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Compare 10 AI voice agents for real estate in 2026. Evaluate response time, CRM integration, multi-channel support, and scalability to find the right solution.

AI voice agents in real estate are all about response time, coverage and quick follow-through. If your system can't answer calls immediately, qualify intent, book tours and update your CRM without manual cleanup, it's not helping you win more deals; it's adding another layer for you to manage.

This guide isn't for browsing tools. It's for operators deciding whether to commit to AI voice agents in 2026 and ship something that actually helps you scale. We compare 10 platforms based on how they perform after signup, how fast you can go live, what breaks under real lead volume, and what it takes to keep them working week after week.

Top 10 AI Voice Agents for Real Estate (2026)

The goal here is simple: Helping you choose an option that you can launch confidently, not replace after the first integration headache.

1. Plivo

When aiming to build and scale AI voice agents for real estate, you care about two things: reaching prospects first and converting more inquiries into confirmed showings. Plivo excels here since it gives you production-ready AI voice agents that place instant callbacks, answer listing questions from your data, and book tours directly on your agents' calendars. They operate reliably across phone, SMS, WhatsApp and chat without stitching together telephony, AI models and messaging vendors.

Plivo is the AI agent builder platform for voice-first, omnichannel experiences—built on a carrier-grade telephony network trusted by Uber, Meta, Zomato, and thousands of businesses worldwide. Business teams can launch agents without writing code using Vibe agent. Engineering teams can orchestrate custom voice agents in code with full control. The foundation is Plivo's global communications infrastructure spanning 190+ countries: 15+ years of proven reliable infrastructure, low latency, and the call quality enterprises demand.

Core Capabilities:

Inbound & Outbound AI Voice Agents: Handle live calls end-to-end, qualify intent, route intelligently and escalate to human agents when needed.
Multi-Channel Agent Coverage: Run the same AI agent across phone, SMS, WhatsApp and chat with shared context across channels.
No-Code AI Agent Builder (Vibe): Build and deploy voice agents using plain-English instructions, no prompt engineering or coding required.
Build your way: Business teams launch with no-code tools; engineering teams build custom voice agents with full-code control. You're never forced into a single way of working.
Vertically Integrated Telephony (CPaaS): Voice runs on Plivo's own global telephony infrastructure, avoiding third-party carrier dependencies.
Low-Latency Voice AI Stack: Integrated TTS, STT and LLM orchestration enables sub-500ms response latency, critical for natural voice conversations.
Enterprise-Grade Reliability: Built on Plivo's proven CPaaS platform with 99.99% uptime, 15+ years of reliable infrastructure, and global carrier connectivity across 190+ countries.
CRM & Workflow Integrations: Pull customer context in real time and write call outcomes back to CRMs and support tools automatically. Connect Follow Up Boss, kvCORE, BoomTown, Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Calendar, Outlook, and your MLS/IDX feed.
You own the stack: You get to choose your speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS), and LLM while keeping prompts and data portable and avoiding lock-in.

Best fit if you:

Need real-time voice agents that can operate continuously at scale.
Want to avoid stitching telephony, AI and messaging vendors together.
Plan to deploy across multiple channels, not voice alone.
Have defined workflows for lead qualification, routing or follow-ups.

Not a fit if you:

Only need a lightweight voice demo, basic IVR or short-term experiment.
Want a fully turnkey, real estate-specific tool with no configuration or workflow control.
Don't plan to integrate voice agents into your CRM, data stack or operations.

2. Luron AI

Luron AI is best suited for teams that need 24/7 AI voice agents that never miss calls and qualify leads automatically. It supports multilingual conversations and keeps pacing tight across accents and speaking styles. The system handles inbound and outbound voice conversations in dozens of languages and automates bookings and follow-ups without human staffing.

Core Capabilities:

Instant call answer & qualification: AI answers every call, gathers intent, and qualifies leads without hold times.
Multilingual support: Handles AI conversations in 45+ languages to cover diverse lead sources.
Inbound & outbound support: Manages both types of calls and can also run outbound follow-ups.
SMS, chat & email automation: Extends voice agents to text and messaging channels for a unified engagement approach.
CRM & integration options: Connects to existing phone systems via SIP trunking and can integrate with CRMs and ticket systems.

Best fit if you:

Want 24/7 lead capture and qualification without adding staff.
Need multilingual voice conversations for global or diverse markets.
Expect to automate bookings, follow-ups and reminders on voice and messaging channels.
Have a CRM or existing phone system you must integrate with.

Not a fit if you:

Only need a simple inbound answering or IVR replacement without automation.
Want a solution focused on voice only, with limited channel reach.
Prefer fixed, transparent pricing tiers publicly listed.

3. Callers AI

Callers AI is a platform for automating customer conversations with human-like voice agents that handle both inbound & outbound calls and messaging channels, powered by your brand's data and tone. It's focused on scaling high-volume voice interactions while maintaining contextual continuity across channels in a single branded voice experience.

Core Capabilities:

Omni-channel AI interactions: Voice agents run across phone, SMS, WhatsApp and chat from a central AI brain.
Human-like voice calls: Agents answer and place calls in a natural conversational style.
Lead workflows & use cases: Supports lead qualification, cold call automation, appointment confirmation, retention flows and more.
24/7 availability & language breadth: Designed to handle calls and messaging around the clock, in multiple languages.
Context remembering: Conversations carry context across voice and messaging so follow-ups feel continuous.
Integrations & automation: Connects to CRMs and tools (300+ integrations) so call outcomes can update your systems.

Best fit if you:

Want both inbound and outbound AI calling with consistent, natural-tone responses across channels.
Need an AI system that can qualify leads, confirm appointments and manage follow-ups automatically.
Are scaling high call volumes 24/7.
Prefer a central "brain" that keeps context across channels and workflows.

Not a fit if you:

Only want a basic voice or outbound dialer with limited cross-channel logic.
Need a tool focused exclusively on simple IVR or basic routing without AI conversation layers.
Prefer a product you can set up and forget in minutes without upfront configuration or workflow definition.

4. SquadStack AI

SquadStack AI is best suited for teams that want AI-assisted sales and voice engagement workflows supported by configurable human-in-the-loop automation. It blends automated outreach and qualification with options to escalate to human agents where needed, helpful for revenue teams that are focused on pipeline speed.

Core Capabilities:

Automated Lead Engagement: AI enabled workflows proactively contact prospects and qualify them using data-driven sequencing.
Voice & Messaging Channels: Supports outbound dialing, ringless voicemail, SMS and multi-touch sequences.
Human-in-the-Loop Escalation: Configurable handoffs to live agents when conversations need human judgment.
Sales Workflow Automation: Built-in logic for lead routing, prioritization and follow-ups across channels.
CRM Integration + Data Sync: Sync outcomes and engagement data back to CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.

Best fit if you:

Want inbound and outbound automated voice interactions with natural conversation flows and multilingual capability.
Need AI that handles lead qualification, follow-ups and reminders as part of sales or customer engagement sequences.
Are automating sales outreach and conversational workflows alongside voice calls.

Not a fit if you:

Need an AI platform focused on low-latency, bespoke voice agent infrastructure tied tightly to your own telephony stack.
Are building a multi-channel bot with CRM/telephony hooks and developer control from the ground up at scale.

5. Telgent

Telgent leans into MLS and portal context. It is best for businesses that want always-on voice AI calling with automated scheduling, intelligent call handling and quick setup. Its platform emphasizes immediate activation, seamless integration with existing phone systems and natural AI responses that handle calls, schedule meetings and engage customers day and night.

Core Capabilities:

24/7 AI voice calling agents: Always-on call automation that answers and routes customer calls at any hour.
Lead engagement & scheduling: Automatically books appointments, meetings and showings based on natural language conversations.
Inbound call handling: AI answers incoming inquiries, qualifies intent and routes prospects with minimal human intervention.
Automated inquiry responses: Provides instant answers to property questions and responds to rental or sales leads.
Integration with real estate systems: Works with Zillow, Realtor.com, MLS platforms, Follow Up Boss, kvCORE, BoomTown, Salesforce and HubSpot for CRM continuity.

Best fit if you:

Need round-the-clock call handling that captures leads and books appointments without missing inquiries.
Want your voice AI to integrate with core real estate tools and CRM systems so client details are synced automatically.
Are focused on lead conversion and showing scheduling as part of your customer engagement workflows.

Not a fit if you:

Only require basic outbound calling with simple scripts rather than inbound + scheduling automation.
Expect a no-config, plug-and-play voice bot that requires zero setup or customization.
Want a platform that handles only one channel (voice only) without extending into SMS/WhatsApp/chat automation.

6. AIOnCalls

AIOnCalls is positioned as a virtual receptionist that never misses calls or opportunities. Best for teams that want an always-on voice AI assistant that handles inbound and outbound calls around the clock, engages callers in natural language, qualifies leads, books appointments and updates CRM data.

Core Capabilities:

24/7 Inbound & Outbound Voice Handling: AI answers and places calls around the clock across all hours and holidays.
Lead Qualification & Follow-Up Automation: Qualifies callers in real time and automates follow-ups via voice, SMS and email.
Appointment Scheduling & Calendar Invites: Books appointments and sends confirmations during calls.
CRM & Workflow Integrations: Integrates with CRMs like Zoho, HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Google Calendar for real-time lead syncing and activity logging.
Multilingual Conversations: Supports multiple languages and can handle simultaneous call sessions.
Live Agent Escalation: Transfers complex calls to human agents when needed.
Real-Time Analytics & Transcriptions: Provides live call monitoring, transcripts, sentiment analysis and dashboards.

Best fit if you:

Need an AI voice agent that never misses inbound calls and engages leads immediately, 24/7.
Want automated lead qualification, booking and follow-ups in voice, SMS, and email without human staffing.
Are integrating call outcomes and engagement data into CRM or calendar workflows.
Operate in industries where speed-to-lead matters and missed calls are costly.

Not a fit if you:

Only need simple IVR or on-premise call routing without conversational automation.
Prefer a pure telephony or developer API platform without built-in AI conversational layers.
Are looking for a voice agent with deep, specialized industry templates.

7. Brilo AI

Brilo AI is a business-focused AI phone and voice call agent platform that enables teams to automate real-time voice interactions across industries like real estate. It promises fast setup, natural human-like voice responses, 24/7 coverage, integration with business tools and built-in analytics, all without needing a technical team to get started.

Core Capabilities:

24/7 AI voice call agents: Always-on AI phone agents handle inbound calls and customer engagements at any hour.
Human-like voice interactions: Conversational voice responses built to sound natural and engaging.
Appointment booking & scheduling: Voice agents can book appointments with synced calendars and handle reminders.
CRM and business integrations: Integrates with a broad range of business apps (6,000+ app connections claimed) to sync customer context and outcomes.
Real-time analytics & insights: Live call transcripts, sentiment analysis, intent tracking and topic detection support actionable insights post-call.
Lead qualification automation: Agents engage prospects, capture intent and route high-value leads in real time.

Best fit if you:

Need 24/7 automated voice engagement that never misses inbound or high-volume calls for lead capture, scheduling or support.
Need a platform that books appointments, manages follow-ups and drives customer engagement without manual management.
Plan to integrate the voice agent with CRM, calendar tools and analytics pipelines to maintain context across systems.

Not a fit if you:

Simply need a basic phone tree, IVR or traditional call routing system.
Are focused solely on developer-centric API telephony without AI built in.
Require industry-specific compliance guarantees (HIPAA, PCI, etc.) documented publicly.

