Advanced messaging (RCS) can empower customer service, ecommerce, public information and even IoT fault reporting.
The RCS messaging standard allows smartphone makers to automatically incorporate powerful messaging features into their handsets. This in turns encourages more users to adopt them, because it’s so much easier when they don’t have to download an app every time they want to talk with their favourite shop. Customer service gets a lot more upfront and personal.
This year there is a wide range of messaging demonstrations throughout the show. Here is a just a small selection of what can be done when we remove the barriers to communication.
Deutsche Telekom’s gift to mobile operators
In the Innovation City, at the Messaging Demo area, Deutsche Telekom is demonstrating the joys of enriched calling, which was made possible by RCS. Its demo shows what happens when a subscriber calls ‘Alex’, using the new rich communications feature set. The caller highlights to the receiver (Alex) that the call is Urgent, and attaches explanatory text that Alex sees as he contemplates the incoming call on his screen: “Just a quick question!” Not only is Alex sent a picture that is displayed during the call, but the caller is able to speak to him on many other levels, such as sketches, a video, chat and even files. There is even a 360 panoramic shot that can be shown to the caller.
Thanks to RCS, these apps can be bundled natively into handsets as standard. Deutsche Telekom developed these apps internally and is offering them as open source to all other network operators, as part of its commitment to speed up the development of RCS offerings across the industry.
AT&T shows the art of self service
Meanwhile, across the Innovation City hall at the AT&T stand, visitors can see how RCS is making self-service transactions a lot easier. AT&T demonstrator Jason Kaufman is explaining to visitors how the new generation of chatbots arising out of RCS can be either ‘pre-populated’ on phones or searched for and installed easily. Kaufman is showing visitors how mobile operator’s customer self-service transactions – such as checking on their bills and data usage – become a lot easier and smoother. The plan is to establish a dialogue with the customers, in which their needs are established by increments. The demo shows how chatbot apps can layer on extra contextual information about the customer, use this to ask better questions and walk them through, say, the buying options for their next phone upgrade.
Virgin Trains takes RCS on board
Back at the Messaging demo in Innovation City, Virgin Trains and its development partner OpenMarket are showing how they jointly created an SMS application that helped improved customer satisfaction by managing passenger flows and making journey beginnings more ambient. Virgin Trains are demonstrating how they are building on that success with the richer options that RCS offers. Visitors can see the difference that embedded high-resolution messages can make. The wealth of information delivering possibilities (such as seat plans, shopping options, an onboard shop, food ordering, train times and ticket buying) all show how the passenger can be made to feel in control.
Walgreens conversation starter
In the RCS messaging area of the Innovation City hall, visitors can see how a simple photo app allows shoppers to send pictures from their mobile to be printed off at a Walgreens store. The retailer’s system then engages the customer in conversation, prompting them with questions on how many copies they want, what size and which store they’d like to collect from.
Thanks to the universal standard created by GSMA, all these sophisticated channels of communication come pre-installed with modern handsets, so shoppers can use any of multiple channels (mobile app, RCS business messaging) to convieniently print photos to a Walgreens store.
Summit Tech demonstrates RCS chat with your Home
At Summit’s booth (Hall 7, 7N61) you can chat with your home’s IoT connected devices through RCS chatbots. Turn on lights and lock your doors with simple RCS messages. Your home will even send you an RCS chatbot message when you are driving away to inform you it will automatically turn on your security system and set your thermostat to eco-mode and lock your doors. Summit Tech’s connected living solution also supports
Visit the GSMA Network 2020 at Innovation City to discover for yourself the capabilities of RCS.
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