When building a communication solution for your business or client, a programmable voice API allows you to deliver with ease. While messaging and live chat are gaining popularity for customers communicating with businesses, voice is still crucial to the success of any organization.
Customers often prefer to call a business to get a fast resolution from a live representative. According to a survey in PR Newswire, consumers expect an omnichannel approach, but voice calling is preferred by over half of consumers when they are at home or commuting by car.
You can create a tailored solution with a voice API, providing enterprise-grade features and simple integration with your client or company’s software, apps, and websites. It’s critical to partner with a reliable voice communication provider and select a voice API that is easy to implement into your organization’s system.
What Is a Programmable Voice API?
An application programming interface (API) connects software, allowing multiple pieces to share features and functions. A programmable voice API allows software, such as an app or business phone system, to receive and make calls from a cloud-based calling network. Users can communicate over the internet using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) with other users using nearly any type of phone or device.
Related: Custom Voice Solutions: The Role of Voice API for Developers
Voice APIs also allow the implementation of automated calling features like creating an interactive voice response (IVR) system to take calls and provide callers with prompts to reach their intended destination. As a developer, you can create solutions for your client or business’s specific needs when you partner with the right voice API provider.
Why Do Businesses Use Voice APIs?
In addition to allowing organizations to integrate voice calling into their software and systems, businesses prefer programmable voice APIs for the benefits of cloud-based calling. Internet calling solutions offer cost-effective voice services, providing scalability and reliability for seamless communication. When you partner with a reputable cloud-based communication provider, your business or client can gain access to enterprise-grade voice features like remote call forwarding, call transferring, and enabling calls using Microsoft Teams.
Examples of Phone Call API Implementations for Business
You can help your client or business reap the benefits of integrating voice into their software with an API. Some common use cases for voice APIs include automating call answering and integrating voice calling into software. A programmable API can help you deliver the following solutions.
Integrate Calling Into an App or Website
A voice API allows you to integrate calling into an organization’s app or website. Users will be able to manage communications from within the integrated system. For the customer side, this often takes the form of a click-to-call button, making it easy to reach out to the business with questions or for support. Some examples of business applications that may benefit from a click-to-call button include:
- Dating apps: Users can call each other from within the app to communicate more personally. A voice service with proxy phone numbers can help prevent unwanted interactions and protect users’ identities.
- Ride-sharing apps: Users can call their driver to coordinate a pickup. Phone number masking can help keep users’ information private while using the app.
- Delivery and e-commerce apps and websites: Delivery drivers can coordinate deliveries with customers through a delivery app with voice integration. Likewise, shoppers can contact sellers on e-commerce websites to ask about products and shipping options through a convenient click-to-call or click-to-message button.
- Product support websites: Consumers can contact the manufacturer or distributor for technical support when setting up or using high-tech devices, appliances, or software.
- Healthcare providers’ websites: Healthcare providers can offer remote, HIPAA-compliant consultations and telehealth services through voice and video calls over their secure website or app.
Make Calls From a CRM
Call centers and businesses with high call volumes can manage incoming traffic through their customer relationship management (CRM) software. When a voice API is integrated into a CRM, users can seamlessly make and receive calls from customers within the platform via a software-based phone application or IP phone.
It facilitates productive and convenient interactions with customers, allowing the user to record details from the call, such as customer name, phone number, and reason for calling from a single solution. This benefit is further amplified with call analytics that helps team leaders make decisions based on a variety of metrics.
Automate Answering With an IVR
Businesses with high call volumes can benefit from a convenient and intuitive IVR system. As a developer, you can integrate an IVR into your company or client’s business phone system. An IVR receives calls and provides prompts, allowing callers to choose to speak with a live representative, ask questions, or complete simple transactions through the automated system. It helps the business handle high call volumes, reducing queue times. According to Forbes, consumers are half as likely to work with a business that takes longer to respond than expected, making efficient IVRs critical to customer service.
While older IVRs were challenging for consumers to navigate, modern systems use AI to make conducting transactions more like talking to a live representative. For instance, a financial institution can implement an IVR to answer calls and ask for the client’s account number to provide simple information like account balances or their local branch hours. They can also help clients reset their debit card pins or temporarily lock their cards. When the IVR is unable to assist the client, it can forward them to a live representative for more personalized support.
Seamless Calling: What to Look for in an API Provider
When implementing a programmable voice API, it’s essential to find a reliable voice partner with a secure, well-maintained, and documented API for seamless integration. Assess your voice provider’s capabilities to determine if the API will meet your client or company’s needs.
Simple Integration
A programmable voice API makes integrating calling into your client or company’s software and systems simple. It can save you hours of coding and testing with a ready-to-use solution from a reputable cloud-based communication platform. An API can be integrated into your existing code in a matter of a few lines and is ready for use in minutes.
The ideal partner will offer documentation to help you integrate and configure the voice API to your client’s preferences. They should offer quickstarts, use cases, and software development kits (SDKs) in popular languages like PHP, Python, and Ruby.
Security and Compatibility
It’s vital to consider your API partner’s security and use the most up-to-date software to ensure your business or client’s communications are safe. APIs are facing the public internet, making them a popular vector for malicious actors. Ensure your communication platform offers the latest updates for your API and microservices using a revision-control system like GitHub or Docker containers.
Related: SIP Trunking for Developers: Scalable and Seamless Business Communication
An excellent API partner will use representation state transfer (REST) architecture to ensure the software is resource-friendly and compatible with common data formats and programming languages. REST APIs are stateless and do not store client information on the server side, reducing resource usage.
Scalability
Cloud-based calling through a voice API offers near-unlimited scalability to your client or organization. Resources are dynamically allocated for incoming calls to ensure your business has the calling capacity to keep up with spikes in usage. The cloud also offers elasticity, allowing the resources to scale back down to normal levels when the calls begin to taper off. It eliminates the need to invest in onsite equipment or phone lines to meet shifting calling demands.
Reliability
A cloud-based voice solution provides exceptional scalability and reliability. Calls are dynamically routed to the shortest path, ensuring consistent call quality worldwide. Authorized users can access the business phone from anywhere with a stable internet connection, ensuring business continuity during an event like a storm or pandemic.
The ideal cloud-based communication partner will offer resilient voice solutions, such as physical failover to a known working network when there is an outage or interruption. Features like remote call forwarding are also important to ensuring your business’s voice applications are available 24/7.
Cost-Effectiveness
Not only is making calls through VoIP or SIP typically more cost effective than traditional carriers, but your business or client can also save on devices, infrastructure, and equipment. Many voice APIs work using your existing devices, private branch exchange, internet provider, and carrier.
Select a voice API provider that offers flexible metered pricing, charging for total voice usage during a billing period rather than a flat rate. A flexible metered pricing structure ensures your business or client will only pay for what they use, and you can test the service without a significant upfront investment.
Create a Seamless Voice Solution with a Programmable Voice API
A programmable voice API allows you to build a tailored solution for your company or client. You can integrate business-enhancing features and implement voice service into your business software for convenient communication. Flowroute offers a reliable and scalable voice solution with our HyperNetwork™. Our well-maintained API and documentation ensure your voice integration is simple and meets your client or organization’s needs. Get started with a seamless voice solution from Flowroute.
