A quick swipe through most smartphones reveals a myriad of apps. The majority of these are seldom, if ever, used.
The ones that are most frequently made use of are communication apps - with good old SMS still a channel for many, and still of great value to the contact centre.
However, Tobias Goebel, director of emerging technologies at Ocular Technologies' partner company, Aspect, states an SMS doesn't allow for what native apps can do, which is a display of rich media, or secure data entry.
"What can be done then to engage app-weary people on their communication channel of choice? he asks.
"When rich media is needed, such as displaying images, video, or offering forms for complex data entry, or the data entry needs to happen over a secure channel, say for credit card data entry, companies should consider branching out to a disposable app."
The disposable app can either be sent proactively (through the vehicle of a short URL embedded in an SMS or chat message - say over Messenger), or requested by the customer through a quick message, explains Goebel.
He says by using natural language understanding and other artificial intelligence techniques, users can now simply text what they'd like to achieve to the business and the automated system will respond accordingly.
"For example, 'need to pay my bill'. In this case, a message could be returned with the option to pay the outstanding bill with the card on file, which is something the customer can complete on SMS, or they be sent a link to a disposable app to pay their bill with a different payment method securely."
Through deployment of a disposable app, an SMS therefore offers a richer and more engaging communication platform than the one-way channel it has generally provided.
SMS thus leaps from simple to multifaceted. Added to this, it frees up both the user from downloading yet another app and the user's home phone from the numerous unused icons, which are literally just taking up space on the device.
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