Growth is often associated with opening new branches, hiring more employees or increasing sales. But according to Philippine cloud communications provider Telavi, sustainable growth increasingly depends on how quickly businesses adapt to changing customer expectations.

The company warned that many Philippine businesses continue to rely on personal mobile phones, messaging applications and traditional office telephone systems that are no longer suited to hybrid work environments or customers who expect immediate responses.

According to Telavi, the global Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) market reached US$87.39 billion in 2024 and is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 19.8 percent through 2030, with Asia-Pacific leading adoption as organizations migrate to cloud-based communications platforms.

The company said delayed responses and missed customer inquiries can quietly erode revenue, particularly in service-oriented businesses.

As an example, Telavi estimated that one restaurant was losing nearly P800,000 in potential monthly revenue because customer calls went unanswered. A barbershop chain, meanwhile, was estimated to be losing at least P300,000 each month from missed bookings.

One of the company’s clients, Bruno’s Barbers, experienced similar challenges before migrating to a cloud-based communications system.

“Before Telavi, our branches were too busy to answer calls. We were losing bookings and receiving negative feedback,” said Richard Domingo of Bruno’s Barbers.

Following the deployment of Telavi’s platform, incoming calls could be automatically routed to available staff across different branches instead of ringing unanswered at a single location. The company said the change helped increase booking conversion rates to about 80 percent.

Telavi said its cloud platform eliminates the need for on-premise telephone hardware, reduces maintenance costs and allows employees to access a unified communications system from virtually any location.

Founded in 2013, Gur Lavi Corp., which operates the Telavi platform, provides Unified Communications as a Service and Contact Center as a Service solutions to businesses, enterprises and local government units.