Twilio Flex offers companies flexibility for the future
Twilio Flex is different. That was the clear message from Tim Richter, Director of Product Marketing for Twilio Flex, who spoke to "10 Minute IT Jams" about the company's approach to modern contact centres.
Twilio Flex, launched about three years ago, is a cloud contact centre platform built to deliver flexibility and personalisation to businesses navigating customer engagement in a rapidly shifting digital world. "Customers were asking us for more flexibility to custom fit their contact centre to their business," Richter explained. "More flexibility frankly than what was available from competitive solutions at the time."
He described Twilio Flex as a set of pre-built core services, assembled by developers and partners to achieve the specific goals and objectives of each company. "That results in an interesting scenario where no two deployments of Twilio Flex look the same, which is exactly the point and the design intent of the solution," he said.
Customising the customer experience
To illustrate the power of Flex's flexibility, Richter shared the example of Cover Financial, a US-based insurance broker. He described them as a "tech company on top of an insurance brokerage" and a recent disruptor in the sector. Cover Financial used Twilio Flex as a foundation for providing what Richter called "elegant onboarding experiences for their customers and prospects and superior customer service."
With Flex, Cover Financial built a bespoke user interface tightly integrated with their back-end systems, ensuring agents had the most relevant information at their fingertips. "It's a combination of data and back-end systems that was unique to Cover, that they looked to Flex to provide for those very relevant, personalised customer conversations," he said.
Cover's customers were mostly reached through SMS – a strategic choice, Richter explained, because it was the channel that "resonated most with their base." The company built a custom routing solution making sure customers were consistently connected to the same agent, regardless of when or how they got in touch.
The practical impact, said Richter, was a 57 percent faster response time and an 8 percent higher resolution rate for Cover. "They were able to serve these agents with a very personalised desktop with the right information at the right time," he added.
Cost management for businesses
Twilio Flex doesn't just transform customer service – it can also help businesses manage their operational costs. "Every business has a different cost structure," said Richter, "so therefore needs some degree of flexibility to be able to actively manage their costs."
He highlighted three primary ways customers use Flex to manage or reduce expenses. First is the pay-as-you-go pricing model, where organisations only pay for the time agents are actually logged into the system, reducing waste compared to the traditional fixed-seat licensing. "You don't have waste, for example, for a monthly agent seat that might go dormant," Richter said.
The second relates to faster resolution rates. By integrating Flex with a business's existing systems, agents receive relevant information faster, leading to shorter interactions and potentially lower staffing levels. And the third is self-service call deflection, using IVRs and increasingly, AI-powered chatbots. "If you're able to solve for the most common inquiries through a self-service channel and deflect a live interaction to an agent, then that's a very common area where organisations look to conserve costs," he explained.
Programmability at its core
One cornerstone of the Flex model is programmability, a founding principle for Twilio as a whole. "Programmability is incorporated into Flex in three ways," Richter said. These are: Twilio APIs – including channel APIs that come with thorough documentation; programming in common languages such as React, which is used in the Flex user interface; and visual workflow builders that enable low-code manipulation of processes like IVRs.
Richter believes this approach is what enables companies to execute complex DevOps workflows in challenging contact centre environments. "It's a real differentiator for us to empower companies and organisations to be able to create change and extend every layer of the contact centre – from connectivity to channels to self-service to routing strategies to user interface design and reporting," he said. "The whole stack is programmable, allowing for this deep customisation."
Success story: Shopify's transformation
Looking back at the most impactful success stories, Richter highlighted Shopify as a stand-out example. Shopify, the multinational e-commerce giant supporting over a million small and medium-sized businesses, was among the first to embrace Flex. "They came to us with a problem of a legacy solution that was very fragmented," Richter said. With different channels and methods of interacting with its customers, Shopify was looking for a seamless, tailored approach.
With just three developers and two interns, Shopify managed to deploy a fully customised Flex solution in four months – half the time originally budgeted. "They came out with a highly tailored contact centre with embedded telephony, self-service, a routing methodology that made sense for them, and integrations specific to their business that allowed their agents to be most effective," Richter said.
He shared a quote from Chris Wilson of Shopify, who said, "We can wrap Flex around Shopify instead of having to wrap Shopify around Flex." Richter explained, "We think this encapsulates very well the capabilities and design of Twilio Flex."
In closing, Richter reflected on the impact of Twilio Flex and its future outlook. "It really is the key characteristic of Flex that allows developers to execute modern DevOps workflows in complex contact centre environments," he said. "Terrific – thanks for having me."