8. VocalDesk

VocalDesk is an AI-enabled voice and contact automation platform that helps teams automate calling, lead follow-up, support interactions and scheduling. Its focus is on automated voice conversations and multi-channel engagement with CRM integration and configurable workflows that replace manual outreach tasks.

Core Capabilities:

Automated Voice Conversations: Handles inbound and outbound calls using AI to engage, qualify, and route callers.
AI-Driven Lead Qualification: Automated conversation flows that marks lead intent and priority.
Appointment Booking & Reminders: Schedules meetings and sends reminders as part of automated flows.
Multichannel Messaging: Engages customers across voice, text and messaging platforms.
CRM & Workflow Sync: Connects with CRM systems and business tools to log interactions and maintain records.

Best fit if you:

Want to automate call handling and lead follow-up without manual dialing.
Need a solution that combines voice and messaging outreach with CRM context.
Are focused on lead qualification and scheduling as part of broader sales engagement.

Not a fit if you:

Only need basic call routing or IVR without AI handling.
Require explicit developer control over telephony APIs.
Rely on hard metrics like latency, concurrency limits or multi-region telephony SLAs.

9. Calldock

Calldock is an AI voice agent platform intended for instant lead engagement, automatic qualification and scheduling. Its system calls leads within seconds of form submission, conducts natural conversations and integrates with calendars and workflows to automate follow-ups and booking.

Core Capabilities:

Instant lead callbacks: Calls website leads within ~60 seconds of a submission, boosting early engagement.
Calendar booking: Agents can book appointments directly to your calendar during live calls.
Multi-channel follow-up: Agents send SMS and email follow-ups as part of the call workflow.
Seamless handoff & callbacks: You can trigger human handoffs in natural language and schedule intelligent callbacks.
API, webhooks, & integration ecosystem: Support for APIs and pre-call webhooks lets you fetch context before calls and connect with Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Zapier and thousands more.
Developer playground & documentation: Provides API documentation and code examples for triggered calls and automated workflows.

Best fit if you:

Want immediate lead engagement that happens in seconds.
Need voice agents that qualify, book and follow up automatically across voice, SMS and email.
Plan to integrate voice engagements with calendar and business workflows.
Need a voice agent that works with easy templates for common industries with minimal setup.
Want a low-code or no-code setup that goes live with simple configuration.

Not a fit if you:

Need proper inbound/outbound calling with API integration.
Require deep telephony infrastructure control or enterprise telephony SLAs.
Are building highly custom dialogue systems that need proprietary LLM tuning beyond the existing templates.

10. Ylopo

Ylopo is a digital marketing and lead gen platform built for the real estate industry. It combines lead capture, nurturing, AI voice calling, AI texting, branded websites and marketing automation into one system that integrates with CRMs and helps real estate teams generate and convert leads.

Core Capabilities:

AI Voice Follow-Up: Automatically calls new and existing leads to qualify interest and connect them to agents.
AI Text Conversations: Runs two-way SMS conversations to nurture leads until they're ready to talk.
AI² Voice + Text System: Combines calling and texting into one coordinated follow-up engine.
Automated Appointment Transfers: Delivers live transfers or booked appointments when leads are qualified.
Lead Generation & Nurture: Includes PPC ads, remarketing and IDX websites to capture and feed leads into AI follow-up.
CRM & Website Integration: Syncs AI conversations and lead activity with CRMs and branded real estate websites.

Best fit if you:

Want lead capture with nurturing as a unified system rather than isolated voice interaction tools.
Are a realtor or team that wants AI to automatically engage leads by text and phone, not just manage manual contacts.
Need branded websites with IDX search and integrated lead capture feeding into automated follow-up.
Plan to keep leads engaged over longer time horizons (e.g., 90-day voice follow-up).
Value combined marketing + AI follow-up rather than a single channel (voice only).

Not a fit if you:

Are looking for pure AI voice agent infrastructure like a telephony-first CPaaS platform.
Need tools focused on enterprise-grade telephony performance, low-latency voice systems or custom telephony workflows.

What Matters Most in AI Voice Agents (Beyond the Basics)

1. Telephony Ownership vs. Vendor Stitching

Many AI voice tools rely on third-party telephony stitched together with AI layers. This often introduces latency, call drops and limited routing control at scale.

What to prioritize:

Built-in telephony with direct carrier connectivity
End-to-end control over call routing and quality
Fewer external dependencies

Plivo runs on its own global CPaaS and carrier-grade telephony stack, removing third-party voice dependencies.

2. Real-Time Performance (Latency & Uptime)

Voice conversations break down quickly when responses lag or calls fail. Sub-second latency and high uptime aren't "nice to have"—they're mandatory.

What to validate:

Sub-500ms voice response latency
99.99% uptime or better
Real-time STT, TTS, and LLM orchestration

Plivo's vertically integrated Voice AI stack is designed for low-latency, real-time conversations on proven infrastructure.

3. Multi-Channel Context, Not Disconnected Bots

Leads move between calls, SMS, WhatsApp and chat. Treating each channel as a separate bot creates broken experiences and duplicate work.

What to look for:

Shared context across voice and messaging
Unified conversation history
Seamless handoffs between channels

Plivo supports multi-channel agents that share context across phone, SMS, WhatsApp and chat from a single system.

4. Integration Depth (CRM, Calendars, Workflows)

Voice agents don't operate in isolation. Without deep integrations, they become another silo your team has to manage.

Prioritize platforms that:

Read from and write to CRMs in real time
Trigger workflows during live calls
Integrate cleanly with calendars and support tools

Plivo integrates directly with CRMs and business systems, allowing agents to act on live data and update records automatically.

5. Built for Scale, Not Just Launch

Many tools work well for pilots but struggle under sustained call volume or multi-region deployment.

Ask:

Can this run continuously without degradation?
Are pricing and performance predictable as usage grows?
Will this still work when channels or regions expand?

Plivo's AI agents are built on infrastructure that already powers enterprise-grade voice and messaging at global scale.

FAQs

What's the fastest way to go live without breaking existing operations?

Start with a single, contained flow like after-hours inbound calls or instant lead callbacks. Connect your phone numbers, CRM and calendar, define escalation rules and launch! You can expand coverage once live data validates the flow.

How do I ensure voice quality doesn't feel robotic or laggy?

Voice quality depends on latency and telephony control. Platforms with integrated telephony and real-time STT/TTS orchestration keep responses sub-second, which is critical for natural conversations that callers don't hang up on.

How does the agent stay accurate and compliant with real estate data?

The agent should pull from a restricted, curated knowledge source (MLS, IDX, listings) and operate within defined guardrails. When questions exceed scope like pricing nuance, legal terms, fair-housing-sensitive topics, it escalates to a human automatically.

What happens when call volume spikes or multiple leads call at once?

Calls don't fail—they should queue. High-intent conversations can be routed to live agents, while others are qualified, scheduled or followed up asynchronously. Every outcome is logged so nothing gets lost.

How does this fit into my CRM and follow-up workflows?

The agent reads live CRM data during calls and writes outcomes back automatically in the form of notes, disposition, next steps and booked appointments. Your team picks up conversations with full context instead of starting from scratch.

Try Plivo Free

Curious how an AI voice platform performs in your workflows, not just in theory? Plivo offers a free trial account with credits so you can experiment with voice, SMS, WhatsApp and chat services before committing. When you sign up, you get trial credits, can add a phone number and start testing features like real-time voice interactions and multi-channel engagement using APIs or visual tools like PHLO. This lets you validate performance, integrations, and call flows with your actual data—all without upfront cost.

Plivo's trial lets you test core capabilities immediately, making it easy to see how quickly you can build, launch, and refine agents that handle calls, qualify leads and update systems in real time.

Get started with your free trial now and begin building your first agent today.

Jan 20, 2026

5 mins

Best AI Voice Agents for Customer Support and Service (2026): What to Deploy Now

Compare 10 AI voice agent platforms for customer support. Get a practical 30-day pilot framework, implementation workflow, and outcome-driven selection guide.

1) Plivo — The fastest path to production-grade AI voice agents for customer support

A recent Gartner survey found that most customer service leaders plan to explore or pilot conversational GenAI in 2025—making a clear, near-term mandate to deliver something that works on the phone channel, not just in chat. That's your cue to build a reliable voice front door with an AI agent builder platform designed for voice-first, omnichannel experiences.

Why Plivo is #1

Plivo is the AI agent builder platform that lets you build your way. Whether you're a business leader who needs to launch fast or an engineering team building custom workflows, Plivo meets you where you are. Start with no-code tools that let non-technical teams deploy agents in hours. Go deeper with low-code orchestration for more control. Or build from scratch with full-code frameworks that integrate into your existing stack. You're never forced into a single way of working.

What it does for you

Plivo's Voice AI stack is modular by design. Want speed? Use the fully integrated platform—STT, LLM, TTS, and telephony—pre-configured and ready to go. Want control? Orchestrate your agents using code with Plivo's Agentic STT models and Telephony, alongside your preferred LLM providers. Want just the connectivity layer? Use audio streaming or SIP trunking and bring everything else yourself. You decide where Plivo ends and your stack begins.

Underlying it all is a reliable, carrier-grade telephony platform that scales for enterprises—global PSTN/SIP connectivity, number provisioning and porting, call routing with failover, recording with consent, and clean human handoff with full context into your CRM or help desk.

Segment-by-segment fit

If you're SMB, launch fast with no-code tools that let you deploy agents in hours, plus a simple dashboard and connectors for Shopify and Calendly. If you're mid-market, use low-code orchestration for more control, with a modular stack that lets you use what you need—swap in your preferred LLM, STT, or TTS. If you're enterprise, build with full-code frameworks that integrate into your existing stack, plus a modular Voice AI stack to pick-and-choose what you need, governance features (RBAC, audit transcripts, data residency), and contact center integration for high availability and reporting.

Start with Voice, go everywhere

Voice is the hardest channel to get right—and it's where Plivo leads. But the same flexible building experience extends to WhatsApp, SMS, RCS, and Chat. Build once, deploy across channels, and meet customers wherever they are.

Suitable for

Fintech customer service: consent-first flows, secure keypad capture, dispute status, and callbacks.
Healthcare scheduling: multilingual intake, appointment changes, escalations with a summarized handoff.
Retail and logistics: order status, returns, delivery windows, and SMS/WhatsApp follow-ups.

No more choosing between a locked-in platform that's easy but limiting, or a DIY approach that's flexible but painful. Plivo gives you both—simplicity when you want it, depth when you need it.

Explore the Voice API, check pricing, review compliance, handle numbers & porting, browse case studies, or jump into the quickstart.

2) Google Dialogflow CX — Complex, branching flows without spaghetti

Key features

Dialogflow CX uses a flow-and-page model to capture state and branching, so you can manage multi-step intents like returns, warranty claims, and multi-factor verification without dozens of brittle intents. It supports voice and text and includes versioning, experiments, and test tools. For telephony, you can use partner gateways or SIP; for global reach, put Plivo at the edge and connect to CX.

Why it matters

Complicated support journeys need explicit state. CX gives you that structure. If your "Where's my order?" workflow forks based on identity checks, fulfillment method, and policy windows, you can keep logic readable and testable. CX also plays well with multilingual experiences and mixed initiative, so callers can change course mid-conversation.

Implementation steps

Start with a single high-volume journey and draw it as a CX flow. Add a fallback page with a short menu for noisy lines. Ground the bot in your knowledge base and order system, then add handoff rules. Put Plivo in front for numbers, routing, and recording consent, and pass summaries back to your ticketing system.

