RCS for restaurants lets brands send interactive, branded messages that let guests browse offers, get directions, book a table and place an order without ever leaving their native messaging app. Watch the Vibes restaurant agent below.
Vibes builds and runs verified RCS restaurant agents for multi-location and enterprise restaurant brands across the US, with RCS driving up to 30% more revenue per message than SMS. Four examples of how restaurants use RCS marketing include: promoting offers guests can save straight to their digital wallet, one-tap location actions, reservations, and in-message ordering.
I'm Mara Miller, the Director of Marketing at Vibes. In the demo above, I walk through how RCS messaging for restaurants works and where it drives the most value for restaurant brands.
RCS stands for rich communication services - a new messaging protocol like SMS and MMS, but with many more interactive features, and a more exciting visual experience overall.
RCS business messaging looks and feels like an actual conversation between you and your guests, providing you with even more opportunities to showcase your brand voice and create engaging, memorable customer experiences.
At Vibes, we’re committed to paving the way for RCS adoption in the U.S. We’re focusing on testing and learning about the efficacy of this emerging channel, and working closely with our customers to set up agents to then validate some of the use cases that are proving to drive the most value.
Here is a set of rich cards, called a carousel, that guests can scroll through inside a verified RCS restaurant agent.
Unlike an SMS or MMS where your guests must click a link to get more details, RCS allows you to include product images coupled with relevant information about the items like ingredients and offer details. The visual elements make it more enticing to interact with and serve as helpful reminders of the available offers, mirroring what your guests are more familiar with experiencing directly on your website or in your mobile app. And, the suggested action buttons make it super easy for your guests to take the next step to add the offers they want to their digital wallet on their phone.
The interactive, conversational nature of RCS provides a superior consumer experience that consumers expect from a mobile app today, but this experience is through the messaging app they already have and use – no additional downloads required.
A key benefit for brands is that, since RCS is built into smartphones via the native messaging app, the development resources you need to support a mobile app are no longer required, enabling you to focus on other aspects of your business while having this engaging channel at your fingertips.
"Share your location" is one of several built-in suggested action buttons that RCS offers.
Another example is ‘View a location’, which is integrated with the phone’s maps application making it easy for guests to get directions to the location they’ve chosen to pick up from or eat at.
There’s also ‘Dial a number’, which is nice in case a guest has a question about the restaurant’s menu or their existing order or reservation.
‘Add to calendar’ is another option, which makes it easy for guests to add their upcoming reservation to their calendar. It’s also a good action to consider if you’re having a grand opening of a new location or an onsite event.
RCS for restaurant reservations improves the customer servicing experience by keeping guest-driven actions inside the message thread, rather than redirecting to a separate app the way restaurants typically do today.
Restaurants can opt to use RCS to help solve issues faster for things like updating an existing reservation or checking on an order status.
The online ordering process seen here demonstrates the transformation of what RCS can do for your guests. Similar to the experience of browsing available offers, this is another example of how RCS merges key features from SMS, MMS and mobile apps into a unified channel experience.
From the eye-catching images to the suggested reply buttons that replace someone typing out their responses this results in a more streamlined communication experience that keeps your guests highly engaged.
Ready to launch RCS for restaurants with a verified agent of your own? Get in touch with us today!
RCS marketing looks and feels like an actual conversation between restaurants and guests, providing you with an abundance of opportunities to create engaging, memorable experiences for your guests. From creating and managing an existing reservation to order status, it offers improved issue resolution without redirecting to a separate app or web browser, reducing the friction that keeps guests from engaging or purchasing.
The best RCS use cases for restaurants includes but is not limited to:
There are several key features RCS offers that elevates the guest experience in ways SMS cannot, such as:
No, there is no app download required to use RCS. It brings an elevated messaging experience to life in ways typically found in a separate messaging app like WhatsApp, but is natively available directly within a smartphone's messaging app.
There are several steps a restaurant brand must follow, including submitting an RCS agent request, getting your brand vetted and verified with a 3rd party, and obtaining wireless carrier approvals. As a Tier 1 aggregator, brands working with Vibes' RCS platform are able to get their agents launched in market much faster than those working with non-Tier 1 aggregators. Vibes can have you up and testing your RCS agent within 24 hours.
