OpenMarket – April 9, 2018
We’ve teamed up with the GSMA on a new RCS research paper which has revealed five key reasons brands should include RCS in their customer communications plans.
Emails, apps, messaging clients, and calendars that automatically sync. They’re all great, and they’ve revolutionized how we communicate. But don’t you wish they could all be a little more – well – joined up?
With Rich Communications Services (RCS), it’s possible. It works just like SMS, except it has a bunch more features to deliver richer, more empathetic communications.
It’s little wonder that according to our RCS Business Messaging Research Study with the GSMA, the number of people using RCS is set to increase by 500% in the next 12 months alone.
So to explain why you’d use RCS in your communications strategy, here are five reasons why it helps deliver better experiences for your customers.
- Simplicity
Count the number of apps you use every day on your cell phone. You probably even use a few different ones solely for communication (think WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and iMessage).
But for customers, more is sometimes less.
For example, when they buy flights, they don’t want the confirmation sent to their email, then to manually enter the date in their calendar, and finally to download the app to get a QR code ticket.
They want it all in one place – hassle free. RCS gives them that all through the SMS inbox.
Confirmations, real-time two-way communications, automatic calendar updates, and tickets coupled with, rich up-to-date information are all together in one channel, on any smartphone.
It’s truly multichannel communications, properly joined up. And that puts your customer completely in control.
- Richer communications
Empathetic interactions are the essence of great communication. They’re a way of letting your customers know you’re thinking of them, exactly when and where they expect it.
And this goes for your promotions too. Send your customers a generic email offering discounts, and they’ll probably consider it spam. Send them something visual straight to their cell phone using photos, videos, and GIFs, they’ll likely pay more attention.
What’s more, it’s a highly personal way of talking to people. So they’ll appreciate that you’ve gone above and beyond expectations.
- Personalized experience
Customers like to be treated as individuals. In fact, 61% of consumers say they would engage with brands more if they offered a more personalized service.
But if that’s the case, why aren’t brands doing more to address these demands? After all, delivering great CX is one of the few competitive advantages left.
Well, mounds of data, customer profiling, and business intelligence systems only take you so far. To deliver truly personal experiences, you need a system that enables you to have real conversations with your customers, at a time that suits them.
The answer? RCS. It’s the solution your customers are craving – and conveniently – it’s easily scalable too.
- Continuity from SMS
SMS is still incredibly popular with brands and consumers. It enables quick, no-nonsense messages to be sent to people, no matter where they are in the world. And when you consider that SMS can replace a lot of jobs carried out by call centers, the costs it saves brands is priceless.
But there are some things SMS can’t do – forcing people to use other channels. But that’s where RCS comes in – SMS gets supercharged.
RCS blends the simplicity people love about SMS with the functionality of today’s most sophisticated apps. Most importantly, it’s all in one place, right in customers’ palms. And, because it’s like SMS, they already know how to use it.
- Security and reliability
Some of the most high-profile security breaches in the past few years have involved brands not looking after customer data properly. So it’s little wonder that nearly 60% of consumers worry their data’s at risk when using certain apps.
And that’s when customers even have access. When they’re out and about, they may not have 4G or WiFi, rendering apps useless.
RCS has security and reliability covered. Because it uses client-to-server encryption, RCS reduces the risk of message hacking. And it doesn’t rely on 4G to work, so even in remote areas, your customers are more likely to stay connected.
RCS: everything your customers demand… and more
RCS is enabling brands the world over to deliver personalized customer experiences and features unmatched by any other channel.
And people already have a lot to say about it.
Our latest report in partnership with the GSMA presents the findings of an in-depth study of RCS users to give the hard facts you need to make good decisions.
To learn more about the demand for RCS, read our blog and get ahead of the competition. Or if you’d like to talk to someone about your options, get in touch today.