Suitable for

Teams with multiple brands or product lines, where branching grows quickly and consistency matters across regions.

3) Amazon Lex + Amazon Connect — AWS-first voice automation that ops can own

Key features

Lex handles the speech and NLU for voice and text. Connect adds the contact-center fabric: routing, IVR, call recording, and agent desktop. It's a natural fit if your data and apps live in AWS and security prefers IAM-managed access. For global numbers or bring-your-own carrier control, front with Plivo and route into Connect.

Why it matters

Staying inside AWS accelerates procurement, security reviews, and monitoring. You can call Lambdas for tool use, search knowledge with Kendra, and use Connect metrics and contact flows your ops team already knows. That shortens time to value and concentrates governance in one place.

Implementation steps

Define one call flow in Connect (ID&V → status lookup → handoff). Build Lex intents from your top FAQs. Add Plivo for number management, routing, and failover. Send summaries back to your CRM or help desk. Keep a barge-in plan for noisy environments and a keypad fallback for payment flows.

Suitable for

IT-led programs where AWS standardization, auditability, and a single pane of glass for monitoring are priorities.

4) IBM Watson Assistant — Governance-first deployments in regulated industries

Key features

Watson Assistant supports omnichannel conversations with documented security and governance options, including deployment paths designed for regulated workloads. If your risk office leads the decision, IBM provides clear guidance on audit logging, data handling, and architectural choices. Add Plivo to handle PSTN/SIP, call consent prompts, and compliant recording policies.

Why it matters

Financial services and healthcare teams often need auditability from day one. When you need clear data-handling boundaries and deployment models that align with internal controls, IBM's documentation and support track help you pass reviews without months of back-and-forth.

Implementation steps

Map your data-classification rules to Watson's deployment options. Keep contact recordings and transcriptions in your approved storage. Use Plivo's routing and consent prompts to standardize intake across regions. Summarize calls into your case system for full traceability.

Suitable for

Organizations with heavy compliance needs, strict data residency, or formal audit trails for every customer interaction.

5) Cognigy.AI — IVR modernization with fine-grained voice control

Key features

Cognigy combines a visual designer with a voice gateway that supports streaming ASR, interruptibility, and transfer control. It integrates with multiple speech providers and enterprise systems like SAP and Salesforce. This lets you tune barge-in sensitivity, error handling, and handoff cues rather than living with a one-size-fits-all IVR.

Why it matters

If callers still hear a menu tree, you're wasting time and goodwill. Cognigy helps you replace rigid menus with natural conversations and graceful escalation. You keep the levers you need—timing, sensitivity, fallback prompts—so the agent feels human, not scripted.

Implementation steps

Start with the two intents that create the most queue time. Set barge-in thresholds conservatively and widen them after you test in live traffic. Put Plivo at the edge to manage numbers, recording policies, and failover. Send summaries with disposition tags to your CRM.

Suitable for

Enterprises with legacy IVRs, high call volumes, and a clear need to reduce effort without ripping out the contact-center core.

6) Salesforce Agentforce — CRM-native service automation where your team works

Key features

Agentforce brings AI agents into the Salesforce console and data model. Your service team stays in the view they know, while the agent handles common intents, drafts summaries, and routes cases. Add Plivo for calling so every phone interaction lands in Salesforce with the right context.

Why it matters

When everything you need to resolve an issue already lives in Salesforce, keeping the agent there shortens integration time and improves analytics. Supervisors can coach on the same dashboard and review case summaries, while admins maintain clear governance over data and automations.

Implementation steps

Pick one queue with repetitive calls. Tie identity checks to account data and warranties. Keep a "press 0 for a human" fallback and make sure the agent passes a clean summary with next steps. Use Plivo for the phone edge so call recordings and consent are consistent across regions.

Suitable for

Service teams that treat Salesforce as the system of record and want automation to feel native—not bolted on.

7) Zoom Virtual Agent for Phone — A 24/7 receptionist and concierge

Key features

Zoom's Virtual Agent for Phone handles greetings, routing, and the most common requests. You train it from existing docs and site content, then turn it on for after-hours or full-time reception. It's built for quick wins like appointment scheduling, store hours, and simple status checks with transfers when needed.

Why it matters

If reception lines clog your switchboard, a front-door voice agent can deflect simple questions without new headcount. As you add skills, you can expand from triage to completing tasks. For broader reach, connect Plivo to add global numbers and transactional notifications via SMS or WhatsApp.

Implementation steps

Start with greeting, business hours, and routing. Add appointment booking next. Keep live-agent transfers one click away. If you outgrow the PBX perimeter, bring Plivo in to manage numbers and cross-channel follow-ups.

Suitable for

Single-number switchboards, high-volume reception desks, and teams that need a quick, always-on front door.

8) Sierra — Enterprise "autonomous" agents with category momentum

Key features

Sierra focuses on enterprise-grade AI agents for customer service with an emphasis on agentic workflows. The leadership and market traction give executives confidence to back bigger bets. If you're evaluating multi-channel automation with rigorous SLAs, Sierra is a credible short-list option. Plug it into Plivo for reliable telephony, recording consent, and global routing.

Why it matters

Momentum reduces perceived risk. When you need cross-functional buy-in, a vendor that's already in enterprise production helps. You still need the phone edge right: numbers, routing, and failover that won't buckle under peaks.

Implementation steps

Define two end-to-end journeys (e.g., ID&V + order update; returns approval). Keep human handoff one step away and capture every call summary in your case system. Instrument containment and transfers, then iterate weekly.

Suitable for

Large teams planning multi-channel agents and looking for vendor accountability with clear deliverables and timelines.

9) Tidio (Lyro) — SMB eCommerce chat that pairs well with voice

Key features

Tidio blends live chat, an AI agent, and eCommerce integrations. It's a practical way to resolve repetitive questions, free up your team, and capture intent while buyers are on your site. Add Plivo for a simple order-status line and SMS/WhatsApp updates so customers get answers by phone as well as chat.

Why it matters

eCommerce teams need fast coverage more than complex architectures. You can start with FAQs, then add checkout and account questions. When phone calls spike—promos, holidays—route a basic voice flow through Plivo and keep your agent consistent across channels.

Implementation steps

Load your top FAQs and shipping policies, add a returns flow, and set clear handoff rules. For voice, route a single Plivo number to a lightweight agent that authenticates by order ID and ZIP code, then offers a callback option during peaks.

Suitable for

Lean teams that want to reduce repetitive chat volume now and add phone coverage without standing up a full contact center.

10) Robylon — Multi-channel AI agents focused on support teams

Key features

Robylon specializes in AI-driven customer support across voice, chat, email, and messaging. It integrates with help desks like Zendesk and Freshdesk, supports multiple languages, and offers analytics dashboards designed for service leaders. It's a pragmatic fit if your help desk is the hub of your operation.

Why it matters

You want human-like conversations that escalate cleanly. Robylon's positioning around support workflows means your ticketing, SLAs, and dispositions stay intact. For reliable calling, use Plivo for numbers, routing, and recording consent so your phone channel matches the quality of your chat channel.

Implementation steps

Start with account updates and appointment scheduling. Ground the agent in your help-desk knowledge base and macros. Track resolution time and transfer reasons; refine weekly.

Suitable for

Mid-market support teams who want a focused system that plugs into existing help-desk processes and expands to voice without heavy lifting.

How to run a safe, high-signal pilot in 30 days

Define success first

Pick three metrics: containment, transfer rate, and average resolution time. Write a one-line target for each and a go/no-go threshold. Everyone should know what "good" looks like before you take your first call.

Start with narrow, high-volume intents

"Where's my order?", appointment changes, returns, account updates. These are predictable, frequent, and measurable. Script your handoff sentence so agents never start from zero.

Build the right guardrails

Add a consent prompt, a keypad fallback for sensitive inputs, and a short backup menu for noisy environments. Keep the escalations simple: one route for billing, one for everything else.

Ground every answer

Connect the agent to your CRM/help desk and knowledge base. If the answer doesn't exist in your source of truth, escalate. Summarize every call into the ticket with disposition and next steps.

Iterate weekly

Review 20 call transcripts together. Fix the top three friction points. Update prompts and knowledge. Ship changes. Repeat.

FAQ

What's the fastest way to launch a voice agent without changing my stack?

Keep your telephony and routing on Plivo, connect your preferred conversation engine, and ground it in your CRM/help desk and knowledge base. Start with one number, one intent, and a simple fallback.

How should I measure success in the first 30 days?

Track containment, transfer rate, and resolution time. Listen for barge-in moments and interruptions—they reveal prompt and timing issues that you can fix quickly.

How do I implement consent, recording, and PCI/PHI safely?

Play a clear consent prompt before any recording. Use keypad input for payments or sensitive data. Store recordings and transcripts in approved systems and keep audit logs.

When is Dialogflow CX better than Lex, IBM, or Cognigy?

Choose CX for complex branching flows and multilingual journeys; Lex when your team standardizes on AWS; IBM when governance and deployment control are paramount; Cognigy when you're modernizing IVR with fine-grained voice settings.

How do I handle accents, noise, and barge-in in production?

Use a robust ASR, tune your barge-in sensitivity, and keep a keypad fallback. Test in noisy environments and shorten prompts. Summaries help human agents pick up without asking callers to repeat themselves.

Conclusion: Build the voice edge once, then scale what works

A measured result to anchor ROI. McKinsey reported that, at one company with thousands of agents, applying generative AI raised issue resolution and lowered handling time—small percentage gains that compound into real savings at scale. That's the kind of lift your leadership expects—and the reason to start with a focused pilot that moves one metric.

Bring your "brain" of choice, but keep the phone edge on Plivo so every call connects, every consent is captured, and every handoff carries context. Define three KPIs, pick one journey, and go live with a human fallback. Review transcripts weekly, then scale to the next two intents.

Ready to hear what real-time voice feels like? Build your agent or talk to an expert today.

Jun 19, 2025

5 mins

RCS Marketing 101: Your Complete Guide

Discover how RCS marketing delivers rich, branded messages that drive engagement for your business.

SMS marketing works, but let’s be honest: it feels a bit outdated compared to modern apps.

But what if you could send rich, interactive messages with branded content, images, buttons, and carousels straight to your customers’ native messaging apps?

Rich communication services (RCS) makes that possible.

If you’re ready to explore how RCS marketing can transform your engagement strategy, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know. Let’s get started.

What is RCS marketing?

RCS marketing uses rich communication services to send interactive, branded messages through a customer’s default messaging app. It’s a modern upgrade to SMS that lets businesses share images, buttons, carousels, and more — all without needing third-party apps.

A user on Reddit summed up this perfectly:

Screenshot of a Reddit comment explaining what RCS is — *RCS explained by a Reddit user*

RCS lets you send messages that are visually branded with logos and colors while remaining interactive. This turns static updates into an app-like experience inside a message.

This shift is part of a broader industry move, led by Google and backed by major mobile carriers, to upgrade messaging infrastructure and make RCS the default standard on Android devices.

As support continues to grow, businesses are adopting RCS as part of their customer engagement strategy. Platforms like Plivo make that adoption easier with a reliable, enterprise-grade gateway to deliver rich, reliable RCS campaigns at scale.

RCS vs. SMS marketing: A quick comparison

Marketers today are looking for ways to deliver more interactive and visual communication, and RCS is clearly leading the way.

While SMS still works well for simple alerts, it lacks the creativity and engagement that RCS marketing offers.

Let’s take a quick look at RCS vs. SMS marketing.

