Transform Customer Experience with Personalized RCS Messaging in 2024

Nowadays, customers expect a tailored experience from brands. They don’t want to spend hours going through your offerings to find the one that fits their needs. In fact, research indicates that 71% of customers want to receive tailored experiences from brands. 

However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to customer interactions. This is why focusing on personalizing your customer engagement is one of the best ways to drive interactions. And the channel that is quickly getting attention from businesses and customers alike is RCS. 

RCS is a combination of SMS and MMS along with some advanced messaging capabilities that modern communication apps include like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. 

So, to help you personalize your outreach using this amazing channel, I’ll explore what RCS messaging is, the benefits of personalizing your RCS communications, and finally, how to do it for your business. So, let’s dive into it.

What is RCS messaging?

RCS messaging stands for Rich Communication Services, a next-gen messaging protocol built to take the place of traditional SMS with interactive, app-like communication. It adds multimedia capabilities such as images, videos, audio messages, files, and interactive buttons, allowing you to create a richer, more engaging conversation.

In comparison to SMS, that are restricted to to 160 characters and can only send plain text, RCS allows for:

• High-resolution images
• Read receipts
• Typing indicators
• Location sharing
• Actionable buttons for instant responses
• Suggested replies

On top of that, you don’t have to download any third-party app to access RCS. RCS is developed to work natively with the messaging app (Google Messages) that comes by default in all Android devices. This way, you can engage your customers with the native app without the hassle of installing and setting up an external app. 

Additionally, the iPhone is supporting RCS with the latest launch of iOS 18 to allow its users to have cross-platform conversations with Android users. 

The role of personalization in customer experience

Before I dive into how RCS facilitates personalization, it is essential to understand why personalization matters so much in the first place. 

Customers want their favorite brands to know them on a deeper level. They want you to understand their preferences, anticipate their needs, and provide relevant recommendations, thereby providing a better sales engagement.

Personalized customer experience is so important that you can convert leads and win over lost customers by simply recommending the right products. Don’t believe me? Here are some statistics to help you understand:

• 80% of customers have a higher chance of making a purchase if you provide a tailored customer experience. 
• 91% of buyers mentioned that they are very likely to buy from a business if they offer personalized suggestions and deals. 
• 63% of shoppers will not continue purchasing from businesses if they practice bad personalization strategies.

These high numbers clearly indicate the power of personalization and how it can assist you in driving your RCS campaigns to new heights. But personalizing your customer experience is more than adding your customer’s name to the messages. 

It involves delivering content that is relevant, timely, and interactive. And this is where RCS truly shines, as it allows you to offer a conversational experience that can be tailored to the customer’s preferences and behaviors.

Steps to personalize your RCS messaging

Personalizing RCS messages goes beyond simply adopting the technology; it is about crafting messages that feel uniquely relevant to each customer. By taking advantage of RCS’s interactive and multimedia-rich capabilities, you can create experiences that speak directly to individual preferences. 

That being said, below are the steps to effectively tailor your RCS outreach: 

Understand and segment your customer base

Before you can start sending personalized suggestions to your customers, you need to gain a deep understanding of your audience. Evaluating key customer demographics, behaviors, and preferences to create tailored experiences. 

Furthermore, since RCS is available on Android and iOS devices, you can segment your customers based on their device types and further segment based on how you want to engage them with the right RCS feature. 

On top of that, you can use the data from your CRM or the analytics dashboard to group customers according to their past purchases and previous interactions. For instance, you can identify frequent buyers and how they interact with your brand. 

By having this data with you, you can craft personalized messages to send extremely tailored recommendations to drive conversations and increase your chances of getting more sales. 

Select the right RCS provider with great personalizing capabilities

Once you have understood your customer base and divided them into respective segments, the next step is partnering with an RCS service provider that can help deliver these personalized messages at scale. It is essential to choose a provider with strong API capabilities and built-in tools for personalization and automation. A few renowned RCS providers include:

• Zixflow
• Sinch 
• Infobip
• Twilio

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Using an RCS provider, you can get started with RCS effectively, as it can help you leverage the advanced personalization features of RCS. For example, you can take advantage of dynamic content creation to connect with your contacts using different kinds of messages. 

In addition to that, a provider can let you automate your RCS campaigns to engage customers and respond to them instantly. RCS chatbots and automated workflows are examples of some ways to automate your RCS initiatives.

Zixflow is one of the best RCS providers present in the market that includes other messaging channels along with RCS. With us, you can access WhatsApp, email, and SMS from a single platform and send bulk messages to connect with your customers at scale. 

Being a code-free, intuitive platform, you can find your way around Zixflow without any difficulty and start making the most of the platform from the get-go. Here is a video to give an overview of the marketing stack:

Define clear use cases for personalization

To effectively personalize your RCS messaging, it is crucial to establish specific use cases where personalized content will have the greatest impact. You can do this by defining how and where personalization can drive deeper engagement with your customers.

Since RCS supports various kinds of messages, you can use it in numerous situations, including promotional, transactional, or informational. Moreover, due to its end-to-end encryption, you can also send RCS OTPs to validate customers and the actions they perform. 

A brand that effectively used RCS to run promotional campaigns is the fast-food chain Subway. Subway utilized RCS in its promotional efforts and saw a significant improvement in engagement and conversions. By sending visually appealing marketing messages with images of its sandwiches and an interactive “View Offer” button, Subway achieved a 144% increase in conversion rate compared to SMS.

Furthermore, you can send personalized transactional messages like shipping notifications or appointment reminders to inform customers about their orders. Instead of a generic confirmation, use the customer’s name and product details. 

For instance, "Hi [Customer Name], your order #[Order Number] for [Product Name] has been shipped! Track it here [Tracking Link]."

Leverage rich media for enhanced personalization

RCS allows you to integrate rich media elements, which are crucial for creating an engaging and personalized user experience. Use this to your advantage by sending personalized visuals, videos, and interactive carousels tailored to individual customers.

For instance, sending personalized product carousels relevant to what your customers have browsed or purchased in the past, is an outstanding way to upsell or cross-sell your offerings. 

Additionally, RCS lets you provide real-time customer support to your customers by having two-way communications. During your assistance, you can send tailored tutorial videos to address their issues and allow them to make the most of your products.You can make use of RCS templates to get responses of common questions and streamline your customer support. 

Universal Pictures, for example, used RCS to promote the release of movies. It sent interactive messages with trailers, showtimes, and purchase buttons, allowing users to book seats directly from the app. This campaign led to an increase in engagement, showcasing how media-rich content enhances customer interactions.

Additionally, RCS lets you provide real-time customer support to your customers by having two-way communications. During your assistance, you can send tailored tutorial videos to address their issues and allow them to make the most of your products. You can make use of RCS templates to get responses to common questions and streamline your customer support.

Personalize your RCS messaging to better your customer experience

Personalizing RCS messages enables you to engage your customers in a deeply relevant and meaningful way. By understanding your customer base, partnering with the right messaging provider, and defining clear use cases, you can create memorable customer experiences that drive loyalty and conversions.

RCS is an amazing channel that can greatly help you boost your sales engagement straight from the native messaging app. Also, as RCS is better adopted in the future, it has the potential to completely change the way businesses connect with customers over mobile devices. 

So, it’s now time to incorporate RCS into your stack of outreach channels to provide an all-round sales experience to the customers from today.