Google Business Messaging
There are more than 2.21 Trillion Business SMS sent on Google Business Messaging, and this is 30% of all the SMS traffic. Although SMS is a 25 year old technology, it is still effective and one of the easiest ways to communicate and reach out to people. Since everyone around us has a smartphone, businesses can reach out to people, provided they have their contact numbers.
SMS are generally limited to 160 characters and businesses have to be quite strategic about
their SMS content. A lot of money is invested in the company’s logo, branding, but all this is
irrelevant when it comes to a business SMS. They need to be on point with this limited
interaction and convey their message with no branding, logo, identity, or media.
In most cases, the business SMS is just a one-way communication that customers ignore or
consider spam. But this has to be improved.
People have the habit of searching for customer care numbers on Google and directly clicking on the call button. But, only 3% of the customers are satisfied with their over the call customer care experience. This may be due to a lack of sufficient customer care agents mixed with high volume calls.
Most people prefer texting over phone calls, which is why social media is quite popular at the moment. So what if businesses or customers could interact with each other over more than just texts?
Hence, Google came up with Rich Business Messaging where businesses and customers can
interact via rich texts. Let’s have a look at Google RBM and it’s features.
Google Rich Business Messaging Rich Communication Services (or RCS) Business Messaging (RBM) is a modern form of a messaging service invented by Google to benefit businesses. It can be accessed from an installed app on your smartphone but provides a much better experience than SMS.
Via the Google RBM, businesses can send rich cards to the customers that contain:
● Richer media - images, videos, and GIDs.
● Trusted Branding - logo and name of the business.
● Easy to use QR codes
● Suggested Replies - suggested replies customized by brands.
● Time-Saving Actions - URL, Maps, Calendar, and Dialer integration.
All this makes it much more interactive and efficient than simple SMS.
Every decade, there is a shift in computing, and currently, it is focussed on AI/Assistants or
Conversation.
The RBM agents are a mix of Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Conversational AI. Various bots can be developed and integrated for businesses to interact with their customers. These
chatbots can respond to simple queries, texts, or suggested replies. But, if you integrate an NLP model and dialogue flow, users can interact with the bot and get tasks done.
Business Messages by Google Businesses spend $1.3 Trillion on 264 billion customer calls every year, and 60 - 80 % of this traffic is from Google search. People search for businesses on Google and click on the call button to reach out to them.
But, with Business Messages by Google, customers can click on the message button and chat with a bot or live agent directly. This is a P2A or Person to Application platform, where the users can initiate a conversation directly from the search or Maps with the business.
Chatbots can be integrated into this platform with various APIs such as Google Translate so that it can handle users who speak languages other than English.
This was launched primarily in the UK, France, Mexico, and the USA. However, the wide use of this platform depends on various factors such as network carriers and telecom companies.
Final Thoughts Businesses Messages is a conversational medium that combines Google search, Maps, and brand websites that help customers to better interact with businesses. Instead of directly ringing up the business, you can chat with them and have your queries answered.
Google RBM is a platform that businesses use to reach out to their customers. This is an
alternative to business SMS sent over regular messaging services as it can contain rich media, QR codes, and various app integrations.
In both platforms, the live agent or chatbots are used for conversation. Initially, the customer
may interact with a chatbot, and the live agent may take over later.
These are quite effective ways for businesses and consumers to interact, and it also eliminates various telecom and customer care service costs.