9mobile Launches Customer Care on RCS, Transforming How Users Communicate with 9mobile
The RCS Agent for customer care, built by Kirusa, is the first such bot launched anywhere in Africa, enabling 9mobile subscribers in Nigeria to get customer support via RCS.
LAGOS, Nigeria and CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Lagos, Nigeria and AfricaCom, Cape Town, South Africa, November 15, 2019: 9mobile, a leading telecom operator in Nigeria, 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 24x7.
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.
About 9mobile
Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS), trading as '9mobile', is a Nigerian private limited liability company licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to provide a broad range of telecommunication services including voice and data services across the country. Formerly trading as Etisalat Nigeria, 9mobile commenced commercial operations in October 2008.
In our over 11 years of operations, 9mobile has established a reputation for best-in-class Quality of Service (QoS), innovation and exceptional customer experience among mobile network operators (MNOs) in Nigeria. 9mobile has been at the forefront of technological innovations including high definition voice enhancements and digital business solutions. At 9mobile, innovation is not just a buzz word; it's about how we make people's lives more meaningful and devise new ways to solve existing problems. As an environmentally responsible brand, our Environmental Management System (EMS) was certified to ISO 14001:2004 Standard in the first quarter of 2017, making 9mobile the first (MNO) to achieve this certification in Nigeria.
In July 2017, we launched our new brand identity – 9mobile, reflecting the bold and creative attributes we share with our valued subscribers especially the vibrant youth segment. Our new name represents our authentic Nigerian heritage, Afro-centricity, and our evolution over a decade of operations. For more information, visit http://www.9mobile.com.ng.
About the GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators and nearly 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces the industry-leading MWC events held annually in Barcelona, Los Angeles and Shanghai, as well as the Mobile 360 Series of regional conferences.
For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at http://www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.
About Kirusa
Kirusa is reimagining messaging and voice in the data era. Embracing the paradigm shift in enterprise messaging, we are helping enterprises plan and implement IP messaging strategies that create exciting possibilities for customer engagement. Kirusa's technology and connectivity to OTT messaging platforms and RCS providers and carriers, including Google, enables enterprises to build and deploy chatbots. Enterprises can use these chatbots to have conversations with their customers with rich media, natural language processing, and machine learning, over OTT messaging apps, and the built-in Android messages app using RCS. Our solutions include Kirusa Konnect™, an omnichannel Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) for enterprises that helps bolster brand-customer engagement with chatbots, IP messaging, SMS and voice; InstaVoice®, a unique call completion solution that provides visual voicemails and missed calls, and helps mobile carriers monetize missed calls in their networks; InstaVoice ReachMe, a smartphone app using voice over data to provide inexpensive voice roaming and virtual numbers; and Kirusa Channels, a platform that allows fans to connect with their favorite celebrities. Thousands of enterprises and over a hundred million users benefit from our solutions. We have partnerships with over fifty mobile carriers and are also a Jibe Messaging partner. Kirusa's solutions are built on its patented technology and highly reliable, scalable multimodal and cloud platforms, which manage over 3 billion transactions and over 100 million active users every month. Headquartered in New Jersey and led by an experienced team of mobile technologists, Kirusa has offices in three continents. For more information, visit http://www.kirusa.com.
SOURCE Kirusa
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