Voice calls, text messages and chatbots have made the business-to-consumer engagement more accessible, robust and efficient. Now, however, with consumer confidence in communications declining and billions lost each year to fraud through spam, scams and spoofs, legitimate businesses must protect their revenue, reputation and relationships.
At MEF Connects Rich Communications one of the sessions focussed on what the industry needs to do to build the next wave of B2C communications on a trusted foundation that will help brands better engage consumers. Here, Tara Condon, Director of Product Marketing at iconectiv, shares the key themes of the discussion, which you can watch in full on demand now.
Trust – a theme throughout almost every session of MEF Connects Rich Communication. VP and Chief of Business for Vestige Best Deals, Badrinath Mishra, summarized the brand perspective perfectly, “Customers look to us for an authentic source of information.”
As Rich Communication Services (RCS) continue to offer more and better ways for customers to engage, this can open the door to unscrupulous behavior – fraudsters masquerading as brands. This threat is why the industry is coming together to build RCS right from the start and keep consumers protected.
One of the final sessions of the event dealt with the “how” of making business verification simple and seamless for brands, service providers, messaging providers and the broader ecosystem. The event, called “Securing the Rich Experience,” featured a panel consisting of :
- Steve J. Zitnik – Executive Vice President & CTO @ Interop Technologies
- Chris Drake – Chief Technology Officer @ iconectiv
- Cliff Holsenbeck – Director of Product Management @ iconectiv
- Oscar Gallego – Global Head of Smart Communications and Security @ Vodafone
- Robert Gerstmann – Chief Evangelist & Co-Founder @ Sinch
- Dario Betti – CEO @ Mobile Ecosystem Forum (moderator)
At the session, the panelists talked through practical strategies and case studies for establishing and maintaining trust. One of the topics included the establishment of a neutral party to assist the operators with brand verification, which one panelist deemed “a positive development.”
iconectiv Director of Product Management, Cliff Holsenbeck, presented a model for building trust, as well as, stressed the importance of good governance, adding: “As long as we keep trust in the RCS channel, then I think it will thrive for a very long time.”
The final question from MEF CEO and session moderator, Dario Betti, asked panelists to offer some final guidance to brands relative to RCS. Three key themes emerged:
- The ecosystem is ready and able to support their use cases. As one example, earlier in the event, speaker Paul Sandmann from Telekom Deutschland shared that Germany has reached gold status, with all service providers adopting RCS.
- RCS is trusted and there’s no noise in the channel right now. RCS has the benefit of being architected, right from the start, with security in mind. Further, at a time when customers are texting and messaging more than ever with brands, there is plenty of opportunity for brands to innovate and differentiate in both customer care and customer engagement. As far as use cases, the only true limit is one’s imagination.
- RCS lets consumers see protection in action – the “verified” check mark. Verified brands can receive a check mark, so a customer knows they’re now dealing with a legitimate entity.
MEF Connects Rich Communications On Demand
Over 3 days, MEF Connects Rich Communications brought together enterprises, brands & agencies to connect online with MNOs and messaging providers to showcase the business messaging channels that are transforming customer engagement. If you missed a session, check out our Video On Demand page below. MEF Members can visit the Member only On Demand page to get presentation slides as well.
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