Hello, everyone.
Derek Johnson with tatango.com.
Today, I'm giving you an RCS chatbot demo from SnapTravel.
So, first off, how do you get access to the RCS chatbot directory?
Well, first, you have to have an RCS enabled phone.
So, I have a Samsung device, this is the Galaxy S9.
And then you have to be on the AT&T network.
So, once you are on the AT&T network on an Android Samsung device, all you have to do
is click Messages, and you will have access to the chatbot directory.
And as you can see, the chatbot directory already has some really cool brands: 1-800
Flowers, CNN, Express, Skyscanner, Walgreens, and Warby Parker.
So, really major brands have taken advantage of this new chatbot directory.
Only about, I'd say, 12, a dozen brands currently are in the chatbot directory.
So, look at the real estate that they're giving to the chatbots.
First, you have your conversations.
Most the time this will be friends and family.
I talk to a lot of brands, obviously, because that's my business, but most will be friends
and family intermixed with brands.
So, that's one exposure for chatbots.
Two, is right under your profile, above your friends contacts, you have My chatbots.
That's the second exposure you'll have in the messaging app.
And again, this is not some special messaging app, this is the regular messaging app that
is installed on the regular phone when it comes out of the box.
And then three, is when you click Chatbots you see all of the chatbots here.
So, really cool experience.
But let's talk about SnapTravel.
So, let's find SnapTravel first, down here.
What's really cool is I can add it if I want to to my favorites.
And then just go to Contacts, My chatbots, and then find SnapTravel, and then I'm into
it.
SnapTravel, so you have incentives of kicking you into the conversation with the chatbot.
They have nice branding here with a logo, the name, you can call them if you want.
I can add them, I can remove them from my favorites.
Also, it gives you a little information, maybe people aren't familiar with SnapTravel.
Get 30% to 50% off hotels with exclusive pricing over messaging.
Featured in "The New York Times".
So, kind of cool information and information that I need to know before I click Chat.
So, I'm gonna click Chat.
And this is gonna start the engagement with the chatbot.
So, right off the bat, they're hitting us with the carousel which I think is gonna be
one of the best features of RCS messaging for really everybody, retail, restaurants,
anybody selling anything with multiple products.
As you can see, I'm just swiping left to right.
You can't do this in an email, people.
This is happening right within messaging.
This completely blows SMS and MMS out of the water in terms of the functionality that RCS
has over SMS and MMS.
First off, there's an image, if you click it, it enlarges the image.
You could also put a video behind that if you want or a GIF.
You have the title, you can put emojis in here, and then you have a description.
And then, okay, so these actually they're just using as kind of like information cards,
because usually people are putting links at the bottom down here.
So, let's see, it says, so here's all the stuff you can do and it's kind of cool they
put the little emoji here being like, "Hey, there's stuff over there," and then you scroll.
Okay, "Glad to help you with a new search.
Press search or type in your trip details."
I'm gonna click Search.
So, that goes to the button.
Okay, so, this is going to their mobile website.
So, let's try...so, if I click Search, it goes to their mobile website.
Let's see, Hotel in New York with pool.
Okay, so, "These streets will make you feel brand new.
Where to in NYC?1: NYC2: Brooklyn.
Anything else:" Okay, so, they're missing kind of a paragraph break here, but I think
it's asking, you know, reply 1 or, you know, 2 for these different things.
So, let's try it.
And that's the cool thing about chatbot is you can kind of mess...
Oh, actually that's...it just happened.
So, what they're saying is here and then these just came in a little late.
I bet it's the connection in this room.
These now are buttons.
So, now, we have carousels which are really popular for RCS.
And then secondly, we have buttons.
That's another killer feature for RCS that SMS and MMS just don't have.
So, I'm gonna click, let's do Brooklyn.
And when I click the button, it actually, instead of like going off and doing something,
it's actually creating a message, it's called an MO message, mobile originated, and then
it's sending that message to SnapTravel.
And they're going, okay, in this conversation this person has responded 2: Brooklyn, now
we know what to do and then they're gonna, you know, do some computation stuff on there,
and then send back the results via RCS to my phone.
And it may just be that, you know, I had bad reception right now.
We'll see if we get something.
But what's really interesting about RCS and we'll just kind of wait for a few seconds,
but is if you see at the top, see how it says SnapTravel at the very, very top there?
Usually in messaging, right now with SMS and MMS you have to send messages via a short
code.
A short code is a five to six-digit phone number.
The problem with short codes is 12345 does not usually correlate to, let's say, Macy's
or Chipotle.
Now, instead of putting a short code, you can actually just put the name of the brand
right up in the top left-hand corner.
So, much better branding experience, it's much safer because people know exactly who
it's coming from.
And then on the left-hand side here, you also see that instead of just the faceless icon
for a brand, now you can actually put the brand icon.
And this one is really cool because it's orange, so it really shows up well and it kind of
ties everything together.
So, really cool experience.
Let me see if I can...let's see, with these chatbots you can sometimes kind of, you know,
text Help and then it'll respond back.
This one may not just be working or having issues with connection or something.
Let's see.
Let's do Hotel in Seattle.
Okay.
Select Hotel.
Okay, so, this is just going to the mobile website.
It looks like they're using the chatbot, number one, for exposure because, you know, if you
go to Chatbots, this is all on every Samsung device, SnapTravel's right there with CNN,
Kroger, Walgreens.
This is great exposure for them.
You click SnapTravel, they're collecting some information.
So, let's do, you know, "Hotel in palm springs."
Let's see what happens.
And let's do a new search.
And it's going back to the...it's essentially kicking you to the mobile web every single
time.
Let's see though if we...
So, "Sorry it looks like..." you know, no available...
"Type 'restart' to perform a new search or type 'agent'."
So, this can be interesting.
Let's type agent.
"Please run a search first so our agents can..."
Okay, so, essentially they keep kicking you to the mobile web because they want you to
have the experience that has already been built on the mobile web.
And we're seeing this with a lot of brands.
RCS right now is still, you know, on only a few phones and it's becoming more and more
prevalent, but the option is still low.
So, people and brands are putting out kind of sometimes the MVP or the bare minimum to
get into the chatbot directory.
And then they're kicking people to their mobile website, their app because that's been around
for years, it's fully optimized, they know the experience, they can take payments over
there.
So, we are seeing kind of brands like SnapTravel, you know, integrate some things, make it look
interesting, you know, but then really perform the majority of the functionality on the mobile
web or within the mobile app.
And they're using the RCS chatbots to essentially get new customers and existing customers to
those other channels.
So, interesting.
This is a demo of the RCS chatbot directory, specifically with SnapTravel.
My name is Derek Johnson with tatango.com.
If you have any questions about RCS, SnapTravel, the chatbot directory, or Samsung and AT&T,
let us know in the comments below and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
Thanks for watching this video.