Why do you need an RCS messaging service?

RCS Messaging is probably the next game-changer in mobile messaging. It encompasses all the cool stuff we have gotten used to on internet-based messaging apps (such as Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Telegram, etc). From images to audio, video, GIFs, carousels, to customized reply buttons. It doesn’t come as a surprise that many are referring to it as the successor of SMS.

Unlike SMS, where the sender is another phone number, in RCS the sender is a registered business name that is verified to give consumers peace of mind that messages are legitimate, reducing the risk of scam messaging or phishing attempts. With its rich, dynamic content, RCS offers businesses across industries higher engagement, increased satisfaction, and overall better ROI.

Use of RCS messaging across industries

Without further ado, let us take a look into how RCS messaging is used in different industries.

Banking & Finance

Banking and finance institutions face a major challenge in the digital ecosystem. Αs one of the oldest sectors in the modern economy they still are lacking behind in terms of the digital user experience. As a sector, they have been conducting customer outreach using a multi-channel approach, consisting of a combination of email, phone calls, SMS, Apps, and postal mail.

However, customers want a seamless digital customer experience that lets them complete all their transactions quickly. They don’t want to leave their email, to go to their bank’s website to make a payment. They will either not follow through or will leave it for later and most likely won’t come back to it. This is the gap RCS (Rich Communication Services) is here to fill. 

RCS Messaging 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 can improve brand perception and increase loyalty via efficient messaging services that just work.

Travel & Tourism

From choosing seats to payments to flight reminders and QR code boarding passes, the travel industry has been using RCS messaging to maintain a superior branded experience throughout guest interactions. During this pandemic, the industry suffered a huge blow with customer service requests growing as travel arrangements were cancelled. RCS Business Messaging has played a vital role in offering assistance and personalizing interaction between a help desk representative and a customer.

Companies in the sector 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 for their next trip. RCS connects travelers to the information they need when they need it the most and this level of support in return fosters long-lasting brand loyalty.

E-commerce

Μodern day customers want immediate responses and also the ability to buy what they need quickly and with ease. RCS can facilitate the process. Users don’t need to visit the brand’s website, they can interact with their favorite brands using RCS. RCS can bring e-commerce transactions from a website or an app to the messaging app itself.

RCS can also personalize product or service offerings based on previous purchases and user history it can gather and make the user experience more relatable with the user’s interests.

RCS also plays an important role in the completion of e-commerce transactions, through confirmation messages and by communicating delivery statuses. Uncertainties and the lack of transparency regarding the state of online purchase deliveries can be a big headache in the e-commerce process. By sending customers messages on the status of their order, businesses allow them to track their package providing greater peace of mind.

Ηealthcare

Healthcare providers seeking to improve the experience and maximize engagement potential for their patients should be making themselves familiar with RCS. RCS can help healthcare providers in transmitting trusted communication, sending and receiving critical information such as diagnostic test results, sharing health tips, scheduling an appointment, and a lot more. 

And not only can healthcare businesses deliver an enhanced customer experience, but they can also increase efficiency and reduce costs. Perhaps the biggest way that it can aid the healthcare sector is rescheduling appointments. The NHS alone reports that missed appointments account for 1 billion pounds lost annually. Reducing this figure by utilizing RCS technology is therefore likely to be well received.

Telecommunications

Customers interact with telco providers for various issues such as billing-related queries, plan change requests, and many more. With the use of RCS Business Messaging, users can directly solve their queries without agent involvement. A user can ask regarding the usage of their account like data consumed, the number of SMS’s consumed, free minutes consumed, and recharge invoices.

Telcos on the other side can also push all promotional offers to consumers, push alerts with certain details of the plan and usage. All this can increase recipient engagement due to videos, photos, dynamic images for personalization, and so on. It also offers superior convenience for recipients who can see your locations on a map or make payments with a click.

To sum up

Today’s digital-first consumers have higher expectations for how businesses should communicate with them. RCS proves to be able to meet those expectations. Although it is not yet commercially available to all, it is important to be aware of how businesses can make use of RCS to grow revenue and deliver an upgraded messaging experience.

Businesses in all sectors 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 them where they already are. If you want to join the messaging revolution, it’s time you speak with our experts to learn why RCS messaging is right for your business.

What is Viber Messaging?

Let’s start with the basics.

Viber Business Messaging allows businesses to communicate, either 1-way or 2-way, with customers who have subscribed to them, through their channel of choice.

