Using SMS, RCS and WhatsApp in Omni-Channel Communications

Digital communication using electronic messaging is now part of any originations, customer service, or relationship process. As Brazil experiences rapid growth in digital messaging, with SMS, RCS, and WhatsApp at the forefront, organizations must go beyond simply being present on these channels. The opportunity lies in leveraging advanced decisioning technologies to orchestrate smarter, more contextual customer journeys that reach individuals with the right message, at the right time, and on the right channel.

Update on SMS, WhatsApp and RCS Usage in Brazil

SMS has seen some decline in favor of WhatsApp. However, it remains widely used, with 45% of Brazilians receiving SMS messages daily or almost daily. SMS messages have an open rate of about 98%, typically read within minutes of receipt.

WhatsApp has become a professional communication staple, driving the growth of integrated solutions for all types of customer interactions. Brazil has around 147 million active WhatsApp users, representing 99% of internet-connected Brazilians. Globally, about 100 billion messages are sent daily via WhatsApp. While specific data for Brazil is unavailable, the country is recognized as one of the top users of text and voice messages on the platform.

Approximately 95% of Brazilian companies use WhatsApp for customer communication, leveraging tools like WhatsApp Business and its API for customer support, originations, collections strategy, and fraud prevention.

In 2023, a new tool gained traction: RCS (Rich Communication Services), which grew 16 times compared to the previous year. Nearly 100 million RCS messages were sent in Brazil in 2023, highlighting its growing adoption by businesses. RCS offers enhanced features over SMS, such as images, videos, interactive buttons, and read receipts, providing a richer and more interactive user experience.

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The Role of AI, Analytics, and Optimization in Powering Smarter Communication Across Brazil’s Leading Digital Channels

AI, advanced analytics, and optimization play a critical role in transforming static, one-size-fits-all communication into dynamic, personalized engagement. AI and analytics uncover insights about each customer’s history, preferences, behavior, and risk profile. Optimization uses this intelligence to determine the best timing, tone, channel, and content for the next interaction, whether it’s a payment reminder or fraud alert.

Conversational AI builds on this intelligence by interpreting customer intent, personalizing messages in real time, and enabling dynamic, two-way interactions. This empowers organizations to engage at scale with experiences that are highly personalized, even when fully automated.

With intelligent omni-channel engagement, organizations can seamlessly orchestrate conversations across SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, and beyond, delivering hyper-personalized, consistent interactions that build trust and improve results.

In Brazil’s high-volume, high-expectation market, AI, analytics, and conversational AI are not just enhancements—they are essential for turning digital communication into meaningful business outcomes.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Smart Customer Communication Orchestration

With the rapid expansion of AI, there’s a strategic opportunity to optimize communication channels — both traditional and digital — in a smarter, more contextual way. It’s no longer enough to be present on multiple channels. It’s essential to understand each use case, specific needs, and especially customer preferences. This means moving from generic contact models to highly personalized and coordinated journeys.

Imagine a system that understands each customer’s interaction history, behavior, life stage, and consumption profile — and then makes automatic, accurate decisions about the next step in their journey, whether it’s a message, call, alert, reminder, or strategic pause.

These systems act as the central brain of communication — analyzing real-time data and choosing the best channel, timing, tone, and content for every customer. With intelligent omni-channel capabilities, they enable seamless engagement across any mix of channels, including SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, and more.

When applied to conversational and interactive environments — like chatbots, voice bots, or digital agents — AI becomes even more powerful. It enables natural, guided, contextual conversations that not only respond but solve problems and create memorable experiences.

AI also plays a strategic role in data management and business insights — identifying bottlenecks, predicting behaviors, suggesting improvements, and offering real-time insights for evidence-based decision-making.

The result?

• Better customer service
• Higher operational productivity
• Cost reduction
• And most importantly, more  personal experiences — even in automated interactions

This is the future of customer omni-channel communication: intelligent, sensitive, personalized, and efficient. And it’s already begun.

