The RCS Agent for customer care, built by Kirusa, is the first such bot launched anywhere in Africa, enabling 9mobilesubscribers in Nigeria to get customer support via RCS
9mobile, a leading telecom operator inNigeria, today announced the launch of the first customer care service over RCS (Rich Communication Services) in Africa. RCS is the evolution of SMS, offering interactive and engaging capabilities for Android users. With this launch, 9mobile subscribers will experience an innovative and personalised customer care service that will provide support and deliver important notifications on RCS. For example, subscribers can check airtime balance, data balance and details of previous transactions through the RCS bot, which will share instant responses for the queries asked.
Touted as the next-generation native messaging evolution, RCS is an update to SMS, offering features for enhanced smartphone messaging such as high-resolution photo and video sharing, location sharing, group chats, read receipts, etc., all of which were not available on SMS.
9mobile is the first operator in Nigeria to launch RCS, and the first operator in Africa to provide customer care using an RCS bot. This launch not only transforms the user experience for enhanced customer care support; but also exemplifies how different 9mobile services can offer improved user experiences in the future using RCS.
Consumers are looking for efficient, convenient, prompt and helpful customer care service for the resolution of their queries and issues, and RCS is a perfect channel to deliver the same.
The rich media, buttons and suggested response capabilities of RCS Business Messaging enables 9mobile to provide an interactive conversational user interface, with quick and immediate responses for common queries or issues faced by subscribers, all from within the standard built-in messaging app already on the phone of the subscribers. Also, unlike live customer support centres operating within limited time schedules, customer care over RCS is available 24×7.
Bola Afuye, Head, Digital Media, 9mobile said, “We launched RCS last month, and it is only natural that we move our own services, including customer care, to utilize the power of this new messaging channel. Kirusa has been a very supportive and competent partner to help us deliver on our RCS vision.”
Akinwale Goodluck, Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at the GSMA said, “Mobile operators around the world are offering RCS messaging services based on open industry specifications.
We are committed to fostering rich partnerships for the delivery of digital services for consumers and businesses. We encourage the realization of these partnerships across the region, connecting everything and everyone to a better future.”
“We are delighted to have had the opportunity to help 9mobile to create the first RCS bot for customer care in Africa. Providing customer care service through RCS empowers 9mobile to innovate and lead the way for introducing the latest technologies for improving user’s experience and overall satisfaction with 9mobile,” said Inderpal Singh Mumick, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Kirusa.
The customer care bot, named my9mobile, is built by Kirusa, a global leader in messaging and voice solutions over data networks, using its Kirusa Konnect™ platform. 9mobile expects to continually add new features and further enhance the my9mobile bot, as well as provide highly personalised conversations using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Along with these benefits, it will also help reduce the overall costs for 9mobile by significantly bringing down labour, IT and operational costs.