Through these messages customers can directly contact the banks, brands, retailers, you name it, that they have subscribed to. They can receive information and status updates regarding their favorite services and on the other hand, brands can communicate with them using rich media, such as images, videos, and documents. All this through a verified business account (indicated with a blue tick beside the business name).

With 7 million interactions happening every minute, more than 1 billion users, and 260 million monthly active users, no one can deny that Viber is an ultra-popular communication channel and one of the top 10 downloaded apps of all time. It is way cheaper than SMS, yet it allows you to do so much more. So, let’s dig deeper and get a better understanding of the channel.

Types of Viber Business Messages:

Depending on your business needs Viber Business Messages are divided into 3 main types:

1. Conversational messages can be used by customers to interact with your brand. This type of Viber message is completely free and there are no limitations on messaging or amount of contacts. They are widely used to connect customers with your customer care, offer products and services and collect feedback and reviews.

2. Transactional messages can be used to inform regarding an account balance or to offer a delivery status update. Their purpose is to deliver useful information to the user, avoiding any display of marketing content. They may contain plain text or hyperlinks.

3. Promotional messages are designed to promote new products and discounts or special offers. These are messages whose goal is to motivate customers to shop. They may contain emoticons, images and/or buttons.

The Benefits of Viber Messaging

1. Reach a wider audience

We will just let the numbers do the talking.
Viber is one of those widely popular messaging apps used by over a billion unique users worldwide and every minute 7 Million Interactions take place on the platform.

As the numbers suggest the platform is an online space that is already massively popular, with users heavily relying on it in their daily lives. Therefore, it becomes more than clear that such penetration and user familiarity means its potential for brands is substantial too. Using Viber for business will help you reach users and customers directly, right where they are, doing what they always do, texting with their mobile phones. And joining the conversation is one of the most personal ways of communicating with your audience, making it even more effective.

2. More engagement, more personalization and more conversions

It goes without saying that people are more likely to engage with a message from a contact they know and trust.

Viber Business Messages makes sure of that. It puts your company’s logo on your Viber profile, while through its rich media features it helps you craft nice, compelling messages, which include a call-to-action button at the bottom and can lead people to your website, increasing conversions and enjoying up to 50% click-through rate.

By using Viber as your messaging channel, you don’t only increase engagement and conversions but can also design, manage and maintain personalized 1:1 conversations.Υou can converse with your audience in a targeted and personalized way and gain access to accurate insights about how your message resonated with your audience, and what you should do to improve it.

You can then offer guided selling where consumers are steered to products they might be interested in and promote the latest deals and offers based on the customer’s buying history.

3. Guaranteed message delivery and cost control

The delivery of your message is guaranteed with Viber, using fallback to SMS. So, your business can achieve a near 100% delivery rate. Even those contacts who didn’t receive the message in Viber (e.g. no wifi) will get it shortened in the form of a simple SMS, ensuring your message gets delivered on time, every time.

Αdditionally, it’s important to point out that you only pay when a message is delivered and reaches its destination, not just when it’s sent, ensuring that your costs stay under control.

4. Enrich content and enhance branding

Viber enables brands to include rich media in any of their messages. Through the creation of compelling messages, you can attract attention to your brand and generate interest in your products. From images, videos, GIFs and more, you can incorporate them all into your message, without fear of character limitations or high charges.

By creatively engaging with customers through visuals and enriched functionality, Viber enables a business to elevate brand awareness while providing unique and user-defined customer experiences.

Finally, another way Viber can enhance your branding is by displaying the company name and verified badge on the user’s mobile screen, which also offers reassurance to the consumer.

5. Trust and Loyalty

Viber is known to be one of the most secure and privacy driven messaging apps out there. All messages between your business, Viber and your users are end-to-end encrypted since data sent via Viber can only be accessed by the sender and receiver and does not stay stored on Viber’s servers.

Additionally, user correspondence is only stored on Viber servers during message transmission, therefore ensuring compliance with GDPR requirements.

The advanced security features of the app have greatly impacted users’ trust and loyalty to your brand.

To sum up

As Viber continues to grow in popularity, this is where your customers will be and you have to be there with them. Viber can offer your business huge potential and possibilities to have valuable and rich conversations with your customers. Don’t miss the opportunity to engage with them. However, delivering on such potential is not always easy. That is why many companies choose to partner with a company that guides them through the process. It is time you get started with Viber Business Messaging.

Why do you need a call masking service?

Consumers are engaging in more and more business services on their mobile phones. This doesn’t come as a surprise. It’s for sure convenient, yet at the same time scary, if you think of how much our phone numbers are linked with our identity.

