Salesforce LiveMessage Expands Global Reach, Now in 24 Countries

Today we are announcing that we have expanded our local, in-country support to more geographies for Salesforce LiveMessage, our two-way mobile messaging product that lets consumers and brands connect via 1:1 messaging channels like SMS and Facebook Messenger. [CLICK TO TWEET]

Building on our existing list of countries — United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany and Spain — LiveMessage has added:

• Asia-Pacific — Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan
• Europe — Belgium, Finland, France, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland
• Latin America — Brazil

“Align Technology is a company with a truly global presence, and as such, we need to make sure that any digital engagement technologies we use are able to handle customer interactions across the world,” said Srini Pendala, Director of Salesforce Platforms. “It’s good to see Salesforce LiveMessage expanding to include new countries across APAC, EMEA and Latin America, and with this bigger scope we expect the product will drive even more engagement.”

Messaging is becoming the preferred channel for consumers to connect with brands to get questions answered. In fact, by 2022 Gartner predicts 70% of customer interactions will involve an emerging technology such as mobile messaging, up from just 15% in 2018. Why is this? Messaging is already the most prominent communications channel in our personal lives. And instead of putting their lives on hold to wait on a customer service hotline, consumers would much rather communicate on-the-go at precisely the time that suits them.

LiveMessage turns every smartphone into a support channel. Customers can message (instead of calling) to begin conversations with companies. And companies now have the ability to initiate conversations, send messages triggered around key events — such as a purchase delivery or a hotel reservation update — and then turn any of those outbound messages into real-time conversations with agents. This leads to increased customer satisfaction, improved agent productivity and reduced overhead.

With the expanded global scale of LiveMessage, it doesn’t matter where the call center and customer are. A person in Singapore can purchase an item from an Italian company, then simply text a local Singapore phone number when contacting customer support. Additional benefits include:

• Local support on a global scale: Messaging-based service requests can be routed into one global contact center, reducing overhead costs for the brand and ensuring consumers get a better experience.
• Turnkey solution that works out-of-the-box: Customers can use local numbers, reducing or eliminating international fees. Previously, if a brand wanted to build this, they would have to work with local carriers in various countries to ensure the right connectivity. But with LiveMessage, Salesforce handles the provisioning and testing with hundreds of carriers, giving customers a global product that can be set up with ease.
• Content- and language-agnostic: Companies and customers can use local in-country characters to ensure clear and natural communication.

And given that LiveMessage is part of the Salesforce Service Cloud platform, all of those interactions are stored in the CRM to inform and improve future customer interactions, and service agents have a single view of customer interactions across every channel to optimize every service experience.

We’re excited about continuing to expand globally and will be adding support for additional countries in the coming months. If there’s a country you’d like us to add, please let us know. For those companies that currently aren’t using messaging as a way to deliver personalized, connected customer service experiences, you can learn more here. And for those on the marketing side who are looking to reach customers via mobile messaging with SMS marketing, push notifications and more, check out Mobile Studio.

Salesforce LiveMessage is generally available. LiveMessage currently starts at $75 per user, per month for one messaging type for customers with Service Cloud Enterprise Edition licenses and above.

We’re publishing a series of articles focused on the future of customer experience in conjunction with Connections, June 12-14 in Chicago. For more insight, check out this 5-point checklist for exceptional customer experience; this article on why customer experience begins with understanding human nature; and this interview with Glen Hartman of Accenture on the power of empathy in creating personalized customer experiences.