All You Need to Know About RCS Business Messaging Sender Verification

Long before Rich Communication Services (RCS) entered the scene, the phone number served as the only point of sender verification involved in business texting campaigns. On its own, the number hasn’t been a strong enough identifier for the recipients to figure out if the text actually came from the brand that’s claiming it. This may have, on many occasions, resulted in the message being ignored simply because there wasn’t enough information available for the customer to fully trust the message and take the action it prompted. 

Moreover, malicious attempts such as smishing may have caused trouble on both ends of the communication line, pointing to the need for a more advanced, trustworthy form of texting to be developed. 

Enter RCS Business Messaging (RBM), a version of RCS geared towards B2C use, that offers both brands and buyers the opportunity to engage with each other in a safe, multimedia-rich environment. Here’s how you can get started with it to deliver a new kind of messaging experience to your customers and see your engagement and conversions rise.

In this article, we’re going to:

• Briefly touch on what RCS Business Messaging is.

• Stress the importance of customer communication safety.

• Introduce the idea of sender IDs and authentication that build trust.

• Talk about the RCS Chatbot feature and how it supports your brand's business.

What is RCS Business Messaging? 

Traditional SMS, the king of mobile communication, may not be without flaws but remains to be universally loved by users worldwide, mostly due to its concise and direct nature, which is perfect for so many contexts.

The king’s rule has been long and glorious but there’s a prince on the rise, showing much promise to perhaps one day take the throne. 

💡 RCS Business Messaging is a messaging protocol that introduces a number of enhancements that build up on and greatly extend the SMS’ capabilities with multimedia. The main focus of this piece is elsewhere, but if you’d like to learn more about the channel first, have a look at one of our earlier articles: What is RCS business messaging?

In short, serving as a B2C communication channel, RCS offers stricter security measures and a richer customer experience than SMS messages, and has been designed to facilitate more meaningful interactions between brands and their buyers. Verified RCS marketing opens up plenty of new ways to engage customers with conversational messaging, currently on Android, but soon also on iOS devices.

Chat with customers using RCS verified channel

So, how is this goal achieved? Well, central to RBM is the idea of sender identity. In general, you’re more likely to engage with someone you know than a complete stranger. The same goes for business messaging. The better you display your identity, the more credible you appear, and there’s no sales without trust.

💡 That’s why the ecosystem that supports RCS use puts much emphasis on verifying sender identity before making all the rich media features, including the brand name or image carousels, available to you.

This authentication comes in to play a particularly important role, as the information being transferred between businesses and customers may be of sensitive nature. RCS providers take extra steps to ensure that the communication takes place in an exceptionally safe environment to protect companies and customers alike.

What is a verified sender identity?

In order for you to take full advantage of what RCS Business Messaging offers, your brand needs to undergo the essential RBM sender verification process first.

A verified sender identity involves branding shown at the top of the messaging thread, which is already a major improvement over a bare telephone number. Then, you also have a sort of a business card accessible upon clicking the logo, showing a set of your company information.

How do you get started with RCS message verification?

An important aspect differentiating RCS Business Messaging from using SMS for B2C communication is that a company doesn’t have to purchase a long number or a short code in order to launch its campaigns. 

💡 Instead, a Verification Authority, a specialized messaging service provider like MessageFlow, facilitates the creation of your RCS business profile, confirms its authenticity, and registers it on your behalf with mobile carriers. The goal is to verify whether specific attributes like the name and logo can indeed be associated with the party that intends to use them.

The bar at the top of the screen showing the sender's logo and name should also contain a shield icon on the right hand side, which upon clicking will show additional confirmation that the sender has been verified by a specific mobile carrier.

Once the process is complete and it’s been established that you’re entitled to be using the reported information, you can start running tests to preapproved devices before actually messaging customers with the brand logo at the top, name, and other corporate information available in the messaging thread. 

This newly created profile of yours is called a Brand Chatbot (also known as Universal Profile) and its goal, aside from offering multiple ways to interact with customers, is to make you more trustworthy and render the communication more secure. Think of it as if it was a representative in a specific customer-facing program you run.

The Brand Chatbot communicates with end-users via messages, events, and action requests, employing rich cards, audio and visual format, and suggestions to steer the conversation with a user towards meeting their need, as well as achieving your business objective.

Create a Brand Chatbot to boost customer engagement

Here’s a simple, step by step breakdown of how an RCS Brand Chatbot actually works, once the sender verification process has been completed and all necessary preparations, including defining the bot’s capabilities, creating message templates, and setting up triggers  have been made.

1. An external, preset trigger event or condition activates the Brand Chatbot. It then sends the first template message to the device, usually introducing itself, providing essential information, or prompting further action.

2. Once this trigger message has been delivered, the recipient can respond to it, starting a conversation that may involve the extraction of more information, getting answers to questions, exploring available options, or escalating to a human agent, if necessary.

3. The entire chat takes place in the default text messaging app already installed on the recipient's RCS-enabled device. The end-user conveniently doesn’t have to take any additional steps in order to enjoy the benefits of RBM.

Now, here’s a sample scenario to help you understand how the use of a Brand Chatbot looks like in the ecommerce context.

API trigger

A customer has just made a purchase online (external trigger).

Flow to build customer trust

1. Order confirmation:

• Trigger event: The customer completes their purchase.

• Brand Chatbot: Sends an initial template message.

• Message: "Hi! Thank you for your purchase. Your order #12345 has been confirmed. You can track your order, ask for support, or browse more items."

2. Order tracking:

• Customer's response: The customer replies with "Track order."

• Brand Chatbot: Provides tracking information.

• Message: "Your order #12345 is currently being processed. Expected delivery date: July 15. Track your shipment here. Would you like updates via RCS?"

3. Customer support:

• Customer's response: The customer replies with "Yes" for updates.

• Brand Chatbot: Acknowledges and sets up update notifications.

• Message: "Great! We’ll keep you posted with regular updates. Is there anything else you need help with? Reply with '1' for order status, '2' for product inquiries, '3' for returns and exchanges."

4. Product inquiry:

• Customer's response: The customer replies with "2."

• Brand Chatbot: Engages in a product inquiry conversation.

• Message: "What would you like to know about our products? Reply with 'A' for sizing info, 'B' for material details, 'C' for care instructions, or type your question."

5. Shipping update:

• Automated update: On the day of shipping, the Brand Chatbot sends an automated message.

• Message: "Good news! Your order #12345 has been shipped and is on its way. You can track it here. Expected delivery: July 15. Need more assistance? Reply 'Help'."

6. Customer Satisfaction:

• Post-delivery: After the order is delivered, the Brand Chatbot follows up.

• Message: "Hi! We hope you’re enjoying your new items. We'd love your feedback. Reply with 'Feedback' to share your experience.”

Get started with RCS sender verification 

RCS Business Messaging is a powerful, innovative, and multi-faced communication channel providing an environment for brands to engage and interact with their customers in a truly meaningful way. It creates a much richer experience compared to traditional texting, improves conversion, and helps build customer loyalty by being a highly secure and trustworthy means of communication.

As a Verification Authority, closely working with and trusted by mobile operators worldwide, MessageFlow is capable of assisting you through the crucial process of sender authentication and creation of your Brand Chatbot.

Contact us to inquire about the process and set up RCS advanced messaging trial campaigns that will help you familiarize with this new channel and eventually reach your audiences in new, exciting ways.