When it comes to a business’s ability to communicate effectively with its customers, AR algorithms offer benefits ranging from optimized deliverability to dependable security. Let’s take a closer look at five of the best benefits of adaptive routing and how each can help improve your customer communication.

1. Optimized Deliverability

In the SMS industry, a common anecdotal measurement of message deliverability has been delivery receipts (DLRs) that handsets send to the originator. The problem is that DLRs are not uniformly supported — some carriers offer them, some do not. And they don’t all arrive in the same amount of time, making many businesses unable to accurately track their deliverables.

Here’s where two-factor authentication (2FA) can play a critical role when coupled with AR. One-time passwords (OTPs) sent via SMS need to be used by a certain time or they expire. When a business sends an OTP to a customer’s mobile device via 2FA SMS asking the customer to download an app or authenticate a website login, the time differential between when the 2FA message is sent and when the OTP is entered by the customer gives the business a true measurement of SMS deliverability. Best of all, it’s a measurement that completely sidesteps the carrier, leaving deliverability in the business’ control.

AR samples this data across millions of real-time conversions on all its carrier connections to keep its deliverability tables constantly up to date. And with a proper workflow in place, a CPaaS platform with AR can proactively reroute SMS to ensure optimum message delivery.

2. Decreased Latency

Along with better deliverability, AR enables businesses to decrease latency on their network connections, which is not only valuable to SMS delivery but also mission critical for voice and other real-time communications. Through continuous transmission of a small percentage of overall carrier traffic to alternate routes, AR can visualize those that have the best performance at any time. Based on this information, the AR algorithm can automatically change the traffic pattern.

In some cases, AR can include automated risk analysis of a primary carrier, showing whether a carrier’s route quality is about to deteriorate. It’s a bit like foreseeing a fender bender before it clogs traffic and providing a map of available detours.

3. Increased Conversion Rates

When coupled with AR, APIs can achieve increased conversion rates, as they enable measuring the OTP success rate with real-time, customer-confirmed conversion statistics. Given the data that it can aggregate, a CPaaS platform with AR helps maintain higher deliverability rates and informs the AR algorithm to continuously make the best choices for traffic routing.

A conversion API is based on 2FA customers’ voluntary submission of conversion data. All conversion data is kept confidential and never shared with third parties, and it works with both SMS and text-to-speech 2FA messages, reaching customers through multiple channels.

4. A More Secure Network Under Adaptive Routing

The AR algorithm calculates the shortest route for SMS, yielding the route with the fewest network interconnections. By using more direct carrier connections and fewer SMS aggregators, an SMS will need to make fewer hops between the originating and terminating carriers. Not only do fewer hops decrease delivery latency, but they also make for a more secure network.

Each additional hop raises the chance of some outage or delay, which can prevent or slow message delivery. What’s more, a copy of the SMS is stored at each network hop, increasing the message’s exposure to hacking or leaking. And, get this: No one even knows for certain on whose network all those SMS copies are stored. Who needs that kind of legal-liability headache? Reducing the amount of network interconnections, AR prevents some of this exposure, keeping messages more secure.

5. Outsourced Management of Regional Carrier Relationships

Fast and secure delivery of SMS messages is very important, but it’s also critical that those SMS messages don’t pose any problems for the business. When it comes to SMS marketing, for example, regulations can vary greatly from country to country, making it difficult for businesses to keep up with regional differences.

A CPaaS platform with AR can keep track of regional variation for a business, helping businesses manage carrier relationships and connect with customers effectively without having to worry about specific regulations. This saves the business time and resources, while helping customers more efficiently interact with the business.

Ultimately, the most important benefit of AR is improving communications between the business and the customer, as well as enhancing the overall customer experience. When customers receive their SMS faster than expected, they’ll be happier—and happier with the business.