Plivo won the Appealie Overall SaaS Award in the Development and DevOps category, and we couldn’t be happier. “To be recognized by the Appealie SaaS Awards as a top development platform is a tremendous honor,” says Venky B, Plivo co-founder and CEO. “It affirms our commitment to customer satisfaction and continued SaaS innovation.”

In the post announcing the winners, Arabella Solaybar of Appealie noted, “As software becomes more ubiquitous in our work and personal lives, the expectations of the users are continually growing. Our highly selective award honors customer-obsessed SaaS platforms that go above and beyond to deliver extraordinary experiences.”

Delivering extraordinary experiences is what Plivo strives for every day. “Today, businesses everywhere rely on cloud-based products and services to power their operations, their teams, and, ultimately, their success. That’s why, at Plivo, we’re obsessed with creating the very best SaaS experience possible for our customers,” says Venky B.

According to the awards criteria, and “as an indicator of Appealie’s SaaS Award selectivity, the Overall SaaS Award winners averaged over 4.6 stars on the most popular software review platforms (G2, Capterra, and GetApp – all of which use a 5-star rating scale).” The Appealie SaaS Awards recognized 41 SaaS apps this year for their demonstrated excellence and customer outcomes.

To see for yourself what the excitement is about, sign up for a free trial of Plivo today.

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.

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.

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. 

[Read more: What Do Opt In and Opt Out Mean?]  

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. 

[Read more: Plivo’s Guide to SMS Marketing] 

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:

1. It makes messages and calls go through faster.
2. It helps avoid delays.
3. 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.

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 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.

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.

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' 

to

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

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.