Sprint Business Applauded by Frost & Sullivan for Engaging Customers with its Smart Messaging Business Communication Solution

Smart Messaging streamlines communication for frequently asked questions,provides a secure ordering mechanism,and enables integrations with existing back-end systems

SANTA CLARA,California,Jan. 8,2020 --Based on its recent analysis of the North American business communications solutions market,Frost & Sullivan recognizes Sprint Businesswith the 2019 North American New Product Innovation Award for Sprint® Smart Messaging -- a solution to help businesses communicate with their customers through an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered text messaging system. Sprint's innovative solution allows businesses to use their existing phone number to communicate in real-time using AI,and as a result rescue missed customer calls. Smart Messaging allows businesses to uniquely interact with customers using non-traditional forms of communications. It delivers enterprise-grade assistance for storefronts,restaurants,and businesses of all sizes. With the unique text capabilities of Smart Messaging,businesses are realizing the benefits of an 'always-on' automated assistant that enhances customer satisfaction and employee productivity.

Sprint Business

"Broadly applicable across a range of main street businesses,Sprint Smart Messaging expands capabilities and functions with an AI engine to respond to customer calls and questions via text messaging. When the business cannot answer the phone,the call automatically gets converted to text capability. No other carrier currently supporting the small to medium size business (SMB) segment offers this level of enterprise-grade customer engagement," said Brent Iadarola,Frost & Sullivan Vice President of Information & Communications Technologies. "When callers leave a voicemail,the Smart Messaging system transcribes it and transmits it to the business owner (or designated employee) to read,callback,or send a follow-up text."

With Sprint Smart Messaging,business owners or designated employees have an application interface (iOS and Android) to direct responses via their smart phones,tablets,or computers. It can even deliver seamless translations,automatically sending and receiving messages to and from customers and businesses in their preferred language. Furthermore,its application interface can notify the business owner or predefined personnel of associated inquiries,orders,or sales opportunities. Business users can also gain insights from rolling analytics reports on the data and usage of their Smart Messaging deployment.

The AI-powered messaging assistant allows prospective customer questions to be answered immediately,ultimately reducing labor costs and increasing response times. Numa AI is the engine powering the solution. Numa AI answers customer queries,takes orders,and is built to handle commerce via text conversation. The AI provides answers to frequently asked questions and learns over time the business's preferred answers. When Numa AI cannot provide an answer,it escalates the question to the human user and learns the best responses for future reference. Numa AI helps businesses personalize responses to customers,at scale,for each individual,based on past touchpoints.

"Smart Messaging complements Sprint's Smart Communications portfolio dedicated to driving value for SMBs. By focusing on services with quick development cycles,Sprint has successfully addressed the communications needs of businesses that demand more efficient and economical software-based solutions," notedIadarola. "Smart Messaging can layer in bundled Sprint services such as Business MultiLine for separating personal and business phone service on a single device,and Omni™the intelligent office that connects your business to everything,for cloud-based phone service with unified communications features designed for SMBs."

Each year,Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed an innovative element in a product by leveraging leading-edge technologies. The award recognizes the value-added features/benefits of the product and the increased return on investment (ROI) it gives customers,which,in turn,raises customer acquisition and overall market penetration potential.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership,technological innovation,customer service,and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews,analysis,and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

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Sprint Business is changing the way SMBs,enterprises and government entities connect,manage and secure its people,places and things – orchestrating an array of next generation technologies and insights,artificial intelligence and the power of Sprint's converged wireless,wireline and Curiosity™ IoT capabilities to create unparalleled products and solutions.

About Sprint:

Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served 53.9 million connections as of September 30,2019 and is widely recognized for developing,engineering and deploying innovative technologies,including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands including Virgin Mobile USA,Boost Mobile,and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Today,Sprint's legacy of innovation and service continues with an increased investment to dramatically improve coverage,reliability,and speed across its nationwide network and commitment to launching a 5G mobile network in the U.S. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or http://www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.