Key feature	SMS marketing	RCS marketing
Message length	Limited to 160 characters; with longer messages split	Up to 8,000 characters in a single message
Multimedia	Supports only plain text and links; needs MMS for multimedia	Natively supports high-resolution photos, videos, audio, and GIFs
Security and verification	No built-in sender verification	Includes verified sender profiles with business name, logo, and custom colors
Read receipts	No standardized way to know if a message was delivered or read	Provides delivery and read receipts for real-time engagement tracking
Typing indicators	Doesn't show when the other party is typing	Displays typing indicators, creating a more conversational feel
Interactive buttons	Not supported; calls to action (CTAs) are limited to plain text links	Allows interactive buttons with predefined replies and actions
User experience	Static, text-heavy, and transactional	Dynamic, visually rich, and conversational — feels more like a mobile app
Analytics and reporting	Basic delivery tracking (if supported by carrier)	Advanced analytics: opens, clicks, conversions, and user behavior tracking

4 key benefits of RCS marketing

RCS marketing makes messaging feel more natural for both you and your customers. And since you can see what’s working and what’s not, it’s easier to pivot your strategy and get better results.

Here are its four key benefits.

1. Improved user interaction

One of the biggest advantages of RCS marketing is how seamless it makes the experience for your customers. Instead of typing out replies or clicking a link to open a website, users can just tap a button right inside the message.

Want them to book a demo, check order status, or browse products? It’s all possible with just a tap.

Fewer steps mean less effort, and that leads to more people following through. In fact, individuals spend up to 37 seconds engaging with RCS messages, which is a lot longer than most other types of mobile messaging.

Image showing the engagement results of RCS messaging — *People engage more with RCS than any other platform*

That extra time and interaction can make all the difference when you’re trying to convert interest into action.

2. Consistent brand experience

RCS marketing doesn’t just tell people who you are — it shows them.

Verified business profiles help people know they’re getting messages from the real brand. Every message shows your brand’s logo, name, colors, and a checkmark. These small details make it clear that the message is coming from a genuine source.

Image showing that MAYI - HOMES sends a verified RCS message with branding — *Verified RCS message from MAYI - HOMES*

This consistency matters because 88% of people are more likely to buy from a brand they trust.

3. In-depth analytics

With RCS marketing, you can track open rates, button clicks, and how people interact with each part of your message.

You get clear visibility into what’s working and where users are dropping off.

This makes it much easier to measure the return on investment (ROI) and fine-tune your campaigns. The more you understand how people engage, the better you can shape your messaging for results.

4. Higher conversion potential

RCS marketing makes it easier for customers to take action — whether that’s browsing products, booking a service, or making a purchase — all within the message itself.

With fewer clicks and no need to switch apps, the path to conversion feels effortless. And when it’s that easy, more people follow through.

For example, EaseMyTrip used RCS to run a post-COVID travel survey. They added quick-tap answer options and followed up with a thank-you coupon. The campaign saw a 4x higher click-through rate than email, 10x more survey completions, and a 2.7% increase in conversion rate.

5 major use cases of RCS marketing

Here are five major use cases showing how brands are using RCS marketing effectively.

1. Product promotions

RCS makes product promotions feel more like browsing a store than reading a message. Brands can send image carousels that customers can swipe through to explore new arrivals, check product details, and see what’s available without leaving their messaging app.

Verified RCS message highlights a 25% off promotion on all items — Verified RCS message from Daily-donuts

Example: A fashion retailer promoting its spring collection could send an RCS message featuring a carousel of outfits with styled images, prices, and buttons like “View Lookbook” or “Shop Now.”

Tapping a button could open a mini product page inside the chat, letting customers browse and buy without switching apps.

2. Abandoned cart reminders

The average cart abandonment rate is over 70%, which means most shoppers never make it to the finish line. RCS marketing can help bring them back by making the reminder more engaging and easier to act on.

You can send a message that shows exactly what they left behind, along with a clear button to complete the purchase. It’s visual, straightforward, and the entire experience stays within their messaging app.

Example: A home electronics store could follow up with customers who left a pair of wireless earbuds in their cart. The RCS message might include a product photo, the price, and a “Buy Now” button that takes them straight to checkout.

3. Appointment confirmations and reminders

A PhD thesis from Manchester Metropolitan University found that forgetfulness is the most common reason people skip their appointments.

RCS makes it easier for both businesses and customers to stay on the same page. You can send a message that shows the appointment details along with a simple calendar view. Add buttons to confirm, reschedule, or cancel — all within the chat.

Image depicting an interactive RCS booking confirmation message — Booking confirmation via RCS with quick action buttons

Example: A dental clinic could use RCS to remind patients of upcoming cleanings. The message might show the date, time, and location of the appointment, plus a “Confirm” button and options to “Reschedule” or “Cancel.”

Patients can respond instantly, helping the clinic manage its schedule more efficiently.

4. Customer surveys and feedback

Getting feedback is important, but most customers lack the time or patience to complete lengthy forms. RCS marketing makes it easier by allowing brands to ask short, targeted questions and receive quick responses.

Plus, the rich features of RCS let you include images, ratings, or multiple-choice options, making feedback feel more like a conversation.

Example: A restaurant could send an RCS message after a meal asking customers to rate their experience with simple buttons like “Excellent,” “Good,” or “Needs Improvement.”

The message might also include a photo of the dish they ordered and a quick question like, “What did you like most?” This quick interaction makes it easy for customers to respond and gives the restaurant valuable insights.

5. Customer support follow-ups

After a support request is resolved, following up shows customers you care and helps close the loop on their experience. But if the follow-up message gets buried in an email inbox or goes unnoticed, that opportunity to connect is lost.

With RCS marketing, you can send a quick message to check if everything’s working fine. You can include helpful buttons like “Change Password,” “Manage Account,” or “Talk to Support.”

Support bot provides instant replies and follow-ups for customer queries — AI-powered support for account management

RCS marketing myths and realities

Despite RCS marketing’s growing adoption and proven results, some common misconceptions still hold businesses back from trying it. Let’s look at a few of the biggest myths and what’s actually true.

Myth 1: RCS marketing is too expensive

At first glance, RCS business messaging can seem like a pricey upgrade. Rich visuals, tap-to-action buttons, and branded layouts look premium, so it’s easy to assume they come with a hefty cost.

But cost alone doesn’t tell the full story.

What you get in return matters more. RCS drives significantly stronger engagement with higher click-through rates, increased interactions, and better overall outcomes.

Take Club Comex, the loyalty program of North American paint brand Comex. They sent two rich and interactive RCS campaigns to their members and saw a 10x higher click-through rate, which helped increase revenue by 115%.

That’s the value side of the equation. Better targeting and richer content mean more people click, engage, and convert.

Myth 2: RCS marketing doesn’t reach enough users to be worth it

This concern made sense in the early days of RCS, when adoption was still catching up. But the landscape looks very different now.

In June 2024, the 12-month growth of RCS users reached 36.3%, showing faster uptake than other messaging channels. More Android devices support RCS by default, and it’s being rolled out across more networks globally. Even Apple has announced support, which means RCS is on track to reach a massive number of smartphone users worldwide.

With that kind of growth and widespread support, the hesitation around RCS is starting to fade. Brands can confidently invest in RCS marketing knowing it will connect with more customers than ever before.

Myth 3: RCS gets treated like spam and ends up ignored just like emails

Unlike email, RCS messages appear directly in the user’s primary messaging app alongside personal conversations. They include rich media and interactive elements, making them more engaging and less likely to be ignored.

This creates a more natural, conversational experience that drives higher open and response rates than traditional marketing channels.

Why choose Plivo for your RCS marketing needs

With RCS, you can turn simple messages into rich, branded conversations that feel more like chatting than broadcasting.

Plivo gives you the tools to make that shift without the hassle. From verified messaging to smart automation, everything works together to help you connect better and respond faster.

When combined with AI Agents and a unified customer data platform, RCS becomes more than just messaging. You can deliver personalized experiences at scale, automate everyday interactions, and keep conversations flowing without lifting a finger.

Here’s what you get with Plivo’s RCS API:

Real-time personalization: AI Agents tailor conversations using customer profiles and behavior triggers to improve engagement and conversions.
Multi-channel fallback: If RCS isn’t supported, messages automatically switch to SMS to ensure delivery and maintain consistent communication.
Conversational automation: AI Agents handle FAQs, process orders, schedule deliveries, and route complex queries within RCS.
All-in-one messaging platform: Manage RCS, SMS, WhatsApp, Voice, and more from a single dashboard.
Reliable performance: 99.99% uptime and global infrastructure keep your campaigns running smoothly.

With Plivo’s no-code tools, you can quickly launch AI-powered RCS messaging across channels and deliver a consistent customer experience from day one.

See how you can launch your first RCS marketing campaign with Plivo by requesting a demo today!

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Nov 2, 2021

5 mins

Plivo wins the Appealie Overall SaaS Award for Development and DevOps

Plivo recognized by Appealie with an Overall SaaS Award in the Development and DevOps category.

Company

Oct 28, 2021

5 mins

Omnichannel Customer Service: Beyond the Buzzwords

Omnichannel customer service is a strategy that helps businesses to reach a more human level of interaction with customers across multiple channels.

Customer Service

59% of U.S. consumers say companies have lost touch with the human element of customer experience, found PwC’s Customer Experience Is Everything report. And 82% of U.S. consumers want more of it in the future.

An omnichannel customer service experience can help today’s businesses reach a more human level of interaction with their customers. But what does that really look like?

Customer service teams that have the context they need to give customers personalized experiences.
A fully integrated contact center that integrates with your existing business tools to create a single source of truth
Customers that can communicate with you via their preferred channels — whatever they may be.

What is omnichannel customer service?

The word “omnichannel” gets batted around a lot, so let’s look closely at what it really means. Omnichannel customer service can be thought of like the term “omnipresence” — being everywhere at the same time. From your customers’ perspectives, it should appear that you’re everywhere, all at once.

Whatever channels you offer customer service in, you must deliver a consistent experience across all of them. In the context of omnichannel customer service, customers can find answers to their questions and have issues resolved easily, no matter which channel they choose to use.

A customer may start a service interaction on in-app chat and end it on the phone via a call, or vice versa. And no matter the channel, customer service agents have access to customer details and a history of previous interactions.

Omnichannel vs. multi-channel customer service: What’s the difference?

The difference between omnichannel customer service and multichannel is in the consistency in the entire experience for the customer. Omnichannel customer service channels act as touch points along a single, cohesive customer journey, so customers have an integrated experience across channels and devices. Your team needs to be able to present itself as a cohesive unit whether the same agents are resolving a customer issue via in-app chat or voice call or these get handled by different agents with respective skill sets.

But tacking on new communications channels that don’t talk to one another delivers a fractured, often frustrating customer experience. That’s because unless conversation history and customer details are shared across channels, agents won’t have access to the context necessary to deliver seamless, personalized service.

79% of service professionals say it’s impossible to provide great service without full customer context, per Salesforce’s State of Service.

Common customer service channels

Your business may not need all the service channels we’ll discuss below. Every business is different, as is everyone’s customer service strategy, so you’ll have to think about what each digital channel does well and which are best suited to serve different types of customers at various stages of the customer lifecycle.

Live Chat

There’s a lot of opportunity in live chat as a customer service channel. 56% of CX professionals in retail and wholesale say they’re currently using a chat-based interaction channel, and another 26% say they have plans to add it as a customer service channel within the next year.

