In this guest post, MD and Group CEO of Route Mobile Rajdip Gupta shares his thoughts on RCS messaging in the context of the Coronovirus pandemic, and the potential opportunities for enterprise messaging, ahead of a webinar on the topic on Thursday the 21st May.

The WHO has classified the outbreak of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The unfolding of the events in each industry is happening at a rapid pace. It has caused an extreme shift in the business and tested the nature of continuity plans and practices. However, every business is trying to have an open line of communication with their customers and employees and have turned to mobile messaging for real-time communications. Route Mobile constantly supports mobile operator customers to help them with mobile communications for both application-to-person (A2P) and person-to-person (P2P) messaging.

Enterprise messaging solutions are especially important in the age of remote working and social distancing. Enterprises are looking out for a simple yet interactive way of communicating with customers and RCS Business Messaging has helped to attract the attention of end-users. The end-users need not download multiple apps but can communicate with enterprises from the default messaging app itself.

RCS Business Messaging is an upgrade to SMS also considered as SMS Revolution 2.0. According to the GSMA, the market for older SMS is already forecasted to be worth $74 billion by 2021, and with RCS Business Messaging coming into play, this is forecasted to be $90 billion. The character limit is not limited to 160/180 characters as SMS. RCS comes with unified features such as read receipts, branding, verified sender, QR codes, high-resolution image, and video sharing, verified sender, suggested actions, suggested replies, rich cards and carousels, call to action buttons, location sharing, mapping directions and many more.

One of the interesting features is if RCS Business Messaging message fails for any reason, as failover SMS can be delivered. The popularity of mobile messaging has gained traction, it is also known that customers prefer chat as compared to a call when it comes to connecting with brands on matters of customer service.

RCS Business Messaging is all set to grow revenue for enterprises by offering new capabilities. Enterprises and brands are ready to allocate and invest their digital marketing budget towards RCS Business Messaging to communicate and engage with customers“

The impact of COVID-19 on RCS Business Messaging is driven by increasing financial incentives and regulatory support from the governments globally. The global RCS market size is projected to grow from USD 4.5 billion in 2019 to USD 10.6 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 18.9% during 2019–2024. SMS remains a widely used and preferred platform for brands to communicate with their customers for One-time passwords, reminders, and balance updates.

Below are potential use cases where RCS Business Messaging can be deployed by enterprises and brands in various industries:

RCS Business Messaging in Healthcare sector:

The healthcare providers require the RCS Business Messaging platform for trusted communication to send and receive information that is critical for timely and informed decisions. It can help them provide critical information such as diagnostic test results, scheduling an appointment, payment reminders, health check-up camps, health tips, answering first level customer care queries, and a lot more. It will also improve the overall patient experience and build customer engagement with its potential patients.

RCS Business Messaging in the E-commerce sector:

Customers want quick responses and also the ability to buy what they need quickly. The users don’t need to visit the brands website, they can interact with the brand using the RCS Business Messaging platform. It can be used to order a product directly with the help of rich cards and rich carousel, retargeting abandoned carts, new product recommendations from their previous purchases history, sending shipping updates, enquiring delivery time, taking feedback and surveys.

RCS Business Messaging in the Banking and Insurance sector:

Banking and insurance both are the oldest sector in our modern economy, though they face one major challenge and that is the user experience when it comes to digital efforts. RCS Business Messaging platform can help in answering account queries like account balance, locate nearby ATM, block card, request a mini statement or detailed statement of your account, new product/ service request such as credit card, debit cards, new insurance plans and policies, and renewing their existing policy.

RCS Business Messaging in the Travel Industry:

The travel industry has undergone a major downturn on digital presence during this pandemic. RCS Business Messaging can play a vital role to offer better assistance to have a personalized interaction between a help desk representative and a customer. The travel industry companies can send on-time notifications of cancellation, check the refund status by and send other important notifications and alerts to the users. The users can also search and book a ticket.

RCS Business Messaging in the Telecoms sector:

Customers interact with service providers for various issues such as recharge, bill payments, billing-related queries, plan change requests, and many more. With the use of RCS Business Messaging, the users can directly solve their queries quickly. A user can ask for usage of his account consumables like data consumed, the number of SMS’s consumed, free minute consumed, and recharge invoices. The operator can also push all promotional offers to consumers, push alerts with certain details of the plan and usage.

RCS Business Messaging is all set to grow revenue for enterprises by offering new capabilities. Enterprises and brands are ready to allocate and invest their digital marketing budget towards RCS Business Messaging to communicate and engage with customers as it creates an enhanced communication platform to reach their customers where they already are—in their default messaging app.

Though RCS Business Messaging is in the early stages it has the potential to be the next disruptor in mobile and messaging.

MD & Group CEO, Routemobile