RCS

Description

Boost your customer engagement thanks to an enriched mobile messaging experience

RCS Business Messaging is the next generation A2P messaging system based on RCS (Rich Communication Services) technology, offering richer and more interactive content to its recipients.

With RCS Business Messaging, offer a new mobile messaging experience to your customers allowing them to increase conversion rates.

For businesses, real-time customer communication needs are constantly changing. Also, new custom messaging options are emerging that are richer, quicker and based on messaging apps. Orange supports you with this business messaging development by offering RCS technology.

RCS Business Messaging is an operator service available directly in the default instant messaging app.

With RCS, messages are enriched (photos, videos, etc.) and allow users to converse directly with their favorite brands via chatbots.

 
RCS Business Messaging offers a customer experience well beyond SMS and allows more dynamic interactions with your customers:

Benefits

For brands

  • Offer a seamless and customizable customer experience with enriched services (photos, video, location)

 

  • Choose a channel with record opening rates (98%), consulted several times a day when others are only consulted once a month

 

  • Enrich your RCS customer relations through transactional uses (making appointments, tracking parcels) or surveys

 

  • Develop your conversational marketing in the best ecosystem for brands

For the user

  • Interact in real time with favourite brands

 

  • Establish a direct and personalized relationship

 

  • Use a unique multimedia communications channel

How RCS helps you stay in contact with your customers

Orange is with you

If you want to receive advice on deploying RCS Business Messaging from one of our experts, please contact our sales department directly: Pay Services Sales Contact

Find a partner

To help integrate RCS in your IT system, Orange offers a list of approved partners able to support you with your communication projects and offer a comprehensive Business Messaging approach: advice, development, hosting, and connection to mobile operator networks.
 

Example use

Single message

RCS Business Messaging allows brands to communicate better with their customers through conversations, enriched features and chatbots.

How can RCS help you to develop your business? Marketing

Marketing

 

Deliver interactive promotional campaigns that allow your customers to discover new products and services.

RCS messages offer personalized interactions that considerably increase return rates :

  • sending sophisticated content that captures attention
  • producting data
  • optimal customer journey that generates a better ROI
  • use of drive to store on the BotHub interface.
 
 

Customer service

Effectively Manage the customer relationship with your users without saturating your telephone helplines.

RCS allows you to benefit from direct and automated interactions with customer service:

  • real-time chat
  • making/changing appointments
  • automating unpaid bill reminders with payment link
  • FAQ.

Business development

Communicate easily with your customers
and prospects thanks to the CTA to encourage customer engagement and form brand relationships.

RCS messaging helps contribute by using enriched content interactions:

  • carousels with images, videos, and maps
  • quick response buttons
  • read receipts
  • document sharing.

Pricing structure

Orange’s RCS Business Messaging offer is based on a pricing structure depending on the type of message used:

  • single message (enriched),
  • conversation (session)

Single message

The initial message sent to the User, by the Partner, and on behalf of the Sender.
The costs of a Single Message calculated per message. The Sender is billed based on the number of messages sent.

The conversation

A “Conversation” session is a series of messages between a Sender and a User if the user responds to an A2P message within 24 hours. It lasts a maximum of 24 hours, and the number of messages exchanged between the Sender and the User during this period is unlimited.

The costs of a Conversation include the Single Message. So, the Sender is not billed separately for the Single Message.
If the User does not respond to the Single Message sent by the Sender within 24 hours, this message is billed at the cost of a Single Message.
 
>>> All details about offer billing are available in Annex 1:RCS Business Messaging pricing list.

The Conversation takes place as follows:

  1. The Sender sends the first message to the User
  2. The Conversation starts if the User responds to this Single Message
  3. The Conversation expires within 24 hours after the User’s first respons

Sign up to RCS

RCS is a service only offered to stakeholders able to operate mobile number routing depending on the operator.

To benefit from RCS technology and enrich your professional communications thanks to enriched instant messaging, you must connect to the GSMA API implemented and deployed by Orange.

To sing up for RCS, you must:

  1. Sign the Orange RCS Business Messaging contract electronically
  2. Create an account on the Orange Developper site
  3. Sign up to the Orange RCS BotHub API (GSMA standard)
  4. Interconnect with BotHub
  5. Connect to the Onboarding portal then save their chatbot

Orange is with you

If you want to receive advice on deploying RCS Business Messaging from one of our experts, please contact our sales department directly: Pay Services Sales Contact

 Technical support

To organize integration of the RCS Business Messaging solution and help you to implement the service, Orange offers a technical support line.
Please contact our Assistance (English spoken only) for all questions relating to:

What is onboarding ?

Onboarding is a general process that allows Orange, aggregators, and brands to save and administer their Android Messages chatbots within the RCS A2P ecosystem. As part of the Orange RCS offer, we offer a platform allowing you to:
  • log in,
  • save bots in the Orange infrastructure,
  • manage bots (change color, logo, description, category, bot activation/deactivation)
For each of your bots, an enrollment procedure is required with the 3 French operators.
 

How do I create a new Bot ?

  1. Sign in to  the Onboarding d’Orange platform and click on "Register a bot"
  2. Complete the creation form and submit your request to Orange
  3. Orange confirms bot availability
  4. Publish the bot and list it in Orange Bot Directory

FAQ

Yes, the partner must implement the required resources to control the rate during campaigns at 30 messages/second and manage errors received by the Orange Developer (OD) portal and BotHub errors.
A good practice is to wait 1 minute before reusing the GSMA API particularly when receiving error 429.
The list of errors is accessible below :
Yes. The threshold per aggregator means that it is possible to have several different aggregators in parallel and several campaigns per aggregator.
In short, the Orange Developer portal plays the role of an upstream “filter” for BotHub.
We have set the quota at 1,800 messages per minute (30 messages per second) per application, i.e. per aggregator.

Yes, to support the growth in the number of aggregators from 2022 that BotHub will support in 2022.

The partners must agree to implement the ressources required to qualify databases to limit disruption linked to mass messaging of non-Orange users (on the BotHub platform).
The ratio between the number of error messages due to a non-Orange or unknown number and the total number of messages will be observed by Orange.
If this ratio is higher than 15%, Orange reserves the right to temporarily deactivate access to the BotHub GSMA API.
Therefore it is recommended to qualify the database before a campaign (or before using the BotHub GSMA API) via the GIE Portability database and via the RBM "Get Capability" API (https://developers.google.com/business-communications/rcs-business-messaging/guides/build/capabilities).

The “Conversation” corresponds to what we call a 1st MT session (paid). The “Conversation restarted by a user” corresponds to what we call a 1st MO session (free). A “Conversation session” is a “series of messages exchanged between the Sender and User within a maximum of twenty-four (24) hours. This series starts with the first User response following a request Single Message sent by the Sender, provided that this first User response occurs within 24 hours following this Single Message.” excluding conversations restarted by users.

No, you do not pay twice. The MT initiating a user response (which leads to a paid session) is included in the session cost.
As of 10/1/2021, the cost of the “Conversation” is 9.5 cents.

As of 10/1/2021, yes this starts a “Conversation” (9.5 cents).
Currently, Orange is working actively with Google to optimize this billing in the future.