The event, which brought together global businesses, brands, marketers and mobile operators from around the world, explored the transformation of messaging enabled by RCS and WhatsApp Business, which is changing the way businesses communicate with consumers, increasing engagement and delivering valuable loyalty and sales.
Missed the webinar? Don't worry, here's a quick recap of what you need to know!
Consumer expectations are changing
Gen-Y grew up with messaging, especially OTT chat apps. They expect to be able to communicate with friends and family in rich ways, sharing images and videos, using emojis, creating groups, and more, as if it were second nature.
Why don't consumers want to communicate with businesses the same way? To date, of course, business-to-consumer messaging has generally been limited to text, but the ship is turning, driven by consumer demand and new messaging formats delivered via A2P.
For example, functions like customer service have traditionally used IVR as a transport layer. Consumers hate it. They don't want to sit on the phone and wait for numbered options to achieve the desired result. They want to chat, interact and engage.
The mobile channel is also changing
Major macro trends in e-commerce, marketing, and contact centers are shifting to messaging. In retail, we've seen a shift from brick-and-mortar stores to online, apps, and now messaging, where products can be displayed in full rich media along with linked buttons to buy items or a map to "find my nearest store."
What is the company profit?
The list is long and includes:
Reduction of customer acquisition costs
Increase in revenue
Increased engagement leading to incremental click-through rates, as well as up-sell and cross-sell opportunities – Add message personalization to the mix and engagement goes through the roof. Separately, Sinch has seen improved engagement levels on the 65% and sales conversion on the 15% for a major US retailer.
Moving contact centers from IVRs and agents to two-way conversations with bots or templated responses over the messaging channel is another major benefit for brands: reducing the cost of each interaction.
RCS
The most powerful consumer engagement channel is the native messaging inbox on smartphones. Read rates for SMS are already impressive. RCS takes this to the next level because it's visual, can include branding, and comes with tools like verified sender, calendar app integration, location, and a whole host of rich content options via carousels or the "rich card" area of each message.
For some functions, Sinch has seen much better responses to RCS than SMS: simply by showing a button on the screen, the experience becomes more interactive and the consumer is immediately more engaged.
Furthermore, RCS improves the customer journey at every stage of contact with a company, from onboarding to customer service and beyond. In short, you have the power of messaging in terms of reach, but now it's as fun as using an app, much less expensive to implement, and more immediate (consumers prefer responding to a message to launching an app).
WhatsApp remains one of the few apps consumers love. It's also true that consumers are happy to use it for personal communication and as a two-way channel to communicate with brands and businesses.
Pay attention to the differences with RCS:
Businesses must make contact via a predefined and pre-approved model
Once the individual responds, consent to the "chat" is assumed
However, initial consent must be obtained outside of WhatsApp itself. This can be done via email, SMS, during an online transaction, or when setting up a profile and preferences.
WhatsApp prohibits overtly promotional content or anything that directly sells something to the consumer
WhatsApp's primary focus is customer service and support: a safe environment where an individual can communicate with a brand to engage in customer service and support.
Ready for more?
Why not start a WhatsApp or RCS pilot program today? We can help manage:
Trademark registration and approvals
Registration of the model
Build, design and manage bots
Design your campaign flows