Deploying chat on your website or within your mobile app can support everything from answering questions to proactive notifications, to relaying shipping and invoice information about products and inventory and offering post-sales service.

Voice

Voice calls remain the most common way people interact with businesses. They’re also the easiest to record and store. First-contact resolution rates for the telephone are still typically the fastest, so if your customers have complex needs or you have frequent sensitive escalations, you may want to put a lot of your attention on voice.

Messaging

Mobile phones are, at this point, nearly ubiquitous — but only 32.7% of retail and wholesale respondents are currently using instant messaging like WhatsApp and SMS. Maybe that’s why a whopping 40.8% have plans to add it within a year.

And don’t forget MMS — multimedia messaging services — which “lets you send longer text messages. While SMS messages are limited to 160 characters, with MMS, you can send messages with up to 1,600 characters, plus 10 images,” said Founder and CEO of Contacto by Plivo, Venky B.

Chatbots and virtual agents

A chatbot is software designed to simulate human interactions, enabling interactive voice or text conversations. They can be used on your website or mobile app to provide self-service options in response to common questions, so customers can get answers 24/7/365.

By employing a chatbot acting as virtual agents to divert some of the repetitive, frequently asked questions, that leaves more time and energy for live agents to deliver high-touch service for more complex cases.

Self-service

Customers will most likely try to look for answers on their own before reaching out to customer service. Making that process simple can make the interaction so much more convenient for the customer. It may also reduce the agent’s workload as customers won’t have to call in for frequently asked questions.

“While 67% of consumers are willing to use self-service tools, 59% would prefer to call the company. Keep in mind that there is a difference between willingness and preference,” said Shep Hyken.

Benefits of omnichannel customer service

According to insights from McKinsey, customer expectations in service journeys fall into three categories:

Speed and flexibility
Reliability and transparency
Interaction and care

Let’s look at all the ways an omnichannel approach can facilitate positive results in all of those categories.

360-degree view of the customer

When you have all your data about a customer at your agent’s fingertips — like interaction history, past orders, preferences, and more — the experience for customers is more consistent, regardless of the channel they use without having to ask the same questions again and again. Keeping this context at the center enables personalized interactions across channels and can facilitate a higher quality of service.

Plus, when all your systems are integrated, customer service representatives have access to all the information they need, centrally from one screen. They can also switch channels if that’s most convenient for the interaction. The best contact centers will make this easy.

Simplified customer journey

“74% of Americans are likely to recommend a brand or company to friends/ family if they provide a convenient customer experience,” found Shep Hyken. It’s time to end the frustration of hanging up and calling another number.

The omnichannel experience is more user friendly. Customers can switch from one channel to another without worrying that they’ll have to go through the whole process from the beginning or repeat themselves over and over.

Higher customer service agent productivity

It’s not just customers that have a better experience with an omnichannel contact center — it’s your agents, too. That’s true for two reasons: automation and integration.

77% of agents say automating routine tasks allows them to focus on more complex work — up from 69% in 2018. That means that they have more time to spend on more complicated requests to ensure high customer satisfaction.

Integration of business systems gives agents better access to the information they need to do their jobs. In fact, high performers are 1.7x more likely than underperformers to agree with “I can find all the info I need to do my job on one screen.”

Differentiated experience

Competition keeps growing across every sector, but businesses can really differentiate themselves with high quality, personal service. When your customer service teams can go above and beyond to make a happy customer, you increase customer engagement and encourage more customer loyalty.

Continuous feedback loop

When implementing new technology to help with customer service, ensure that you create a continuous feedback loop both on your customer’s end and internally to measure customer service satisfaction and employee engagement. In other words, it will help you assess the success of your technology, while offering you the opportunity to constantly apply your customer’s suggestions and improve goods and services.

Delight your customers with an omnichannel customer service approach

Customers don’t want to need customer service. That’s why it’s so important to remove the friction from frustrated customers’ path to a solution. Cloud based omnichannel customer service platforms can help you achieve that by bringing everything into a unified view, from past interactions to past purchases and preferences. That means you can offer a consistent, seamless experience no matter which channel your audience uses to reach out.

The improvement in your team’s processes is also a win, as it optimizes agent time so they can spend more of it with the customers who need you. Plus, customer service leaders get access to unified data that you can more quickly translate into data-driven insights.

Need help bringing it all together?

Contacto offers an easy-to-use way to deliver streamlined, omnichannel customer service. It integrates with your existing business systems to give customer service teams all the data they need, from a single pane of glass. Read more about Contacto’s channels and features.

Oct 28, 2021

5 mins

How to Send Voice OTP Using ASP .NET MVC and Plivo

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

PHLO

.NET SDK

Voice API

How To

OTP

You can authenticate a phone number by delivering a one-time password (OTP) via a phone call. To do this, you call the number and read a sequence of digits to the recipient via text-to-speech. To verify the number, the user needs to confirm the digits by entering them using the phone’s keypad.

Developers commonly use voice OTP to verify new user registrations, online transactions, and login sessions in an app or website. In this blog post, we walk you through a sample implementation of sending a voice OTP using the Plivo's Voice API and PHLO, our visual workflow builder. Plivo’s direct carrier connectivity and intelligent routing engine guarantee the best call connectivity and quality.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, you’ll need:

A Plivo account — sign up for one for free if you don’t have one already.
A voice-enabled Plivo phone number if you want to receive incoming calls. To search for and buy a number, go to Phone Numbers > Buy Numbers on the Plivo console.

ngrok — a utility that exposes your local development server to the internet over secure tunnels.

Create a PHLO to send OTP via phone call

PHLO lets you construct your entire use case and build and deploy workflows visually. With PHLO, you pay only for calls you make and receive, and building with PHLO is free.

To get started, visit PHLO in the Plivo console and click on Create New PHLO to build a new PHLO. On the Choose your use case window, click Build my own. The PHLO canvas will appear with the Start node. Click on the Start Node, and under API request, fill in the Keys as from, to, and otp, then click Validate. From the list of components on the left-hand side, drag and drop the Initial Call component onto the canvas and connect the Start node with the Initiate Call node using the API Request trigger state.

Configure the Initiate Call node with the using the From field and in the To field. Once you’ve configured a node, click Validate to save the configurations. Similarly, create a node for the Play Audio component and connect it to the Initiate Call node using the Answered trigger state. Next, configure the Play Audio node to play a specific message to the user — in this case, “Your verification code is <otp>.” Under Speak Text, click on Amazon Polly and paste the following:

<Speak voice="Polly.Amy">
   <prosody rate="medium">
      Your verification code is
      <break/>
      <break/>
      <say-as interpret-as="spell-out">{{Start.http.params.otp}}</say-as>
   </prosody>
</Speak>

Click Validate to save.

Connect the Initiate Call node with the Play Audio node using the Answered trigger state. After you complete the configuration, provide a friendly name for your PHLO and click Save.

Set up a .NET Framework app

In this section, we’ll walk you through how to set up a .NET Framework app in under five minutes and start handling voice OTP.

Create an MVC web app.

Configure the MVC app and provide a project name.

Install the Plivo NuGet package.

Install the Redis NuGet package.

Trigger the PHLO

Once you’ve created and set up your .NET dev envrironment, go to the Plivo consolse and copy the PHLO_ID. You can integrate a PHLO into your application workflow by making an API request to trigger the PHLO with the required payload.

Navigate to the Controllers directory, create a Controller named otp.cs, and paste into it this code.

        
    1   using System ;
    2   using System.Collections.Generic ; 
    3   using Plivo ;
    4   using StackExchange.Redis ; 
    5   using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc ; 
    6   using Newtonsoft.Json ;
    7
    8   namespace otp.Controllers  {      
    9    public  class otp : Controller  { 
    10   public  object dispatch_otp  String destination_number )  {
    11    ConnectionMultiplexer redis  = ConnectionMultiplexer .Connect ("localhost: 6379" );
    12    IDatabase conn  = redis .GetDatabase ();
    13
    14    Random r  =  new Random (); 
    15    var code  = r .Next ( 999999 ); 
    16    var phloClient  =  new PhloApi ("<auth_id>" , "<auth_token>" ); 
    17    var phloID  = "phlo_id" ; 
    18    var phlo  = phloClient  Phlo .Get  phloID );  
    19    var data  =  new Dictionary < string ,  object > 
    20     { 
    21      { "from" , "+15671234567"  }, 
    22      { "to" , destination_number  }, 
    23      { "otp" , code  }, 
    24     };
    25     Console .WriteLine  phlo .Run  data )); 
    26     var key  =  string .Format ("number:{0}:code" , destination_number );
    27     conn .StringSet  key , code , TimeSpan .FromSeconds ( 60 ));
    28
    29     Verification verification  =  new Verification (); 
    30     verification  status  = "success" ;
    31     verification  message  = "verification initiated" ; 
    32     string output  = JsonConvert .SerializeObject  verification ); 
    33     return output ; 
    34     }
    35
    36     public string verify_otp(String destination_number, String otp) {
    37     ConnectionMultiplexer redis = ConnectionMultiplexer.Connect("localhost: 6379");
    38     IDatabase conn = redis.GetDatabase();
    39
    40      string key = $ "number:{destination_number}:code";
    41      var compare_code = (string) conn.StringGet(key);
    42
    43       if (compare_code == otp) {
    44       conn.KeyDelete(key);
    45       Verification verification = new Verification();
    46       verification.status = "success";
    47       verification.message = "Number verified";
    48       string output = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(verification);
    49       return output;
    50        } else if (compare_code != otp) {
    51        Verification verification = new Verification();
    52        verification.status = "failure";
    53        verification.message = "Number not verified";
    54        string output = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(verification);
    55        return output;
    56        } else {
    57        Verification verification = new Verification();
    58        verification.status = "failure";
    59        verification.message = "number not found!";
    60        string output = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(verification);
    61        return output;
    62        }
    63
    64      }
    65
    66     private class Verification {
    67        public string status {
    68          get;
    69          internal set;
    70          }
    71           public string message {
    72             get;
    73           internal set;
    74           }
    75          }
    76        }
    77     }

You can get your Auth ID and Auth Token from the console.

You can find the PHLO_ID on the PHLO Listing page.

Test

Once you have created the Voice OTP app, save the file and run it.

Start Redis.

$ redis-server

$ redis-server

And you should see your basic server application in action.

https://localhost:5001/dispatch_otp/?destination_number=<destination_number>
https://localhost:5001/verify_otp/?destination_number=<destination_number>&otp=<otp>

https://localhost:5001/dispatch_otp/?destination_number=<destination_number>
https://localhost:5001/verify_otp/?destination_number=<destination_number>&otp=<otp>

Boom — you’ve made an outbound call with the OTP as a text-to-speech message.

Simple and reliable

And that’s all there is to send OTP via a phone call using Plivo’s Ruby SDK. Our simple APIs work in tandem with our comprehensive global network. You can also use Plivo’s premium direct routes that guarantee the highest possible delivery rates and the shortest possible delivery times for your 2FA SMS and voice messages. See for yourself — sign up for a free trial account.

Oct 28, 2021

5 mins

SMS Marketing: The Ultimate Guide (2024)

SMS marketing outperforms email marketing. Learn how to engage customers through SMS marketing with these seven examples

SMS Marketing

Consumers worldwide are constantly on their phones: 98% of text messages are opened and read. It’s virtually guaranteed that when you send a text, your audience will receive and read it.

Despite its proven effectiveness, SMS marketing is still an underutilized communication channel for many businesses. More than 60% of brands still need a formal strategy for using SMS marketing.

