Summary

Chronopost had two main goals for communicating with package recipients: They wanted to deliver a seamless customer experience, and save on costs by increasing their first-attempt deliveries. In the past, the company had used a combination of SMS messages and emails to contact recipients about deliveries; in mid-2019, they added RCS Business Messaging to their mobile communication channels. This served as a unified channel for sharing delivery information and chatting with a support chatbot–and it also drove more first-attempt deliveries and a 50-percent increase in mobile interactions compared to SMS.

The Goals

When Chronopost makes a delivery on the first attempt, their senders and recipients have a better shipping experience, and the company lowers costs through time savings and increased operational efficiencies. In the past, Chronopost used a combination of SMS and email to inform recipients about a delivery, but recipients couldn’t respond to these channels, and instead had to visit Chronopost’s site to interact with the company’s web-based chatbot to resolve any issues. With the goal of streamlining the customer experience and better integrating their chatbot into their support channels, in mid-2019, Chronopost hired mobile solutions provider Wizy to implement RCS Business Messaging for mobile shipping notifications.

The Approach

Now, when a package recipient has an RCS Business Messaging-capable phone, they receive shipping notifications through email and the Messages app on Android. These notifications include not only the delivery details for their package, but an option to start a chat with Chronopost’s chatbot. And because the chatbot already knows which package the recipient is referring to, there’s no need for the recipient to look up or type in tracking details. “Because the message carries tracking information in it, it’s very easy to talk to the chatbot. You don't have to tell it, ‘I'm looking for package number XYZ.’ You just say, ‘Where’s my package?’” says Grégoire Perret, Director of Information Systems at Chronopost.

The Results

RCS Business Messaging has massively improved customer engagement. The messages have driven a 50-percent increase in interactions compared to SMS, which leads to higher recipient satisfaction levels, more first-attempt deliveries, and lower operating costs for Chronopost. “When you work in operations—and you want people to open your messages as soon as possible, the Messages app is a great vehicle to get people’s attention,” says Perret.

In the future, Chronopost hopes to make their RCS Business messaging notifications more interactive by integrating their chatbot more deeply into their messages. Perret shares, “For us, the business impact is amplified when we can not only share delivery information, but also allow for more interaction between Chronopost and the recipient. While most of our business is in the physical and non-digital world, we still want to innovate as much as possible, and RCS Business Messaging is one of the ways we’re doing this.”