At 8×8, we’re big proponents of listening to customer feedback. We’re well aware of the fact that our new clients often face a little difficulty understanding the differences between 8×8 Connect and 8×8 Converse. That’s why we’re “walking the talk” today by taking an in-depth look at both CPaaS tools to help you understand how each tool helps streamline different aspects of the customer journey. By the end of this article, you’ll have a clearer idea of whether you should be using 8×8 Connect, 8×8 Converse, or quite possibly, both.
If you’ve only got a minute …
| 8×8 Connect | 8×8 Converse |
| One-way communications | Two-way communications |
| Suitable for service update notifications, OTPs, and marketing campaigns | Suitable for customer service interactions |
| Free version available; able to use as-is | Comes with 8×8 Messaging API solution subscription; builds upon 8×8 Connect |
8×8 Connect: Your all-in-one messaging campaign manager
If you’re still opening every single one of your social media channels to inform your audience about the latest promotion or new launch, know that you can immediately save a lot more time by signing up for a free account on 8×8 Connect.
8×8 Connect basically connects your CRM systems with SMS plus six of the most widely used messaging apps within the APAC region (WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber, Zalo, KakaoTalk, and Facebook Messenger).
In this way, you’ll be able to quality check all of your promotional messages for relevance and style consistency before your customers receive them. You also won’t be limited to the functionalities within your own CRM. Through 8×8’s Messaging API and Voice API, your messages can be fully accompanied by rich media and voice messages that not only bring life to your campaigns, but also make them more accessible to the visually impaired community.
Two popular features of 8×8 Connect
(1) Real-time reports and analytics
Being able to schedule and send messages en masse according to consumer demographics is great, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how much 8×8 Connect can power your messaging campaigns. Through real-time reports and analytics, 8×8 Connect gives you insight into the types of messages and products that most resonate with your customers, and on which channels.
From there, you’ll be able to refine and optimise your marketing dollars and ultimately zoom in on a marketing style and product niche that gives you the most bang for your buck.
(2) A visual, automated communication workflow builder
We at 8×8 recognise that the ability to build automated communication workflows should not be limited to developers. And that’s why we introduced Automation Builder, a no-code, drag-and-drop tool within 8×8 Connect.This feature allows every employee, including marketing, sales, or customer service, to build a digital work desk of their own.
This makes it far more intuitive for your customer-facing teams to stay on track with campaign schedules and sales life cycles. It also allows them to set up automated responses to incoming messages without the need for coding skills. Talk about the democratisation of tech!
When you refine your marketing campaigns to that extent, you can expect customers to respond with inquiries, feedback, and even direct orders through the same channels that you use to reach out to them. That’s when 8×8 Converse steps in.
8×8 Converse: The intuitive customer relations management system
Rather than leave upselling opportunities on the table, 8×8 Converse lets you have two-way, real-time conversations with customers who received campaign offers that were sent to them via 8×8 Connect. Having 8×8 Converse is basically like having access to all the aforementioned communication channels from a single screen.
This way, you won’t be focusing too much of your attention on certain chat apps while neglecting customers on other channels. 8×8 Converse keeps a chat log of conversations across all these channels, so that you can prioritise speaking to your most valuable customers wherever they are.
Two popular features of 8×8 Converse
In-depth breakdown of individual customers
While 8×8 Connect lets you know which types of messages customers respond to the most, 8×8 Converse takes this one step further. It gives you insight into the nitty gritty details of each customer conversation — from whether or not your messages have been delivered and read, down to individual agents that they are most likely to purchase from.
Your customer service agents will be able to tag notes to specific customer profiles, so that future agents who take over their case won’t ruin their VIP experience by offering them products and services that they’ve already expressed disinterest in.
Advanced ticket queueing with automated agent assignment
Customer conversation handovers to the appropriately-skilled agent is part and parcel of customer services operations. But that often lengthens the resolution time and creates a less-than-ideal service experience for customers. 8×8 Converse circumvents this potentially disruptive occurrence with an advanced ticket queueing feature where agents can be automatically assigned tickets based on the channels customers are using, contact groups they belong to, and the county they come from. This way, it’s guaranteed that customers get help from agents with the right expertise.
Break down communication silos once and for all
There’s been a lot of talk lately about interdepartmental synergy and how marketing and customer service teams should work together. One of the main reasons why 8×8 Connect and 8×8 Converse are a little hard to tease apart at first is because they are meant to work in tandem with one another. Marketing teams get the ball rolling through campaigns on 8×8 Connect, and customer service teams handle the responses to said campaigns on 8×8 Converse.
Combining both CPaaS tools gives you end-to-end visibility on the customer journey and allows you to zoom in on exactly where customers are engaging and disengaging, all without the unnecessary finger pointing that plagues operational inefficiency. Learn more about 8×8 Connect and 8×8 Converse today.