If your phone number is given out carelessly then you are at risk. And that is because it can be used by hackers to break into your bank account or your inbox. Customers are aware of that, so they are not so keen on giving out their phone numbers. 79% of them don’t feel comfortable sharing their numbers with business service providers. However, several different companies across different industries need customers’ phone numbers to confirm delivery or to inform a customer about something.

These companies need to make sure customer privacy is protected and doesn’t become the next ‘hot potato’. Call masking is a useful tool for businesses across all industries to deliver a secure communications experience, preventing misuse of sensitive information. And safeguarding customers with call masking isn’t limited to just customer privacy. This technology helps businesses increase brand awareness, generate valuable customer insights, avoid legal and financial issues, and add genuine value to their solutions.

Use of call masking across industries

In the next few minutes, we will see how call masking services are used in different industries.

Ride-sharing apps

The use of call masking is very common in this industry. The reason is simple. Companies that provide delivery or ride-sharing services have to enable communication between customers and drivers. With the use of a call masking service, they can achieve that, without disclosing any party’s number.

Once the driver is assigned to a customer or address, a masked number is assigned to them for further communication. Any conversation regarding the ride from then on, is exclusively done through the masked number. And on the plus side, not only are numbers masked but calls are also recorded for tracking purposes. Therefore companies can know the conversation and improve the driver’s quality there and then, without harming business credibility.

Ecommerce businesses

No doubt, e-commerce is one of the most demanded and used services in our digital world. And no doubt, there is sensitive customer data shared so transactions can be completed.

Every day thousands of orders are being shipped. E-commerce businesses have to communicate with customers regarding their deliveries and hire different agents to communicate with them. A masked number is sent to the agent as well as the customer for them to communicate with privacy. It facilitates business protection and helps in surveilling the communication between them, making sure that supreme customer service is offered.

Logistics companies

Similar to the e-commerce sector, businesses in the logistics sector need to connect consumers with delivery agents and track conversations. The delivery agent’s masked number is sent to the consumer through a text message, and vice-versa. From then on all interactions regarding the delivery take place through the masked number. This assures a protected delivery experience and eliminates the chances of false delivery updates.

Using a number masking service, logistics service providers safeguard these short-lived communications between the consumer and delivery agents. At the same time, they prevent agents from giving false updates related to the delivery.

Dating apps

Many businesses, especially dating apps, pride themselves on offering a private way for consumers to communicate with each other. Call masking services can provide a safe and secure way to interact without exposing personal information. They allow those interested in each other to communicate without having to exchange their private numbers. In this way, they help in keeping each party safe and allow them to avoid awkward and unwanted communications if things don’t go as planned.

Healthcare

In recent years, we have seen a rise in phone-based medical consultations and clinical enquiries. Yet restrictions in sharing your medical history and ensuring confidentiality between a patient and a doctor need to be in place. By using a call masking service, users can speak comfortably to healthcare providers without any additional anxieties, while retaining their privacy at all times.

In addition, while healthcare professionals should be available to their patients, they might not want to give out personal information, such as their personal number. Call masking allows patients to call their doctors or physicians directly, without the risk of their phone numbers being misused (i.e. being given to other people without the owner’s consent).

To sum up

In the digital world, we live in it’s too risky to neglect customers’ privacy. It is important, more than ever, to prove to customers they can work with you without any fear. Regardless of the industry, keeping personal data private should be a priority for any business. Give your users the reassurance and freedom to talk without sacrificing their privacy. Protect personal numbers, improve your customer experience and safeguard personal information. We will make setting up your first call masking scenarios a breeze.

What is social proof?

You may have heard about social proof before, but do you know what it is? The social proof concept is based on the idea that humans tend to follow the norms, the behavior of the majority of society; to be liked by, accepted by, or be similar to the majority of the society. So, people are often relying on other’s opinions and actions, to decide what is the right thing to do in a specific situation.

Let us examine a real-life example. Imagine you walk down a road full of restaurants on a Saturday night, trying to decide where to eat, and you come across a bistro that is full of people that seem to enjoy their dinner. You are more likely to want to dine there, thinking that, if so many people are eating there now, then the food must be really good. Right?

Social proof is not a new concept however the rise of eCommerce and digital marketing has given social proof a whole new perspective in terms of power and effectiveness.

Social proof and digital marketing

Social proof or referral marketing is crucial for all businesses, especially in the digital marketing context. The main reason for this is that when people shop online, they almost completely rely on other people’s opinions and reviews to make a final decision. So, it comes as no surprise that 61% of consumers check online reviews before deciding to buy a product or service and that an outstanding 82% of people ask for recommendations from their surroundings before making a purchase.

