Telekom Deutschland, one of the largest mobile network operators in Germany, has expanded its partnership with global communication provider Infobip, using its Rich Communications Service (RCS) offering to create dynamic marketing campaigns and stronger cross-sell opportunities. Traditionally, Telekom has relied on SMS to communicate with existing customers, but this was resulting in declining engagement and conversion rates. The telco provider came to Infobip looking for a fresh way to cross-sell and announce a free trial with its audio streaming partner, using a marketing campaign that would both inform customers about the latest offer and initiate the conversion.
Telekom already had RCS enabled, which is where Infobip came in, using its omnichannel engagement and customer service platform to create an end-to-end customer engagement journey. Customers were sent a branded, eye-catching message consisting of rich media carousels and CTA buttons to their SMS inbox. If a customer engaged with the message, inquiries were directed straight to the customer service team, where agents were empowered with a single view of the customer’s interaction.
“It was great to work alongside Infobip right from the implementation process to ensure the creation of a rich media marketing campaign that would engage customers and convert them into audio streamers. The team at Infobip understood the campaign objectives, so pairing this with their unrivaled technical expertise, meant we could use RCS business messaging to communicate with customers the same way we would interact with friends,“ said Thomas Welzel, Senior Proposition Manager for Messaging at Deutsche Telekom.
Telekom’s customer base with RCS enabled on smartphones is approaching 50%, giving it a competitive advantage over other native rich messaging channels. The RCS campaign performed two times better than the traditional SMS campaign that ran at the same time, resulting in more customers engaging with the chatbot and subscribing to online music streaming services. A second iteration of the campaign, with improvements in messaging and campaign flow, ensured further success, with a +26% higher open rate and a +66% higher engagement rate.
“Our RCS solution combines the power of SMS with the richness of mobile apps and the interactivity of messaging apps. This combination of technology and creativity meant we could help Telekom deliver an exciting, conversational customer experience that would not only meet business objectives but surpass them. Thanks to the successful rollout of this campaign, the operator is looking to drive RCS channel adoption for the wider German market,“ said Rafal Nowak, Senior Operator Partnerships Executive at Infobip.
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