Companies that invest in SMS marketing can still gain a competitive advantage. In this guide, we’ll break down the basics of SMS marketing, the software and tools you need to leverage this channel, and some best practices for keeping your audience captivated.

What is SMS marketing?

SMS marketing uses text messages (SMS) to directly market products and services to customers. Compared to other marketing methods, SMS marketing is a highly effective way to ensure your message is seen promptly and drives immediate action. Consider these statistics:

80.5% of consumers check their texts within five minutes of receiving a notification.
More than 80% of consumers have opted in to at least one brand’s SMS marketing program.
30% of customers will make a purchase in response to text messages.

SMS outreach can boost engagement, relationships, and loyalty when used as part of a broader marketing strategy. It’s direct, it’s personal, and it’s pretty much instant.

What are the benefits of SMS marketing?

SMS marketing helps businesses achieve their sales targets at a lower cost than traditional marketing options. Here are a few reasons why SMS marketing strategies are so powerful.

1. High open rates

Today’s consumers are always on their phones, which is why SMS marketing is so effective. SMS boasts open rates exceeding 90%, compared to email's 20-30%. However, availability isn’t the only reason SMS marketing has high open rates.

When you send an SMS, it’s pretty much guaranteed that your audience wants to receive it. Rules governing SMS marketing require consumers to opt-in to receive text messages from brands. As a result, you can rest assured that message recipients want to hear from you — and, they are likely to read and respond to your campaign.

2. High conversion rates

An audience primed to receive messages from your brand is just the first ingredient for successful sales. SMS can be easily personalized with platforms like Plivo. By using customer data in your SMS campaigns—such as their name, past purchases, or browsing history—you can tailor your SMS to each individual recipient.

3. High ROI

This engaged audience nets huge benefits for your brand. Marketing texts prompt more than 50% of consumers to make a purchase. Moreover, the ROI on SMS marketing campaigns is estimated at $71 for every dollar spent. This demonstrates that SMS marketing is one of the most effective sales channels compared to social media, email, or any other traditional marketing outreach.

7 SMS marketing strategic use cases for your business:

Businesses use texting for a variety of purposes, some marketing-related and some not. Common uses include reminders, delivery updates, and promotions. Not all of these are marketing tactics, but texting does have some great marketing applications. Let’s look at seven of the top SMS marketing use cases and see how some leading businesses take advantage of them.

1. Promotional offers

Since promotions are time-sensitive, you want to make sure they get opened quickly, or they might sit unopened until they expire. Thinx, a provider of feminine hygiene underwear, uses SMS marketing to send out promotional offers.

2. Reminders

Reminders are notifications that keep customers in the loop about their orders. People get distracted with other activities and forget about purchases. If a customer got an email about a food delivery, they might not notice it, but a text message? It’s going to pop up. DoorDash, an online food ordering company, uses texting to remind customers about their food orders.

3. Customer surveys and ratings

A customer survey lets you get feedback on what you’re doing well and what you could be doing better. Text response rates are 7.5 times higher than email response rates, so texting customer surveys is better. Texting lets you get creative and engaging in your survey. Seamless, a food delivery service, uses interactive texting to get customers’ feedback on their service.

4. New product or service launch

When you have a new product or service, you want to tell your customers about it. These announcements might not get noticed in a crowded email inbox, but they make an impactful impression via text. Sakara, a plant-based food company, uses texting to update customers on new products and even offers early access.

5. Shopping cart abandonment

More than 70% of customers abandon potential purchases in online shopping carts, according to data from Baymard Institute. Swank A Posh, an online women’s fashion store, utilizes texting to remind customers of clothing left in their shopping carts.

6. Content sharing

Texting is an effective way to share how-to guides, information about a product, and other resources with customers. Ford Motor Company uses texting to provide information on Ford cars with CTAs such as “For more information, text FORD to 63111.”

7. Automated responses

Manually responding to customers can be taxing, especially on a large scale. Automating processes helps you run smoother. Your business can use SMS autoresponders to give instant responses to your customers when they need them. Julep, a cosmetic brand, uses SMS autoresponders to allow customers who viewed an ad to text “BETTER” and receive offers.

What are some SMS marketing best practices?

These stellar results don’t come without putting the right infrastructure and best practices in place. Follow these SMS marketing best practices to ensure your campaigns are a success.

1.Make sure you have opt-in permission

Perhaps the most important rule to follow when implementing an SMS marketing strategy is to make sure you have opt-in consent.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union mandates opt-in consent for certain types of data processing. This regulation requires that consent is freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. Failing to obtain proper opt-in consent can lead to significant fines and legal issues for businesses.

Opt-in helps businesses demonstrate respect for user privacy and build customer trust. Make sure to use an opt-in message to get explicit consent before sending any marketing messages via SMS.

2.Use a tool to manage and automate SMS messaging

SMS campaigns can quickly become unmanageable without the right tools in place. Imagine sending an SMS manually to every single customer. It would be a poor use of your and your team’s time.

Plivo sends millions of SMS messages every month. Through Plivo’s platform, you can procure the right number (long code, short code, etc.), send application-to-person (A2P) messages that abide by industry rules, and utilize the API to make sure your messages are delivered without disruption.

3.Keep your content short and sweet

SMS messages have a strict 160-character limit. As a result, you have to be thoughtful about what you send. Offer something valuable in every SMS, such as exclusive discounts, appointment reminders, or important updates. This keeps recipients engaged and subscribed. Likewise, make sure every SMS contains a clear call-to-action, such as “Buy Now” or “Learn More.”

4.Choose key moments in the customer journey

Plivo allows you to set up triggers that automatically send SMS at the ideal moment you want to reach your customer. Plivo CX's Journeys feature allows you to send the right message to customers at the right time based on their activity. With Journeys, you can identify key events that trigger messages to customers. These include messages for:

Returned orders
Abandoned carts
Feedback requests
Shipment notification
First-time purchases

Plivo CX has no-code workflows that allow you to create and optimize key messaging moments yourself, depending on your customer segments and unique buyer’s journey.

5.Complement SMS with other channels

SMS is best used as part of an omnichannel marketing strategy. Consider other ways customers might be hearing from your brand to avoid spamming them with the same message.

“Don’t treat your SMS like your email program,” said Morgan Mulloy, associate director of email marketing at Avex Designs. “Email is more of an ‘interact at your leisure’ channel, whereas SMS is intrusive. It’s literally at the palm of your customer’s hand. SMS is not the ‘blast every day’ channel. It’s the ‘quality over quantity’ channel.”

If you send an email, SMS, tweet, Instagram post, and a LinkedIn InMail with the same message, your audience will get irritated — fast. Be selective about how you’re utilizing SMS and save it for urgent, timely campaigns.

What are the key SMS marketing laws?

Regulations governing SMS marketing vary significantly between countries and change regularly. It’s worth doing some research or consulting with an expert to make sure your campaigns are compliant with the most up-to-date rules.

In the US, SMS marketing is governed by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). This regulation requires companies to get explicit consent from recipients before sending marketing messages. You must provide clear opt-out instructions and abide by restrictions on sending times (generally between 8 AM and 9 PM).

In the EU, SMS marketers need to meet the guidelines of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Like the US, this rule requires explicit opt-in consent as well as easy opt-out mechanisms. It also requires companies to provide clear and detailed information about data usage.

India-based SMS marketing is governed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). These rules are slightly more involved: for instance, campaigns must be registered on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform. Sender IDs must be registered with the TRAI, and promotional messages are only allowed between 9 AM and 9 PM.

Ultimately, all of these examples aim to protect consumers against spam and fraud. Following general best practices, such as easy opt-in and opt-out, sending messages during normal business hours, and avoiding inflammatory content can ensure your messages never get blocked.

How do you build an SMS subscriber list?

Building an audience takes time. The best SMS subscriber lists grow organically — proving that your SMS marketing strategies are providing value and encouraging more people to sign up. When you first start up, consider these tactics for building a list of SMS marketing subscribers.

1 .Launch a text-to-join campaign

Create a keyword (e.g. "JOIN") for customers to text to your number to sign up for marketing updates via SMS. Promote the keyword across marketing channels and send an automatic confirmation message when users opt-in.

2. Choose the right moment to ask

There are ideal moments when consumers are primed to sign up for SMS. Include an SMS opt-in option at checkout (both in-store and online), newsletter signups, account creation, social media, and email campaigns. Place QR codes on product packaging, receipts, and in-store displays that link to SMS signup. Consider adding SMS opt-in options to your website popups, embedded forms, and elsewhere on your owned media.

3. Offer incentives for signing up

A great way to encourage users to sign up is to provide exclusive discounts or deals for SMS subscribers. These incentives don’t have to be expensive: Give early access to sales or new products, or position SMS as an exclusive channel for your most loyal customers.

The key to building an active list of SMS subscribers is clearly communicating the value of joining your SMS list, obtaining proper consent, and making the signup process seamless across multiple touchpoints.

What are the best platforms for SMS marketing?

There are tons of platforms on the market that offer SMS marketing tools, but Plivo stands above most for a few reasons.

Plivo's Premium Communication Network (PCN) is a global system for sending voice calls and text messages. We work with over 1,600 phone companies in more than 220 countries and territories and carefully choose only the best phone companies to work with.

We have six main connection points around the world. This helps us send messages and calls quickly, no matter where they're going.

To make sure our service is reliable, we connect to at least two phone carriers or operators in each country. This does a few important things:

It makes messages and calls go through faster.
It helps avoid delays.
It gives customers the best possible connection.

Having multiple connections also means that if one phone company has a problem, we can quickly switch to another. This helps keep our service running smoothly and maintains good quality.

Learn more about Plivo’s comprehensive SMS API, built to programmatically send and receive text messages globally.

Get started with SMS marketing today

Flight Vector’s CEO Scot Cromer says that “SMS is the future. If you don’t provide a texting solution, you’re going to be left behind.” Fortunately, getting started with SMS marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Plivo’s SMS API Platform offers a suite of tools that help you create and launch personalized text campaigns easily — and it’s free to sign up.

Oct 26, 2021

5 mins

How to Send Voice OTP on a Phone Call in Ruby Using Rails and Plivo

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

Ruby SDK

Voice API

How To

OTP

Developers commonly use voice OTP to verify new user registrations, online transactions, and login sessions in an app or website. In this blog post, we walk you through a sample implementation of sending a Voice OTP using the Plivo Voice platform and PHLO, our visual workflow builder. Plivo’s direct carrier connectivity and intelligent routing engine guarantee the best call connectivity and quality.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, you’ll need:

A Plivo account — sign up for one for free if you don’t have one already.
A voice-enabled Plivo phone number if you want to receive incoming calls. To search for and buy a number, go to Phone Numbers > Buy Numbers on the Plivo console.

Rails and Plivo Ruby packages — run gem install rails and gem install plivo to install them.
ngrok — a utility that exposes your local development server to the internet over secure tunnels.

Create a PHLO to send OTP via phone call

PHLO lets you construct your entire use case and build and deploy workflows visually. With PHLO, you pay only for calls you make and receive, and building with PHLO is free.

To get started, visit PHLO in the Plivo console and click Create New PHLO. On the Choose your use case window, click **Build my own. The PHLO canvas will appear with the Start node. Click on the Start Node, and under API request fill in the Keys as from, to, and otp, then click Validate. From the list of components on the left-hand side, drag and drop the Initial Call component onto the canvas and connect the Start node with the Initiate Call node using the API Request trigger state.

