Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
Twilio Inc.
2008
San Francisco, CA
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
150,000
Cloud
Yes
Twilio Flex At A Glance
Product Overview
Twilio Flex is a programmable contact center solution that developers can embed into their existing applications. It offers omnichannel capability, so agents can communicate with customers in each customer’s preferred channel. Twilio Flex has unlimited customization that developers can adapt to fit their organization’s requirements.
Twilio Flex can be embedded within a customer relationship management (CRM) software (e.g., Salesforce, Zendesk), allowing agents to get contextual information on a customer or perform multiple tasks without leaving the interface. It can also integrate with inventory management systems, payment processing software and other third-party solutions via an API.
Additional benefits of the software include:
- Short implementation timeline
- Reduced operational expenses
- The ability for agents to work from home
- Self-service functionality for customers, so agents can focus on more critical requests
Features
Here are a few of the key features of Twilio Flex.
Omnichannel capability – As mentioned, Twilio Flex supports multiple communications, so customers can communicate with agents within their preferred channel, such as voice, SMS, chat, WhatsApp, email and Facebook Messenger. Developers can set up routing workflows for all channels that send customer requests to the appropriate agent. Agents benefit from the omnichannel feature because everything is in one place.
Interactive voice response (IVR) – Companies can offer their customers self-service functionality with IVR and chatbots. Twilio Flex integrates with other Twilio products, such as Twilio Studio and Twilio Autopilot. With Twilio Studio, developers can create intelligent IVR routing workflows using a drag-and-drop builder, and they can add their backend systems into the workflow.
Developers can set up chatbots with Twilio Autopilot’s AI-powered features, which detect the customer’s intent and then perform tasks using speech recognition and a Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine. Developers can add Twilio Autopilot’s prebuilt commands, called “Actions,” into the workflow, and they can also create new commands.
Dialpad – Agents can use the Flex Dialpad for outbound calls with the click-to-dial feature or for transferring calls to another agent. The Dialpad can also be used for sending automated text notifications to customers or for preview dialing (where it waits for agent response before dialing).
Flex Insights – Flex Insights is a reporting and analytical feature that lets users monitor agents performance. They can take advantage of the built-in dashboards or use the Analytics Portal to create their own dashboards. With this feature, users can also listen to a call, drill down into the data, export reports and schedule dashboards to be sent by email.
Target Market
Twilio Flex is intended for companies of all sizes in many industries, such as on-demand services, finance, real estate, retail and technology. We’ve listed 10 of its clients below.
- Allianz
- Doordash
- eBay
- HubSpot
- ING
- Lululemon
- MoneyPenny
- QVC
- Smava
- United Way of Central Ohio
Implementation/Integration
Developers can sign up for a free trial and start the deployment process right away. Unlike most other cloud-based software that could take weeks to deploy, Twilio Flex can be implemented within days. The vendor offers tutorials and other training documentation, and it has a network of implementation partners in case a company doesn’t have in-house developers or requires additional help.
Customer Service & Support
Users can access the help center to browse articles on billing, features and other topics. In addition, Twilio provides four support plans.
- Developer – This free plan offers API status notifications and email support during regular business hours.
- Production – With the Production plan, companies need to spend a minimum of $250. It includes all of the features of the Developer plan, plus guaranteed response times based on priority level: within three business hours for first priority support, within six business hours for second priority support and within nine business hours for third priority support.
- Business – With the Business plan, companies need to spend a minimum of $1,500. It includes all of the features of the Production plan, plus 24/7 email and phone support. It also has faster guaranteed response times based on priority level: within one business hour for first priority support, within two business hours for second priority support and within three business hours for third priority support.
- Personalized – With the Personalized plan, companies need to spend a minimum of $5,000. It includes the same guaranteed response times and features of the Business plan, plus a technical account manager, a support escalation line and a quarterly status review.
Pricing
Businesses get the first 5,000 active user hours for free. Then the pricing starts at $1 per active user, per hour or $150 per named user, per month. Note that the per active user, per hour strategy is intended for businesses with part-time or seasonal agents, while the per named user, per month pricing is a flat rate, regardless of call center volume.
Shortcomings
Some users have mentioned that the Twilio Flex interface is not always intuitive and that the setup process (e.g., customizations, integrations) can be cumbersome. In addition, other users reported that customer support can be slow in resolving issues.
Screenshots
About
Twilio aims to help companies streamline business communications by allowing phones, VoIP and messaging to be embedded within web, desktop or mobile software. It embodies several key values, such as taking ownership, empowering others, spending time to deeply understand customers’ problems, being inclusive and prioritizing ruthlessly.
Twilio has received several accolades, such as Fast Company’s 2019 list of The World’s Most Innovative Companies. It’s headquartered in San Francisco and has additional offices in over 25 locations worldwide.
