December 24, 2019
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 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 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 www.gsma.com. Follow the
GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.
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 www.kirusa.com.
For further inquiries, please contact
Bukola
Koledoye
9mobile
E-mail:
bukola.koledoye@9mobile.com.ng
Jayna
Parikh
Kirusa
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