<Speak voice="Polly.Amy">
   <prosody rate="medium">
      Your verification code is
      <break/>
      <break/>
      <say-as interpret-as="spell-out">{{Start.http.params.otp}}</say-as>
   </prosody>
</Speak>

Click Validate to save.

Connect the Initiate Call node with the Play Audio node using the Answered trigger state. After you complete the configuration, provide a friendly name for your PHLO and click Save.

Create a Rails Project

As we have Rails and its dependencies installed, we can use them to create a new Rails project. As the initial step, using rails we can auto-generate code in the ruby on rails folder structure. Use the below command to start your Rails project.

$ rails new plivotest

This will create a plivotest directory with the necessary folders & files for development.

Install Modules

As we have the rails application created, now, let’s add Plivo-Ruby by modifying the Gemfile. Open the Gemfile in any IDE/text-editor and add the following line:

gem 'plivo', '~> 4.16.0'
gem 'redis', '4.2.1'
gem 'json', '2.3.1'

You can use the below command to install the Plivo-Ruby gem into the bundle:

$ bundle install

Create a Rails Controller

Change the directory to our newly created project directory, i.e, plivotest directory and run the below command to create a rails controller for Voice OTP.

$ rails generate controller Plivo voice

This will generate a controller named plivo_controller in the app/controllers/ directory and a respective view will be generated in app/views/plivo directory. We can delete the View as we will not need it.

$ rm app/views/plivo/voice.html.erb

Run the PHLO to send OTP via phone call

Now you can trigger the PHLO and test it out. Copy the PHLO ID from the end of the URL of the workflow you just created. You’re also going to need your Auth ID and Auth Token.

Now, You have to open the app/controllers/plivo_controller.rb file and add the following code:

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include Plivo
require 'redis'
require 'json'
include Plivo::Exceptions

class PlivoController < ApplicationController
	def dispatch_otp
		redis = Redis.new(host: "localhost")
		code = rand(999_999)
		dst_number = params[:dst_number]
		auth_id = '<auth_id>'
    auth_token = '<auth_token>'

    client = Phlo.new(auth_id, auth_token)
    	begin
    phlo = client.phlo.get('phlo_id')
    #parameters set in PHLO - params
    params = {
       from: +15671234567,
       to: dst_number,
       otp:code
  }
  response = phlo.run(params)
  puts response
rescue PlivoRESTError => e
  puts 'Exception: ' + e.message
end
		redis.setex(dst_number, 60, code) # Verification code is valid for 1 min
		puts JSON.pretty_generate({ :status=> 'success', :message=> 'verification initiated' })
	rescue PlivoRESTError => e
		puts 'Exception: ' + e.message
	end

	def verify_otp
		redis = Redis.new(host: "localhost")
		code = params[:otp]
		number = params[:number]
		original_code = redis.get(number)
		if original_code == code
			redis.del(number)  # verification successful, delete the code
			puts JSON.pretty_generate( { :status=> 'success', :message=> 'codes match! number verified'})
		elsif original_code != code
			puts JSON.pretty_generate({ :status => "failure", :message=> 'codes do not match! number not verified' })
		else
			puts JSON.pretty_generate( { :status=> 'rejected', :message=> 'number not found!' })
		end
	end
end

Substitute actual values for <auth_id>, <auth_token>, and <PHLO_ID>. Save the file and run it with the command

Add a Route

Now, to add a route for the outbound function in the PlivoController class, open the config/routes.rb file and change the line:

get 'plivo/voice'

get 'plivo/verify_otp'
get 'plivo/dispatch_otp'

Test & Validate

Now the plivo_controller is ready for your first outbound call, you can use the below command to initiate your first outbound using Rails and Plivo Ruby SDK.

$ rails server

Run the following command in a new terminal tab to start the redis.

$ redis-server

And you should see your basic server app in action as below:

http://localhost:3000/plivo/dispatch_otp?destination_number=<destination_number>
http://localhost:3000/plivo/verify_otp?destination_number=<destination_number>&otp=<otp>

Boom — you’ve made an outbound call with the OTP as a text-to-speech message.

Simple and reliable

Oct 21, 2021

5 mins

How to Send Voice OTP on a Phone Call in PHP Using Laravel and Plivo

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

PHP SDK

Voice API

How To

OTP

Developers commonly use voice OTP to verify new user registrations, online transactions, and login sessions in an app or website. In this blog post, we walk you through a sample implementation of sending a Voice OTP using the Plivo Voice platform and PHLO, our visual workflow builder. Plivo’s direct carrier connectivity and intelligent routing engine guarantee the best call connectivity and quality.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, you’ll need:

A Plivo account — sign up for one for free if you don’t have one already.
A voice-enabled Plivo phone number if you want to receive incoming calls. To search for and buy a number, go to Phone Numbers > Buy Numbers on the Plivo console.

Laravel and Plivo PHP packages — run composer require laravel/installer and composer require plivo/plivo-php to install them.
ngrok — a utility that exposes your local development server to the internet over secure tunnels.

Create a PHLO to send OTP via phone call

PHLO lets you construct your entire use case and build and deploy workflows visually. With PHLO, you pay only for calls you make and receive, and building with PHLO is free.

To get started, visit PHLO in the Plivo console and click Create New PHLO. On the Choose your use case window, click Build my own. The PHLO canvas will appear with the Start node. Click on the Start Node, and under API request fill in the Keys as from, to, and otp, then click Validate. From the list of components on the left-hand side, drag and drop the Initial Call component onto the canvas and connect the Start node with the Initiate Call node using the API Request trigger state.

Configure the Initiate Call node with the using the From field and in the To field. Once you’ve configured a node, click Validate to save the configuration. Similarly, create a node for the Play Audio component and connect it to the Initiate Call node using the Answered trigger state. Next, configure the Play Audio node to play a message to the user — in this case, “Your verification code is <otp>.” Under Speak Text, click on Amazon Polly and paste the following:

<Speak voice="Polly.Amy">
   <prosody rate="medium">
      Your verification code is
      <break/>
      <break/>
      <say-as interpret-as="spell-out">{{Start.http.params.otp}}</say-as>
   </prosody>
</Speak>

Click Validate to save.

Connect the Initiate Call node with the Play Audio node using the Answered trigger state. After you complete the configuration, provide a friendly name for your PHLO and click Save.

Use the PHLO in a Laravel application

Now you can use the PHLO in a PHP Laravel application by following the below steps:

Create a project directory and change into it.

  $ mkdir mylaravelapp
  $ cd mylaravelapp

Install the Plivo SDK using composer.

  $ composer require plivo/plivo-php

Install other modules.

  $ composer require predis/predis

Run the PHLO to send OTP via phone call

Now you can trigger the PHLO and test it out. Copy the PHLO ID from the end of the URL of the workflow you just created. You’re also going to need your Auth ID and Auth Token.

Create a Laravel Controller

Change the directory to our newly created project directory and create a Laravel controller for outbound calls.

$ php artisan make:controller VoiceController

This command generates a controller named VoiceController in the app/http/controllers/ directory. Edit app/http/controllers/voiceController.php and paste into it this code.

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
require '../../vendor/autoload.php';
use Plivo\RestClient;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis;

class VoiceController extends Controller
{
    public function dispatch_otp()
    {
        $dst_number = $_REQUEST["dst_number"];
        $code = random_int(100000, 999999);

        $auth_id    = "<auth_id>";
        $auth_token = "<auth_token>";
        $client = new PhloRestClient($auth_id, $auth_token);
        $phlo = $client->phlo->get(<YOUR_PHLO_ID>);
         try {
         $response = $phlo->run(["from" => "+15673234567", "to" => $dst_number,"otp"=>$code]);
         // These are the fields entered in the PHLO console
         print_r($response);
      } catch (PlivoRestException $ex) {
    print_r($ex);
   }
        Redis::setex($dst_number, 60, $code);
        header('Content-Type: application/json');
        echo json_encode($response);
        echo '{"status": "success", "message": "verification initiated"}';
    }
    
    public function verify_otp()
    {
        $dst_number = $_REQUEST["dst_number"];
        $code = $_REQUEST["otp"];
        
        $value = Redis::get($dst_number);

        if ($code==$value)
        {
            Redis::get($dst_number);
            echo '{"status": "success", "message": "codes match! number verified"}';
        }
        elseif($code!=$value)
        {
            Redis::del($dst_number,$code);
            echo '{"status": "failure", "message": "codes do not match! number not verified"}';
        }
        else
        {
            echo '{"status": "failure", "message": "number not found!"}';
        }
    }
}

Substitute actual values for <auth_id>, <auth_token>, and <PHLO_ID>. Save the file and run it.

Add a route

Now, to add a route for the outbound function in the VoiceController class, edit routes/web.php and add these lines at the end of the file.

Route::match(['get', 'post'], '/dispatch_otp', 'App\Http\Controllers\VoiceController@dispatch_otp');
Route::match(['get', 'post'], '/verify_otp', 'App\Http\Controllers\VoiceController@verify_otp');

Edit your .env file and add this line.

REDIS_CLIENT=predis

Test

Now the VoiceController is ready for your first outbound call. Start the Laravel controller.

$ php artisan serve

Start Redis.

$ redis-server

And you should see your basic server application in action.

http://localhost:8000/dispatch_otp/?destination_number=<destination_number>
http://localhost:8000/verify_otp/?destination_number=<destination_number>&otp=<otp>

Boom — you’ve made an outbound call with the OTP as a text-to-speech message.

Simple and reliable

And that’s all there is to send OTP via a phone call using Plivo’s PHP SDK. Our simple APIs work in tandem with our comprehensive global network. You can also use Plivo’s premium direct routes that guarantee the highest possible delivery rates and the shortest possible delivery times for your 2FA SMS and voice messages. See for yourself — sign up for a free trial account.

Oct 20, 2021

5 mins

How to Send Voice OTP on a Phone Call in Node.js Using Express and Plivo

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

PHLO

Node.Js SDK

Voice API

How To

OTP

Developers commonly use voice OTP to verify new user registrations, online transactions, and login sessions in an app or website. In this blog post, we walk you through a sample implementation of sending a voice OTP using the Plivo Voice platform and PHLO, our visual workflow builder. Plivo’s direct carrier connectivity and intelligent routing engine guarantee the best call connectivity and quality.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, you’ll need:

A Plivo account — sign up for one for free if you don’t have one already.
A voice-enabled Plivo phone number if you want to receive incoming calls. To search for and buy a number, go to Phone Numbers > Buy Numbers on the Plivo console.

Express and Plivo Node packages — run npm install plivo express to install them.
ngrok — a utility that exposes your local development server to the internet over secure tunnels.

Create a PHLO to send OTP via phone call

PHLO lets you construct your entire use case and build and deploy workflows visually. With PHLO, you pay only for calls you make and receive, and building with PHLO is free.

To get started, visit PHLO in the Plivo console and click on Create New PHLO. On the Choose your use case window, click Build my own. The PHLO canvas will appear with the Start node. Click on the Start Node, and under API request fill in the Keys as from, to, and otp, then click Validate. From the list of components on the left-hand side, drag and drop the Initial Call component onto the canvas and connect the Start node with the Initiate Call node using the API Request trigger state.

Configure the Initiate Call node with the using the From field and in the To field. Once you’ve configured a node, click Validate to save the configuration. Similarly, create a node for the Play Audio component and connect it to the Initiate Call node using the Answered trigger state. Next, configure the Play Audio node to play a specific message to the user — in this case, “Your verification code is <otp>.” Under Speak Text, click on Amazon Polly and paste the following:

<Speak voice="Polly.Amy">
    <prosody rate="medium">
        Your verification code is
    <break/>
    <break/>
    <say-as interpret-as="spell-out">{{Start.http.params.otp}}</say-as>
    </prosody>
</Speak>

Click Validate to save.