Data don’t lie

Check out some more interesting numbers to see just how much social proof affects customer decision-making:

• 67% of consumers say that they are more likely to purchase a product that a friend or a relative shared via email or social media.
• 92% of 18 to 34 years olds ask for recommendations from their surroundings before making a purchase (10 times more than the general population).
• 86% of Americans with an over $100,000 income won’t move on with a purchase without a recommendation from friends or family.

Marketing Tactics that you can practice to leverage social proof for your business

Now that we have clarified the importance of social proof, let us examine a few ways that you can implement to leverage social proof for your brand’s benefit.

1. Customer Reviews

Customer reviews play the most important role when it comes to online shopping. Use it to your brand’s benefit and make your customer reviews visible to your potential clients. The visibility of your reviews will help prospective clients better understand the characteristics of your products, the timeliness of your shipping, if the product fits their needs, and so on. Remember, social proof can help you secure your sales.

2. Blog

Using content marketing, especially blogging is a great way to provide customers with information that interests them and relates to your products and services. A blog with these features can bring substantial traffic to your eCommerce business and, in the long run, even increase your sales. You can further enhance your blog by creating a periodic email newsletter that will help you keep your customers engaged by regularly providing them with relevant content.

It’s important to make sure your emails get opened so that you can keep your customers engaged and achieve higher email open rates.

 

 

3. Social media

Social media and chatbots can boost your eCommerce. Leverage the user-generated content about your brand available on social media and share positive comments about your products or services. Besides, you can create a social media calendar to enrich your social media business pages with content about your brand and with content that is also relevant to your audience or niche target groups.

4. Testimonials

You can utilize straightforward, simple recommendations from satisfied customers and embed them in your landing pages, website, and other owned, earned, or paid media.

5. Data and numbers

Let your customers know how many people follow your social media profiles, or visited your website the past month, or read your blog, or how many satisfied customers bought your products, and so on. Sometimes numbers speak louder than words.

6. Case studies

Use data and analysis to show how you successfully provided products or services to a particular customer. Real-life case studies can effortlessly increase social proof for you and your business.

Final Thoughts

You can use social proof to make your marketing more friendly and relatable to your customers. A smart way to use social proof is in pop-ups and near Call to action, in diverse steps of the customer journey. Use social proof to support your business’s philosophy, the story you want to tell as a brand, to build trust, loyalty, and brand awareness.

Abandoned shopping carts are a painful issue that many brands face in all industries and the travel business community cannot be exempt. According to the statistics from the travel industry, there is a 20% drop-off rate between basket and checkout, with less than 1% of users confirming their purchase. That adds up to nearly $1.78 trillion of incomplete annual travel purchases.

Similar to the eCommerce industry, the reasons visitors of travel sites do not easily convert are the following:

• Research for better deals and packages
• Getting distracted or saving packages for later
• Forgetting the brand name due to information overload
• Bad user experience leading to not understanding or finding what they are looking for

Why use exit-intent popups?

Popups prove to be an effective way to convert users. Exit-intent popups even more so. Reports say that 70% of users do not return to a site after they quit, however, exit-intent popups are capable of converting 10% of those users.

Exit-intent popups are triggered when the visitor is about to click the exit button or clicks it to quit the page. They act as a final effort to stop a user from leaving a website. Exit-intent popups can be especially effective when it comes to shopping cart recovery, as they can give your brand a second chance to get your visitors to follow through on their purchase. Besides, exit-intent popups can be used for various purposes, such as collecting email addresses for marketing communication.

What makes a good exit-intent popup?

Here are six essential ingredients you need to have in mind when creating exit-intent popups for your website.

• Timing – The right time between a user being engaged in your products and them leaving your website.
• Relevance – Content that is relevant to the user about to leave your site.
• Clarity – Clear, simple, and to the point messaging, to get them back to your website.
• Psychology – Psychological influencers that can drive action.
• Call to action – Tell your user what to do next.
• Split testing – Run A/B split tests to see what works.

Ways to use exit-intent popups on your travel site

Let us now discuss some exit-intent strategies to help boost shopping cart recovery in the travel industry.

Collect visitors’ emails

They came, they browsed and now they are on their way out. Do not just let them go. Collect their email while they are at the exit, with a popup. Instead of vaguely asking for their email, ask them to ‘Sign up to your deals and packages newsletter’. Now, even if they go ahead and abandon their shopping cart, they might be tempted not to abandon it forever. You can send them cart recovery emails, requesting them to recover and complete their booking.

