Olatayo Ladipo-Ajai, regional manager at Infobip Nigeria, has urged Nigerians, particularly business entities, such as banks, telcos and other businesses to harness the benefits posed by the Rich Communication Services (RCS) to improve their customer experience and reach more customers.
Rich Communication Service Message is a mobile messaging protocol that can deliver a more interactive mobile text messaging experience than traditional plain-text SMS messages.
Ladipo-Ajai stated this during a media roundtable organized by Infobip Nigeria at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
He noted that Conversational messaging, in the form of RCS will enable businesses and brands to communicate more effectively while reaching out, attracting and converting potential customers.
According to him, “RCS is an evolution of SMS, which integrates features from various chat apps into one platform.
“The platform allows the exchange of group chats, PDFs, video, audio and high-resolution images, as well as read receipts and real-time viewing, providing more value than traditional SMS.
“One of its key benefits is that RCS sits on top of the SMS platform, which means it has the same reach and is thus also native on most smartphones”.
Earlier, Martin Effiong, Senior Operator Partnership Manager, West Africa, at Infobip, said RCS’s rich media capabilities can provide a foothold for MNOs not only in business communication space but also in the P2P market where OTT players currently dominate.
He explained that RCS provides a solution for MNOs to compete with OTT players and claw back some of the revenue they have been missing out on in both the P2P and the lucrative Application-To-Person (A2P) messaging space.
He further described RCS as a rich media capable communication protocol that is an evolution of SMS as a native messaging channel.
“With RCS, mobile operators are able to provide their subscribers, as well as enterprises, with a messaging system that has the capability of sharing and receiving content such as images or videos without the need to download a separate messaging app.
“With many enterprise-focused features such as chatbots or carousels (content slideshows), brands are able to provide a convenient customer engagement channel for various use cases, ranging from tech support to purchases, as part of the conversational commerce paradigm,” he said.
Similarly, Isaac Akanni, speaking on “Boosting profitability and enhancing deeper customer engagement with conversational banking”, said that RCS is integral to conversational banking which can be seen as an upgraded version of SMS, complete with the rich features of a chat app.
According to him, “the Rich features include images, videos, and audio files that can be seen in RCS messages and that provide a more engaging and personalised experience for customers.
“It also offers a wide range of features that can improve Customer experience (CX), including interactive functionality that enables customers to make bill payments or balance enquiries, while providing privacy and security through end-to-end encryption.
“The main value of incorporating an RCS channel is that it yields better customer engagement, increases trust and builds long-term customer relationships.
“By sending RCS messages, banks can ensure that customers gain higher visibility of their brand, while also presenting new offers and campaigns in a more effective way, such as information about loans, changing interest rates or new credit cards.
“Banks can also use RCS to send notifications or useful reminders about card activations or payment instructions.
“While RCS is new to the local market, the opportunities it presents are huge and use cases will grow exponentially as the channel gains traction.
“Conversational banking should ultimately provide a seamless flow of conversation to ensure positive CX and manage a host of complex transactions that will lead to a deeply rooted engagement that translates into a long-term relationship between a bank and its customers”.
L-R: Martin Effiong, Senior Operator Partnership Manager, West Africa, at Infobip, Olatayo Ladipo-Ajai, regional manager at Infobip Nigeria and Isaac Akanni during a media roundtable organized by Infobip Nigeria at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