Connect the Initiate Call node with the Play Audio node using the Answered trigger state. After you complete the configuration, provide a friendly name for your PHLO and click Save.

Use the PHLO in a Express application

Now you can use the PHLO in a Node.js express application by following the below steps:

Create a project directoryand change into it.

  $ mkdir mynodeapp
  $ cd mynodeapp

Install the Plivo SDK using npm.

  $ npm install plivo

Install other modules.

  $ brew install redis
  $ npm install redis
  $ npm install express

Run the PHLO to send OTP via phone call

Now you can trigger the PHLO and test it out. Copy the PHLO ID from the end of the URL of the workflow you just created. You’re also going to need your Auth ID and Auth Token. Create a Node.js source code file — let’s call it trigger_phlo.js — and paste into it this code.

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const redis = require('redis');
const redisClient = redis.createClient();
var plivo = require('plivo');

// Make call to the destination number with OTP.
app.get('/dispatch_otp/:number', function(req, res) {
    const number = (req.params.number);
    const code = Math.floor(100000 + Math.random() * 900000);

    var client = new plivo.Client("<auth_id>", "<auth_token>");
    var response = client.calls.create(
        "+14151234567", // from
        number, // to
        "https://twofa-answerurl.herokuapp.com/answer_url/" + code, // answer url
        {
            answerMethod: "GET",
        },
    )
    console.log(response)
    redisClient.set(`number:${number}:code`, code, 'EX', 60);
    res.send(JSON.stringify({
        'status': 'success',
        'message': 'verification initiated'
    }));
});

// Validate the OTP entered by the user.
app.get('/verify_otp/:number/:code', function(req, res) {
    const number = (req.params.number);
    const code = (req.params.code);
    redisClient.get(`number:${number}:code`, function(err, OriginalCode) {
        if (OriginalCode == code) {
            redisClient.del(`number:${number}:code`);
            res.send(JSON.stringify({
                'status': 'success',
                'message': 'codes match! number verified'
            }));
        } else if (OriginalCode != code) {
            res.send(JSON.stringify({
                'status': 'failure',
                'message': 'codes do not match! number not verified'
            }));
        } else {
            res.send(JSON.stringify({
                'status': 'failure',
                'message': 'number not found!'
            }));
        }
    });
});

app.listen(5000);

Substitute actual values for <auth_id>, <auth_token>, and <PHLO_ID>. Save the file and run it.

$ node trigger_phlo.js

Boom — you’ve made an outbound call with the OTP as a text-to-speech message.

Simple and reliable

And that’s all there is to send OTP via a phone call using Plivo’s Node.js SDK. Our simple APIs work in tandem with our comprehensive global network. You can also use Plivo’s premium direct routes that guarantee the highest possible delivery rates and the shortest possible delivery times for your 2FA SMS and voice messages. See for yourself — sign up for a free trial account.

Oct 12, 2021

5 mins

Plivo Survey Reveals Holiday Shoppers Want to Receive Communications from Retailers

Press release on Plivo Holiday Shopping Communications Survey reveals consumer preferences for communications with retailers: SMS text messages, email, and more

Company

SMS Marketing

70% of holiday shoppers prefer retailer communications via email, while 41% prefer SMS communications

Austin, TX — October 12, 2021 — Plivo, the cloud communications platform that enables businesses to engage with their customers, today announced the results of its Holiday Shopping Communications Survey. The survey, conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of Plivo, polled over 2,000 U.S. adults aged 18 and older, revealing the manner and channels customers prefer when communicating with retailers.

The survey found that nearly 9 in 10 Americans (87%) would want to receive communications from retailers they shop or want to shop with, most commonly via email (66%). About 3 in 4 Americans (74%) would opt in to receiving SMS/text messages from retailers, primarily for shipping/delivery notices and updates (45%) and coupons (43%).

Of those surveyed, 1,222 US adults ages 18+ said they will be shopping for the upcoming holiday season — one that, due to supply chain issues, will likely be impacted by delays, shortages, and higher prices. For retailers with a poor communication strategy, this could mean unhappy customers.

Key insights into holiday shoppers’ communications preferences include:

Holiday shoppers are open to receiving communications from retailers. 93% of Americans who plan to holiday shop this year would want to receive communications from retailers they shop with or want to shop with. Their preferred form of communication is email (70%) followed by SMS text messaging (41%).
Holiday shoppers over 35 are open to direct mail communications, while younger holiday shoppers are more likely to prefer in-app messaging. Among those who plan to holiday shop this year, adults ages 35+ are more likely than those 18-34 to prefer to receive direct mail communications from retailers they shop with/want to shop with (40% vs. 21%). Meanwhile, younger adults ages 18-44 are more likely than older adults 45+ to prefer in-app messaging (32% vs. 10%).
Holiday shoppers are likely to opt in to text messages. 83% of holiday shoppers would opt in to receive SMS text messages from retailers, with the top notification type being shipping/delivery notices and updates (54%) and coupons (52%). This means SMS is a particularly valuable channel for communicating with shoppers about product availability and shipping timelines this holiday season.
Some holiday shoppers are more likely to prefer curbside pickup. Holiday shoppers ages 18-64 are more likely than those 65+ to opt in to curbside pickup notifications (35% vs. 15%).

“With ongoing supply chain disruptions, shipping issues and shortages of key products such as microchips, holiday shopping is going to look pretty different this year,” said Anusha Venkat, Product Manager for Plivo Messaging. “To help consumers cope with these changes, and prevent gift-givers from feeling stressed and frustrated, retailers need to be smart about how they communicate with customers — reaching out to them at the right time, with the right message, via the right channel.”

To see the full results of Plivo’s Holiday Shopping Communications Survey, please visit www.plivo.com.

**The survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Plivo from August 10-12, 2021, among 2,082 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, of whom 1,222 plan to shop for the holidays this year. For complete survey methodology, please contact press@plivo.com.

Oct 11, 2021

5 mins

Happy holiday shopping with SMS from Plivo

A new Harris Poll shows that holiday shoppers are open to receiving SMS text messages from retailers.

SMS Marketing

Happy holiday shopping with SMS from Plivo

Christmas comes early this year — not on the calendar, but for retailers hoping that widely reported supply chain issues won’t keep them from being able to stock their shelves. Given the possibility that retailers won’t have enough goods to ensure a happy holiday for everyone, smart shoppers are likely to be out early — so now’s the time to consider how to let customers know how to get what they want from your business.

To find out how shoppers want to communicate with retailers, Plivo commissioned The Harris Poll to conduct a survey among more than 2,000 US adults aged 18 and older. We found that nearly 9 in 10 Americans (87%) are open to receiving communications from retailers they shop with or want to shop with.

Click here to access the survey results report.

About 3 in 4 (74%) Americans we surveyed would opt in to receive text messages from retailers — and when we zeroed in on people who plan to shop for the holidays, we found that 83% were open to receiving SMS text messages from retailers, with the top notification types being shipping and delivery notices and updates (54%) and coupons (52%).

That preference for SMS text messaging confirms what we’ve seen elsewhere, including these statistics from TechJury:

66% of Americans check their phones 160 times a day on average.
SMS has a 98% open rate.
More than 60% of people read their SMS messages within five minutes.

All of these statistics show that text messaging is a tool you can’t afford to ignore.

Add SMS via a cloud communications platform

While businesses may see the value of adding text messaging to their applications, they may be baffled about where to start. The answer is a cloud-based communications platform, also known as communications platform as a service (CPaaS), that provides a set of APIs that your developers can use to add the ability to send and receive messages to your existing applications.

Of course CPaaS platforms vary, so to take advantage of the power of SMS, you should look for a communications platform with a reliable network of high-quality carriers, a presence in every market you serve (with local phone numbers), and a simple, well-documented API that makes it easy for developers to add SMS messaging to your applications. Plivo not only provides all that, we walk our customers through the complex world of regulatory compliance for things like sending rate limits, data privacy, and sender ID regulations. Put all of that together and you can see why Plivo is the top cloud communications platform in customer satisfaction on G2.

Want to see for yourself? We’ve written use case guides on how to implement more than a dozen common business tasks, including sending SMS messages, with coding examples in seven common development languages. You can test any and all of them for free by creating a free Plivo account.

If you’re not already using SMS to communicate with your market, we’ve got some useful holiday gifts for you. You can read about the power of using SMS for marketing. We’ve also written a white paper on how to optimize your SMS communications, and an SMS best practices guide for more insights and tips. If you have questions on other topics, we encourage you to talk to one of our experts. They can help you ensure that both your customers and your business get what they want this holiday season.

*This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Plivo from August 10-12, 2021, among 2,082 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, of whom 1,222 plan to shop for the holidays this year. For complete survey methodology, contact press@plivo.com.

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AI Voice Agents - The Complete Guide to Voice Chat (2025)

What is an AI voice agent?

Types of AI voice agents

Rule-based AI voice agent

AI-assisted voice agent

Conversational AI voice agent

Voice-activated voice agent

How does an AI voice agent improve customer engagement?

Use case: Get a quick update on order status, 24/7

Benefits:

Use case: Improve language learning for students

Benefits:

Use case: Improve patient outcomes in healthcare

Benefits:

Use case: Streamline routine financial services

Benefits:

Use case: Get personal shopping assistance

Benefits:

Features of an AI voice agent

Natural language understanding (NLU)

Personalization capabilities

Multi-language support

Integration with other platforms and services

Benefits of voice agents

Enhanced user experience

Better cost efficiency

Accessibility for users with disabilities

Data collection and analysis for improved services

24/7 availability

Future of AI voice technology

Key upcoming trends:

Launch an AI voice agent with Plivo

AI Voice Agents for Real Estate (2026): 10 Tools Compared, Real Limitations and What Actually Scales

Top 10 AI Voice Agents for Real Estate (2026)

1. Plivo

2. Luron AI

3. Callers AI

4. SquadStack AI

5. Telgent

6. AIOnCalls

7. Brilo AI

8. VocalDesk

9. Calldock

10. Ylopo

What Matters Most in AI Voice Agents (Beyond the Basics)

1. Telephony Ownership vs. Vendor Stitching

2. Real-Time Performance (Latency & Uptime)

3. Multi-Channel Context, Not Disconnected Bots

4. Integration Depth (CRM, Calendars, Workflows)

5. Built for Scale, Not Just Launch

FAQs

What's the fastest way to go live without breaking existing operations?

How do I ensure voice quality doesn't feel robotic or laggy?

How does the agent stay accurate and compliant with real estate data?

What happens when call volume spikes or multiple leads call at once?

How does this fit into my CRM and follow-up workflows?

Try Plivo Free

Best AI Voice Agents for Customer Support and Service (2026): What to Deploy Now

1) Plivo — The fastest path to production-grade AI voice agents for customer support

Why Plivo is #1

What it does for you

Segment-by-segment fit

Start with Voice, go everywhere

Suitable for

2) Google Dialogflow CX — Complex, branching flows without spaghetti

Key features

Why it matters

Implementation steps

Suitable for

3) Amazon Lex + Amazon Connect — AWS-first voice automation that ops can own

Key features

Why it matters

Implementation steps

Suitable for

4) IBM Watson Assistant — Governance-first deployments in regulated industries

Key features

Why it matters

Implementation steps

Suitable for

5) Cognigy.AI — IVR modernization with fine-grained voice control