Why BUT sends millions of RCS messages with Sinch

When Sinch introduced us to RCS, we didn’t hesitate. We regularly turn to them for insights on emerging trends and new technology to test. In just two years, we have sent millions of RCS messages to our customers.

Morgane Huiban CRM Manager at BUT

As one of France’s leading furniture retailers, BUT has a unique advantage: 80% of the French population lives within 20 minutes of a store.

Even with this proximity to stylish, affordable furniture, customers start shopping well before they pass by a store.

“We have to keep up with what customers expect,” said Morgane Huiban, BUT’s CRM Manager. “They want smooth, personalized, and engaging experiences, whether they’re online or in-store.”

For more than 10 years, Sinch has helped BUT create omnichannel messaging experiences that drive sales and customer loyalty. In 2023, they introduced BUT to a new and even more engaging way to reach customers — Rich Communication Services (RCS).

“When Sinch introduced us to RCS, we didn’t hesitate,” Morgane said. “We regularly turn to Sinch for insights on emerging trends and new technology to test.”

With RCS for Business, BUT can send rich media elements like images, GIFs, and carousels directly in customers’ native text messaging inboxes. Plus, having call-to-action (CTA) buttons in the conversation makes it easier to engage with offers.

Every quarter, BUT sends CRM campaign briefs to Sinch with their objectives and success metrics. Sinch then develops the landing page design and animation strategy, with concrete solutions and mockups for RCS, Rich SMS, WhatsApp, and other channels.

BUT’s first RCS campaign reached achieved a 10% click-through rate — three times higher than their average SMS campaigns. The campaign was so successful that they decided to use RCS for other campaigns.

For three years, BUT promoted its “100% Refunded” campaign, which offered deferred purchase vouchers on select products, via Rich SMS.

But with Rich SMS’s 160-character limit, they had trouble conveying the offer in a clear way, and the campaign’s engagement fell short of expectations. This time, Sinch recommended A/B testing Rich SMS and RCS.

Customers with RCS-enabled devices received a message with an eye-catching GIF, a detailed explanation of the offer, and a CTA button inviting shoppers to view eligible products.

BUT sent a shorted version of the offer via Rich SMS to the rest of its customers. They added a virtual scratch card to the landing page to provide the Rich SMS customers with an interactive experience as well.

The RCS message generated:

• 73% read rate

• 13.5% click-through rate (1.8x higher than Rich SMS)

• €61,000 in additional revenue (3x higher year-over-year)

In all, the campaign generated 4.5 times more revenue than the previous year’s Rich SMS campaign.

“Having the CTA directly in the channel is what made the campaign so successful,” said Marie Rommi, Sinch’s Executive Account Manager. “It was much clearer than the Rich SMS campaign the year before, which was only 160 characters.”

For holiday promotions, BUT wanted to stand out in customers’ inboxes with highly-personalized product recommendations.

Marie knows that Morgane and her team are always ready to test new channels and strategies, so she recommended a conversational RCS campaign.

“They want to push the right products to the right customers, so it was the perfect time to try chatbots.” Marie said.

So BUT added a chatbot directly into their RCS campaign with Sinch’s Chatlayer product. Customers received an RCS message inviting them to share their favorite colors, style, and budget. The chatbot used this information to select products tailored to the customers’ preferences.

Unlike most chatbot experiences, this one only needed to ask one question to assess the customers’ needs. This increased the likelihood that customers would complete the experience and click-through to the recommended products.

The campaign generated €82,000 in additional revenue, along with a 69% read rate and a 9% start rate.

It only took a few campaigns to prove RCS’s ability to drive more sales, and they scaled to a new campaign every two weeks.

“Today, we can confidently say that RCS is an integral part of our CRM strategy,” Morgane said. “In just two years, we have sent millions of RCS messages to our customers. With Sinch, we are not following the trends, we are creating them.”