Vonage Supports Expanding Small Business Market Through the Pandemic

Vonage has highlighted the importance of providing future-proof cloud communications solutions for its growing small and midsize (SMB) customer base.

In an increasingly digital and post-COVID world, the global transition to a virtual or hybrid work environment has levelled the playing field for small and medium-sized businesses, empowering them with the tools and technologies to operate like their larger counterparts in the enterprise space.

Built using Vonage Communications APIs, the Vonage Communications Platform (VCP) delivers a secure, scalable, flexible cloud communications platform that powers global engagement solutions across APIs, unified communications and contact centre innovations for businesses large and small.

“We have witnessed a change in the way that business gets done, with success driven by digital experiences and the ability to serve employees and customers remotely,” said Jay Bellissimo, Chief Operating Officer, Vonage.

“Small and midsize businesses, all over the world, must adapt to meet these customer expectations and provide the experience customers demand in order to not only survive but thrive.”

Business technology is at its best when it’s used as an equalizer, and the Vonage Communications Platform is uniquely positioned to offer SMB organizations a wide range of scalable and flexible communications services and solutions including APIs, unified communications, and contact centre applications that enable remote work and remote delivery of services, while making doing business easier and more cost effective.

Cloud communications powered by the VCP can support hybrid and remote work environments for SMBs across verticals – from education to telehealth and insurance, financial services to entertainment, and more.

“In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to re-think their approach to digital transformation and accelerated adoption of communications technologies including unified communications, intelligent contact centre applications, and communications APIs,” said Jason Blackwell, Research Director, IDC.

“SMBs, in particular, can realize significant benefits when they choose a cloud communications provider that can provide all of these capabilities and enable them to compete with larger competitors on customer and employee experience.”

As a Farmers Insurance agency owner, LaTasha Baucham is dedicated to providing a personalized, reliable, and memorable customer experience. In just two years, her Florida-based agency, Baucham Insurance Group, has more than doubled its number of employees, a testament not only to the power of a great brand like Farmers, but to the importance of superior customer connections.

Leveraging Vonage contact centre, deeply integrated with Salesforce, has allowed Ms. Baucham’s team to spend less time worrying about how they will connect with customers, and more time focusing on how they will best be able to serve them.

“I need to be able to adapt as I learn more about my customers’ needs and preferences. And if it takes me six months to make a change, that’s not adapting. Vonage allows us to build and adjust customer touchpoints into our system based upon our unique needs, and takes a lot of the guesswork out of what happens next in terms of customer connections,” Baucham noted.

“The Vonage platform is agile and flexible enough to allow us to do that, and fluid enough to allow us to change and grow as our business changes and grows.”

Singapore-based HeyHi is an interactive online educational platform, powered by the Vonage Video API, with a mission to provide outstanding online classroom learning experiences to schools, learning centres, tuition centres and private tutors around the world.

The value that Vonage brings to HeyHi goes beyond technology, as Vonage product managers and engineers provide HeyHi with expert guidance and support whenever needed – no matter what the issue is.

“HeyHi and Vonage engineering teams work in close collaboration to solve problems, innovate our solution and not only meet, but exceed our customers’ expectations,” explains Yueh Mei, Founder/CEO of HeyHi.

“As a small company, it is an honour and a privilege to have a direct line of contact with the Vonage team of sales support and engineers and work directly with the source. That connection is a very unique, important element of this partnership and just one reason why we’re so confident that Vonage is the perfect fit for our needs.”

“There’s still a start-up vibe at Vonage. The team there really listens to customer feedback and develops Vonage’s solutions in response to their customers’ needs, even smaller companies like ours,” said Asbjørn Nørgaard Blakstad, CTO at More Music Group, an organization developing a double-sided platform connecting music tutors and students of all ages with each other.

“It’s lovely to work with a big company that is not standing still but is constantly looking to evolve and innovate.”