RCS Bot Review: UN75
Tags: 2020, Chatbots, Surveys, UN, Pandemic

UN75 Inviting Everyone, Everywhere To Participate in a Global Conversation Through RCS

A rich and interactive way to gather insights on the most tackling issues around the globe.

2020 has witnessed a significant decline in our global economy as the COVID-19 has reshaped the way we operate on a daily basis.

In response to this, The United Nations in partnership with Vodafone, the world’s leading telecommunication company, has launched a chatbot named UN75 on Rich Communication Service (RCS) channel, to facilitate awareness and understanding of socio-economic issues across the globe.

The launch also extends to celebrate the United Nation’s 75th anniversary with a mission to provide a platform for the voices to be heard and strive to build a better world for all.

This review will shed light on the features of UN75 RCS Chatbot.

What is UN75 RCS Bot?

UN75, an RCS bot for the United Nations, to gather opinions from the public on what socio-economic changes they would like to see in the world. UN75 bot redirects the users to one — minute survey which is created by the UN75 team in collaboration with the SDG Action Campaign (sdgactioncampaign.org/) and is part of the UN Development Program. The results of this survey has been presented to world leaders for review, and the final report will be published in January 2021 focusing on the best steps to tackle the challenges.

The purpose of this RCS enabled bot is two-fold. Firstly, initiate engagement by allowing users across the globe to participate in a survey. Secondly, raise awareness about the current socio-economic situation amongst the decision makers, and enable the common people to bring in their ideas and be the drivers of change.

Country and Carrier Support

Vodafone subscribers in the following countries can opt-in to the UN75 survey:- Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and UK.

How to use UN75?

● Vodafone subscribers in the above mentioned countries can search for “UN75” in the chatbot directory in the Samsung Messages app, and click on the message icon.

● Search for “UN75” at www.dotgo.com, type “UN75” in the search bar and view details about the UN75 bot.

What makes UN75 different?

UN75 bot is one of the first bots to be made popular by the Vodafone RCS directory. This bot is seen to be a one-stop solution to gather information on global issues and get any queries answered in a highly conservational setup. The topics covered are — climate change, poverty, malnutrition, healthcare, etc.

Easy to Find:

UN75 Bot is available on Client Directory in the Samsung Messages app. The discovery is a simple two-step process — first, search for the bot in their message search box. Second, once the users find the bot, they can initiate a trigger to connect using the ‘Connect-Me’ button feature of the Samsung Messages app (The messages icon). The following screenshots show the UN75 bot appearing in the Client Directory in the Samsung Messages app, and how a user may connect with the UN75 bot from the Samsung Messages app.

UN75 chatbot can be searched and accessed on Samsung Messages App

Rich and Interactive:

The use of rich media elements such as images and videos makes this bot highly engaging and informative. The use of suggested replies feature is an added advantage as it helps funnel user interest and provides desired information faster. The entire bot is based on the foundation of revolutionizing two-way communication where the users can simply tap on the suggested response, and the bot will reply back a message promptly.

Suggested replies which can be responded with a tap

Offerings:

This bot aims to not only to do a survey of users but also to educate people on the global issues we are experiencing today. To enable this, the bot has suggested replies such as ‘Why Me’ which gives the user more information about the issues. This helps create awareness amongst the users before they take the survey.

‘Why Me’ suggested reply on UN75 RCS Bot

Our Verdict:

Usability: 4.5/5

The search navigation is pretty straightforward, and the bot can be searched in multiple ways such as by typing the name of the bot on Samsung Messages App, or Dotgo Website. The use of P2A triggers inside the Messages App makes it easier for the users to start the conversation.

Design: 5/5

The UI of the bot is interactive and has a conversational flow to it. The bot is rich with videos and carousel images which not only makes the bot attractive, but also helps sustain the user’s attention to learn more about the initiative, and therefore, participate in the survey.

Performance: 5/5

As per an early analysis done by Vodafone, the bot has shown an average engagement rate of more than 6% and has 3% Click-Through-Rate (CTR) on the survey link. Using RCS and its functionalities such as suggested replies have made the interaction quicker and exemplified the user experience which could be the reason for recording a high engagement rate.

Availability: 2.5/5

UN75, along with Vodafone, in its first launch made the bot available in seven European countries: Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the UK. The chatbot needs to be made available in more countries, as the survey intends to invite and gather insights from over a million people across different parts of the world.

Functionality: 3.5/5

The purpose of UN75 bot is to educate people about ongoing global issues in a conversational set-up — encouraging users to share their voice by participating in a survey. However, it doesn’t allow the users to take the survey within the bot and instead redirects them to an external website to fill up the survey form. The longer user journey might refrain them in completing the action, in this case, filling up the form.

Summary:

UN75 is designed to make the voice of people from different walks of life count, and launching an RCS bot provides a great advantage to engage with users in a rich and interactive way. From a design and performance point of view, it does the job pretty well. However, the availability of the bot is a key issue. This can be resolved if the UN makes the chatbot available on other network to increase its reach.

To conclude, it is a great use case for RCS showcasing how to engage in a conversational dialogue with large audiences in a quick and easy way — and we believe that this initiative by the United Nations and Vodafone will help make RCS more popular across different parts of the world.