Summary

Mexican communications and entertainment company Totalplay worked with partner Auronix to create Cobranza RS (Collection), a personal, on-brand, interactive campaign to drive engagement and bill payment collections through RCS Business Messaging.

The Challenge

Totalplay wanted to increase the amounts collected for TV and Internet subscribers with almost-due or past-due accounts. Their standard collections process involved sending over one million SMS text messages to their customers each month. Given the low SMS engagement rates and lack of read receipts, Totalplay would follow up with delinquent accounts by phone, taking up valuable time and resources.

“Our intended strategy is to fully replace phone calls with digital media,” says Mildred Guillén, Totalplay senior manager for debt collection. “We want to differentiate ourselves from the competition while offering our customers innovative and friendly options for selecting their preferred means of payment.”

The Approach

To reach their bill payment collection goals, Totalplay hired technology company Auronix to develop an RCS Business Messaging solution called Cobranza RS. Customers with compatible smartphones could opt in to messaging for monthly reminders about their current balance and due dates. They could take four actions directly in their messages: (1) adding a debit or credit card for automatic payment, (2) paying on the Totalplay website, (3) requesting payment information, or (4) reaching an agent by phone or chat.

Totalplay hoped the rich branded experience offered by RCS would lead to higher engagement and payment rates than SMS. “RCS Business Messaging is more visual and interactive, and customers can respond with a click instead of having to write a message,” Guillén says. “You can give people options to dial, visit our website, or take other actions that just aren’t available with SMS.”

Totalplay began using RCS Business Messaging billing reminders in February 2019. At the beginning of that month, the company started sending messages to customers ten days before their bills were due. Customers received visually different options for paying or for contacting Totalplay’s call center. Later that month, Totalplay rolled out RCS Business Messages to prevent customers from defaulting on the payments and for past-due bills.

The Results

The RCS campaign proved to be effective for driving responses and enhancing the customer experience. Within three months of the campaign rollout, customer response rates increased by 78 percent compared to SMS, and overall bill payment collection rates increased by 65 percent. Guillén sees big things ahead for Totalplay’s use of RCS Business Message and says “We will continue to use RCS and develop more personalized campaigns in the future.”