Alternatively, you can capture their email by offering to save their cart so they can return anytime they want. A lot of travelers put stuff in their cart, although they are not planning to check out right away. They want to compare prices, think about the best combination of dates, and maybe come back to book their trip a bit later.

Besides, you can collect visitors' emails using exit-intent popups to boost your upselling by sending them coupons or offers on rental cars, once they complete a purchase. This way, not only do you drive repeated sales but you also boost your customer retention rate. Email is considered to be one of the most effective channels for tourism marketing.

Offer discounts during checkout

Most internet users interested in travel services look for good deals and travel packages. A discount can be particularly alluring to someone browsing your website.

One of the major reasons why travel site visitors abandon their carts is the desire to research for better deals and packages. When they reach the checkout and once all prices are added up, tax included, they suddenly begin to have second thoughts, as they are about to spend significantly more money than they initially expected. That is why displaying a well-timed discount popup at checkout, can entice them to go ahead and book their room, saving the sale. A large percentage of customers say that if they are offered a lower price, they will reconsider leaving and will purchase the products in their cart.

Showcase your social proof

Before they make a purchase, travel website visitors want to know that your travel site is legit. Traveler reviews and social proof are great tools to use to convince users to book from a platform that they have not previously purchased. A recent study concluded that visitors can be motivated to take a specific action if you display customer testimonials and social proof. Showcasing customer reviews on your exit-intent popups creates a sense of trust, which can prevent users from abandoning their carts.

Try using big numbers and impressive statistics in your exit-intent popups, related to your travel packages or traveler satisfaction, and encourage users to join that pack. You can even display positive reviews for users to take into consideration before deciding on what to do with their shopping cart.

If you maintain an impressive social following, you can also show that off. Website travel visitors, especially millennials, hang out on social media. When they see that your business has a distinctive social following they will want to join. Time your campaign so that you display your pop-up right before visitors exit. According to an AdWeek study, about 52% of Facebook users dream about vacation when on this social media channel, even when they are not planning a specific trip.

Use psychological triggers

Your ultimate goal when creating an exit-intent pop-up is to trigger a strong desire in a user to return to their shopping cart and complete the purchase. There are several psychological tactics you can use to make that happen, such as scarcity and urgency. Urgency is said to create the FOMO effect (Fear Of Missing Out) in users, a feeling that they are missing out on a travel opportunity that they might not get again. That is the reason why most exit-intent popups use phrases such as “Wait” or “Hold on” to create a sense of urgency, urging customers to take action.

A limited-time discount is a great way to create a sense of urgency for a hotel or trip booking. Around 48% of users said that they always complete a purchase when there is a limited-time offer they can relate to. Scarcity is a bit different from urgency. While urgency makes the person think they will miss out on an opportunity if they do not purchase a travel package immediately, scarcity makes a traveler think their preferred accommodation option could sell out at any moment, if they do not hurry up and purchase it. When creating scarcity, customers do not have the time to think, they must act quickly or they might miss out.

By creating a sense of urgency or scarcity in your exit-intent popup strategy, users feel that they better stay on the site and finish their reservation before the offer ends or their room is sold out.

Guide visitors with real-time support

A common reason users abandon their carts is because they cannot understand the details or options on a website. When users are not clear as to how to proceed to the next step they ultimately leave the website. Right before users are about to exit your page is the perfect time for you to start a conversation by displaying an exit-intent popup, where they can enter their queries.

Run contests and surveys

You can use contests and surveys in your exit-intent popup campaign to reduce your website’s bounce rates, increase engagement, and boost conversions on packages offered on your website. Your exit-intent popup campaign can target visitors that are about to leave your website with an interesting contest. Since the campaign is triggered after they have consumed a large amount of your existing content, they are likely to participate in the contest or the survey.

Additionally, you can create survey campaigns and communicate them with an exit-intent popup. These surveys will help you gain a better insight into your customers and what they want, including the reason they wish to exit your site.

Convert your visitors into travelers

Exit-intent popups are highly effective at capturing visitors who are leaving their shopping cart behind. You can use exit-intent popups to make your visitors reconsider buying your travel services and either head back to their booking cart, or enter their email address for you to use in your abandonment email campaigns. Let this be an opportunity for you to encourage travel enthusiasts back to your site to make their next dream trip a reality by using your services.

Check out how you can reduce shopping cart abandonment with personalization.