Your logo, your colors, your verified name are all right there in the message
Everyone’s talking about AI, but there’s another megatrend that retailers should be looking at. One that’s driving results faster and with way less effort. The next big innovation in customer experience isn’t happening in apps or websites, but in your customer’s text messaging inbox.
Retailers who’ve already moved beyond the plain SMS and into rich messaging are already seeing 42% more mobile sales. So if you haven’t seen RCS yet, then let me show you. RCS is the next generation of SMS. Think of it as branded messaging with app like interactivity built right into the phone’s native messaging inbox. No downloads required.
It took a while for the carriers to adopt it but they did it and now it works on 95% of phones in the United States.
So here’s the first thing to know about RCS. It’s secure and branded. Your logo, your colors, your verified name are all right there in the message. No mystery numbers or guessing who it’s from. Customers see it’s really you and that instantly builds trust just like the little lock on your secure certificate on your website.
But that’s just the basics. When we say rich communications it’s because RCS acts more like an app than a text. You can create shoppable experiences. Send segmented offers and limited time promotions using product carousels with images, prices, and add to cart buttons. One retailer saw 3 times more card additions and a 23 times jump in sales after switching from SMS links to RCS. Customer journeys like buy online and pick up in store can be reimagined. When orders are ready, send a card with order details, directions to the store using the phone’s default map application, and present a curbside check-in button.
When your customer taps I’m on the way, your staff gets notified.
The whole experience happens within a single messaging thread.
And because this is happening in the messaging inbox, this capability unlocks the promise of conversational commerce. Do you have blue rain jackets? And they instantly get to see a product carousel that shows what’s in stock, filter by price, and even change the store or stores they want to search. We can even personalize product recommendations based on their previous in store and online purchases and search history across all of your digital properties. A question I get a lot is if it can work with your existing chatbot, and it does.
And if they log in using the seamless authentication, they can get access to their loyalty balances, redeem rewards with a single tap, and even be brought back to their abandoned shopping cart to check out using the payment options already in their phone like Apple Pay or Google Pay.
RCS also unlocks analytics capabilities. Because RCS looks and feels like a modern digital experience, it brings modern analytics with it. The same kind of metrics you expect from web and app campaigns are now available in RCS. Things you couldn’t measure before in SMS.
KPIs like ad attribution, campaign source codes, engagement with product carousels, conversion rates, average order values, return on ad spend, and campaign ROI. So there you have it. A quick overview of how RCS can extend your customer experience to meet your customers where they’re at. I’m Paul Lima, founder of the Lima Consulting Group, and I founded a company that helps CX professionals create the customer experiences of the future.
So let’s schedule a chat and explore how we can get you a sandbox or a proof of concept in about a week. The idea is to set up an RCS account and get you testing out digital experience using your own products, brand, and chat experiences so you can see for yourself how effective RCS can be for you.