Sunny Rao (Vonage)
Manulife Singapore has selected Vonage’s SMS API to develop the financial services provider’s customer engagement across Asia Pacific.
The cloud communications solution aims to deliver automated notifications for one-time passwords (OTPs), policy notifications and promotional messages to customers in the region, spanning Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Hong Kong and China.
Manulife’s developers will be given priority support via a designated Vonage support team contactable through all channels and access to an enterprise service manager who can assist with on-boarding and ongoing project success.
Sunny Rao, senior vice president of API Global Sales at Vonage, highlighted the growing need for more digital adoption and personalised customer experiences due to changing customer expectations and to strengthen brand loyalty.
“SMS remains a vital communication format in the Asia Pacific region, where mobile penetration continues to rise, with 1.8 billion subscribers expected by 2025," he said.
"Vonage’s solutions can help businesses create seamless customer journeys through automated communications solutions. This ensures that businesses are engaging with customers on their preferred channel in a continuous and timely manner."
Both the number of application-to-person (A2P) messages and their value are set to grow as brands add mobile and digital channels to interact with their existing customers and recruit new ones.
According to an Analysys Mason report, 1.3 trillion A2P SMS messages were sent in 2020, in emerging Asia Pacific, accounting for 70 per cent of all A2P messages worldwide. It is expected that the number of A2P SMS messages will reach 1.9 trillion by 2025.
