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Customer communication is evolving rapidly, and today’s consumers expect faster, more convenient, and personalized interactions. In this context, digitizing phone calls has become a strategic lever to streamline exchanges and improve customer satisfaction. This is where Rich Communication Services (RCS) comes into play. By turning a traditional incoming call into an interactive digital journey, RCS allows businesses to simplify and automate request handling. RCS goes beyond instant messaging: when integrated with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, it enables a seamless switch from a phone call to a visual, guided interface directly accessible on the user’s smartphone. By incorporating intelligent conversational agents, interactions can be personalized, contextualized, and resolved more efficiently. But how exactly does this technology enhance customer experience and operational performance?
RCS (Rich Communication Services), sometimes referred to as SMS 2.0, is an advanced messaging technology designed to modernize the mobile user experience. It enables the sending of multimedia content (images, videos, documents), the addition of interactive buttons, and fine message contextualization, all without requiring a third-party app, as it is natively integrated into the messaging apps of both Android and iOS devices.
Unlike traditional SMS, which is limited to plain text, or conversational SMS that still relies on GSM network constraints, RCS leverages 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi networks to deliver a smooth and engaging experience. Users benefit from a visual interface that includes brand name and logo, dynamic messages (cards, videos, images, buttons), and a fully scripted journey.
Key advantages include:
Rich display: text, images, videos, GIFs, card carousels, and interactive buttons
Personalization: journeys tailored to user intent
Accessibility: no app to install, natively available on over 87% of smartphones in France as of December 2024
Security: verified sender identification
Performance tracking: standard and advanced reporting, including user verbatim
With its enhanced features and seamless integration, RCS far surpasses the capabilities of traditional or conversational SMS. It empowers businesses to offer modern, engaging, and mobile-first interactions tailored to today’s communication habits.
To better understand the shift brought by RCS, it's important to compare it with existing solutions.
Traditional SMS remains one of the most widely used channels for direct and fast communication. Ideal for short, informative messages, it operates on the GSM network, ensuring broad coverage. However, its capabilities are limited: it doesn’t support dynamic interaction, advanced personalization, or detailed performance tracking. Its simplicity, while valuable, often falls short of today’s customer experience expectations.
SMS Link Preview, an enhancement of traditional SMS, adds a visual preview of a link directly within the message, making it more engaging. Compatible with both Android and iPhone, it can boost click-through rates by up to 10%, while maintaining the simplicity of SMS.
Conversational SMS takes things a step further. It allows basic back-and-forth communication, often powered by simple scripts or bots. Yet, it still relies on the SMS infrastructure (text + image only) and lacks visual enrichment or dynamic personalization.
RCS, on the other hand, completely redefines the experience. It combines rich content display (cards, videos, images, interactive buttons), message contextualization based on user intent, intelligent conversational capabilities, and seamless CRM integration. Unlike SMS, it operates on faster networks (4G, 5G, Wi-Fi), ensuring a smoother experience. It also offers brand information display, enhanced security through verified senders, and comprehensive reporting (including standard, advanced, and verbatim insights), all for the same cost as a traditional or conversational SMS.
RCS offers a visually engaging interface that significantly enhances the quality of interactions with your customers. With your company’s name and logo displayed, enriched messages (cards, images, videos, GIFs), and built-in action buttons, every exchange becomes clearer, more interactive, and intuitive. Customers are more autonomous, they can respond directly, select from multiple options, or even complete a simple transaction, without leaving their messaging app. This seamless experience makes interactions more fluid and efficient. Security is also reinforced through verified sender identification, increasing user trust.
RCS clearly outperforms traditional SMS in terms of reliability, interactivity, and content richness. Based on average 2024 KPIs observed among our clients, RCS achieves a 99% delivery rate, a 65% average click-through rate, and a 28% conversion rate, a significant improvement over classic SMS journeys. By reducing wait times and offering smooth, interactive pathways, it also greatly lowers call abandonment rates. Customers get faster answers, anytime, without the frustration of delays or call transfers.
These figures highlight not only better message delivery but also the ability to engage users from the very first interaction. The visual format of RCS, combined with contextual content and built-in calls-to-action, encourages recipients to interact, explore the information provided, and even complete tasks without speaking to an agent. Through dynamic omnichannel journeys, RCS automatically suggests the most relevant next steps: viewing a calendar, booking an appointment, scheduling a call, or accessing an instant automated response. This helps guide each customer to the right channel and solution, while allowing agents to focus on more complex and value-added tasks.
By digitizing calls with RCS, you reduce the time spent on the phone handling simple inquiries. This helps optimize operational costs by relieving pressure on your contact centers. Moreover, the integration of AI-powered conversational agents enables personalized responses, automated handling of recurring questions, and frees up your teams to focus on more strategic or complex issues that require human expertise.
Implementing this solution is quick and compatible with all types of calls, mobile, landline, or anonymous, and integrates smoothly with your existing IVR and CRM systems, such as Salesforce. RCS works seamlessly both in France and internationally, making it easy to activate across a broad scope from the pilot phase. The integration involves no technical complexity, relying on standard connectors already compatible with most customer service platforms. This flexibility simplifies operational deployment and enables a quick test launch. The interface is also designed to be easily adopted by business teams, speeding up onboarding and generating results within the first few weeks of use.
RCS also enhances your ability to analyze performance. With advanced reporting that includes detailed KPIs and customer verbatims, you can closely monitor the effectiveness of your interactions and continuously identify areas for improvement. A short-term pilot is enough to measure its tangible impact. By tracking indicators such as click-through rate or ROI, you can quickly assess the improvements in efficiency, customer satisfaction, and overall operational performance.
Let’s take the real-life example of Anne, who is insured through a health mutual. She wants to quickly check the reimbursement status of a recent medical consultation. Anne calls her insurance provider and is immediately connected to an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. The IVR offers her the option to view her reimbursements or submit a medical bill. Anne selects the option, and within seconds, she receives an RCS notification on her smartphone. Through this rich message, Anne can easily view her recent reimbursements, download her statements, or upload a scanned invoice, all via clearly labeled interactive buttons, without ever leaving her native messaging app.
RCS is now emerging as a key pillar in the digital transformation of customer journeys. By enriching incoming calls with intuitive digital interactions, it enables businesses to deliver faster, clearer, and more autonomous service. With its seamless integration into existing tools (IVR, CRM) and its ability to deliver measurable results within the first weeks, RCS becomes a true driver of operational efficiency.
Complementary to other channels like SMS Link Preview, RCS takes personalization, automation, and interaction performance to the next level. To support businesses in this transition, partners like DialOnce offer turnkey implementation designed to be fast, efficient, and frictionless, a concrete way to evolve your customer relations toward greater simplicity, efficiency, and satisfaction.
