unfamiliar terminology, and knowing that a seemingly small mistake can have dire consequences. Thankfully, the form fillers of the world are not alone! If you need your customers to provide detailed and, let’s face it, often arcane information, then it is n ..read more