Table of Contents
This week’s log is about what your phone number reveals in an RCS chat. You can skip ahead and scan the QR code to try it. Or, read on.
TL;DR
After scanning the QR code, a keyword will appear on your phone’s screen. Press whatever the Send button looks like on your phone, and you’ll start a three-stage data card sequence that shows your history with the agent. All the first-party data (links you clicked) and the zero-party data (actions you selected) will be sent as data cards.
It may look like a simple customer interaction summary, but it’s actually a three-stage progressive disclosure system built around your phone number:
- Stage 1: Overview card with engagement stats
- Stage 2: Detailed analytics, including life cycle and behavior score
- Stage 3: Timeline visualization
Each stage is a separate image. Navigation happens through postbacks like “Get More Details” or “View Timeline.” No text, no tap-through links, just RCS buttons and cards. No polish. Deeply nerdy. But, isn’t that the point?
Lesson Learned
In SMS, you were lucky if you could get a reliable delivery receipt. In RCS, you don’t just get delivery and read receipts but also which URLs were clicked and which action was pressed. In fact, the channel is more revealing than email. The real question is do we know how to use it?
What’s Next:
Subscribe to the RCS version of the newsletter to keep up with what I experiment with next. I might even wade into the iOS v. Android debate!
RCS Builder’s Log is my running series of notes, takeaways, and experiments from building and deploying RCS in the wild.
Read other entries here.