How to Scale Twilio Flex

In its current state, Flex is overly complex. To implement, I need to consult Professional Services, work with a partner, or customize and deploy. All options sound like a headache.?

I want what Zendesk lacks. What makes Service Cloud too clunky. What makes Intercom too pricey.?

Flex customers need the ability to start now. They need to understand the benefits of switching and they need to know Twilio already powers the backend of their current contact center.?

Teams using a contact center switch providers for three general reasons:

• Data: their teams don’t have the information to answer customer questions correctly with the right context in their support desk. Ex: What is Bobby’s order number?
• Integrations: teams spend more time switching between tabs to read and write data in other applications that their contact center doesn’t work with. Ex: Process a refund of Bobby’s order.
• Price: Zendesk and Intercom have gotten more expensive, especially with their AI offerings. Ex: Intercom charges me $.99 to automatically resolve Bobby’s refund.

(For the main players we’re focused on competing with, security and stability is a given)

Flex has the foundation to be a great product. It has the data, integrates across stacks, and will be priced right.?

For starters, let’s explore the new Flex homepage: Figma link

Our copy focuses on what I call benefit branding. These are metrics that the ideal customer profile cares about. Most of the target market is switching from a competitor so we lean into that while establishing ourselves with trust, given Twilio already powers their current provider.?

Now, let’s dive into specific strategies that will lead to scalable growth:?

1. Become part of the conversation: No one knows of Flex currently. Contact center conversations revolve around Zendesk, Intercom, Service Cloud, and Service Hub. We start with the early adopters. These are the customers willing to switch right off the bat because they're frustrated with their current provider.?

a) Comparison SEO: When targeting a switch, the versus SEO angle is huge. It isn’t Zendesk vs Intercom anymore.?

b) Pain point SEO: Flex is agile with our early customers. We hear what their previous contact center lacked, build it, and write about it. We lean into the pain points of incumbents.?

c) Community: Chief Customer Officers and leaders across support teams want to be heard. We partner with and promote thought leaders in top communities driving the conversation around contact centers.?

2. High touch: 10,000+ outbound emails a week, focused on contact center decision makers. This leads to 3,000 conversations and 600 demos a week.?

a) I average 3% response rates at 5,600 emails a week currently by myself.?

3. Conferences: Flex needs to be known. We’re technically the new kid on the block but coming with a backend already used by these customers. Let’s make this our advantage and build trust in person.

4. AI: Everyone in support is talking about it, what are we doing around it??

a) Immediate features: summarize, autotag, suggest macros, suggest replies.

b) V2: automate workflows based on integrations.?

c) Test: create a playground for support teams to innovate.?

Flex comes to the market with inherent trust that should be known loud and clear. It’s time Twilio learns how to build and sell SaaS. There is a $10B+ opportunity waiting. Why isn’t Flex scaling??

$10 billion sounds like a nice cake but what if I could bring another $500 million in revenue on top? Think about what customers of Twilio are publicly traded and make API calls to deliver their main customer promise. Let’s find out…?

Here is Post #3: Icing the Cake with another $500M in Revenue .