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By Chinenye Anuforo, [email protected]
Global telecom leaders came together recently to discuss how changing user behaviour is compelling Nigerian brands to rewrite the way they connect and engage with customers. In the third year of a global pandemic, consumers want brands to become more empathetic, be accessible anytime, anywhere, and deliver personalized experiences every time.
But doing this at scale with millions of consumers in real-time is a huge challenge for brands. In mobile-first markets like Nigeria, messaging is the key digital backbone for brand-consumer connectivity. SMS continues to be popular, and we see many brands leveraging it for marketing, commerce, and support. However, SMS it is known has limitations vis-à-vis some of the popular, new-age messaging platforms like WhatsApp, for example.
The good news is that SMS is getting a major upgrade, enabling a richer conversational experience between brands and consumers. The technology that makes this possible is Rich Communication Services (RCS), the next-generation of SMS.
Business benefits of using RCS
Nigerian businesses can use RCS Business Messaging (RBM) to reach more consumers and improve customer experience, leading to increased ROI. Using RBM, brands can send rich and interactive messages. These can include images, GIFs, videos, carousels, suggested replies, and suggested actions. All these are delivered to customers from a verified sender id with a trust mark, improving trust and convenience in the process. Popular suggested actions include opening a website, dialing a number, viewing, or sharing a location, and adding events to the phone’s calendar.
How it works
Users don’t need to download another app. RCS leverages the Android Messages app, the default SMS app on Android devices, and offers end-to-end encryption for advanced security. RCS is the default messaging standard for 5G networks, though it continues to support 3G and 4G networks.
Use cases for RBM
Nigerian businesses can use RBM for engaging across the entire customer life cycle – from marketing to completing sales, and then providing support. RBM is used for customer research, marketing, promotion, sending rich notifications, password verification, billing and payments, customer service, commerce, and engagement. More than 14 million people are already experiencing the benefits of using RCS in the country, and the number is growing rapidly, as all new Android devices ship with RCS built into the Messages app. With 175 million mobile subscribers in total, Nigeria is in a unique position to take the lead in using RCS and set an example for other mobile-first markets in Africa as well as across the world.
Getting started is quick and easy
Enterprises just need to reach out to their SMS providers (aggregators, agencies, and ISVs) and start driving richer, interactive engagement with consumers. Mobile subscribers across all four telcos in Nigeria: MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, have the capability to receive and send RCS messages.
With the RBM ecosystem live and ready in Nigeria, the onus is now on brands to double down on RBM to deliver a next-gen customer experience to Nigerians.
Role of MTN, Airtel and Dotgo
MTN has partnered with Google and Dotgo to offer RCS to their subscribers.
Airtel has similarly partnered with Google and Dotgo to offer RCS to their subscribers.
Using Dotgo
RichOTP, businesses have been sending OTP over RCS in rich card format, complete with brand logo and verification trust mark. Only those businesses that undergo two-tier verification are able to deliver OTP. So, RichOTP helps brands develop trust and protect users from fraud, enriching customer experience, in the process.
As another example, to enhance customer experience by offering round the clock customer service, MTN deployed Zigi – a digital personal assistant that can answer subscribers queries, check balance, assist subscribers with airtime and data purchases, and more via a chat, drastically reducing wait time.
“Consumers want brands to be accessible anytime, anywhere – and businesses constantly look for new and innovative ways to enable this. Many of our enterprise customers in Nigeria are betting on RCS as a viable way to drive secure, contextual, and personalized consumer conversations at scale”, said Lynda Saint-Nwafor, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, MTN.
On her own part, Ogo Ofomata, Director, Airtel Business, Nigeria said, “Enterprises are increasingly turning to chat and messaging platforms to strengthen consumer relationships and engagement. Several of our enterprise customers are in the process of deploying RCS to consistently deliver a richer, more tailored, and interactive experience to thousands of consumers”.
The adoption of RCS business messaging continues to grow rapidly. Brands across the world now want to deliver rich and interactive messages including images, GIFs, videos, carousels, and more to their consumers – Messages + RCS makes this possible”, said Ngozi Madueke-Dozie, Android Partnerships Lead, West Africa, Google.
“RBM enables brands to offer a next-gen customer experience with greater interactivity, improved trust, and advanced security”, said Dr. Inderpal Singh Mumick, EVP, Telecom Business at Gupshup, and CEO, Dotgo.
“We are excited to help Nigerian brands reimagine business-to-consumer communication and deliver richer, two-way conversational experiences to millions of subscribers.
“RCS is a big thing when it comes to rich communication and A2P messaging: it will redesign use cases, security, and models. We at MEF believe that it holds the potential to transform how enterprises engage with their consumers, helping them leverage Rich Business Messaging (RBM) to make it truly immersive at every level”, said Dario Betti, CEO, Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF).