Using Smart Communication in the Credit Cycle

While communication is strong in originations and customer service, two major areas also heavily rely on digital channels: fraud prevention and debt collections.

FICO® Platform - Omni-Channel Engagement Capability is an intelligent communication capability that orchestrates personalized, two-way engagement across digital and traditional channels—including SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, voice, email, push notifications, web portals, and more. It selects the right channel, timing, and tone based on customer behavior, preferences, and risk profiles. Whether delivering automated self-service or seamlessly escalating to live support, it ensures consistent, compliant, and empathetic experiences at every stage of the customer lifecycle.

Fraud Prevention

Omni-Channel Engagement Capability for Fraud works with FICO® Falcon® Fraud Manager — the world’s most widely used fraud detection solution, protecting over 4 billion payment cards globally.

In Brazil, Elo — one of the largest payment networks — uses Falcon to protect over 30 issuers and 50 million cards. Since implementation, Elo has reduced fraud by 30%.

The combined use of Falcon and Omni-Channel Engagement Capability allows real-time fraud detection and immediate customer communication to validate transactions. In Latin America, many financial institutions have seen significant benefits from this integration.

One major card processor uses Falcon and Omni-Channel Engagement Capability to protect over 250 companies, processing 5 billion transactions annually. This integration prevents over $50 million in fraud monthly. For every R$1 invested in Omni-Channel Engagement Capability, there’s an average savings of R$39 in avoided fraud and R$168 in recovered legitimate transactions amongst this processor’s issuers. Omni-Channel Engagement Capability also reduced operational costs by 200%, eliminating the need for about 60 daily alert operators.

A leading private bank in Latin America adopted Falcon and Omni-Channel Engagement Capability in its cloud infrastructure, preventing over $20 million in monthly fraud losses, reducing per-customer costs by 15%, and improving online fraud detection by 20%. Omni-Channel Engagement Capability also boosted customer response rates to over 50% among premium clients. Notably, WhatsApp communication without opt-in was approved by Meta due to its fraud-prevention nature — becoming a success case.

Benefits of Falcon + Omni-Channel Engagement Capability Integration:

• Real-time fraud detection and prevention
• Automated communication
• Operational savings
• Improved customer experience

Debt Collections 

Omni-Channel Engagement Capability for Collections is widely used to proactively engage customers during the pre-delinquency stage — helping prevent customers from entering collections and minimizing roll rates across the entire collections lifecycle. SMS replaced costly letter mailings, and digital omni-channel communications reduced costs and inefficiencies of call centers.

Today, digital collection is standard in most operations.

SMS

• Use: Traditional channel for simple notifications and overdue alerts
• Pros: High delivery/open rates (~98%), works on any phone, low cost
• Cons: Character limit, no interactivity, one-way communication

RCS

• Use: Emerging in collections, richer than SMS
• Pros: Multimedia, quick replies, payment carts, geolocation, bot automation
• Cons: Limited compatibility; primarily supported on Android, with growing adoption. For example, iOS 18 is beginning to offer support.

WhatsApp

• Use: Most used digital channel in Brazil for collections
• Pros: Real-time, multimedia, automation via API, CRM integration, high open/response rates (70%+)
• Cons: API message cost, opt-in required for some messages

FICO® Platform - Omni-Channel Engagement Capability for Collections Success Cases:

• Financial gains vs. call centers — up to 10% better cost-per-recovery
• Omni-channel strategies — e.g., SMS → WhatsApp → email → SMS
• Effective even for debts over 360 days overdue
• Supported by a specialized technical and business team

Using omni-channel communications effectively should be part of any fraud, collections or digital engagement strategy. The channels are there, and more widely used than ever – now it’s a question of your ability to dial up your customers in the right channel at the right time.

How FICO Can Help You Improve Fraud and Collections Results with Omni-Channel Engagement

• Read our new Hot Topic Q&A New Frontiers in the Collections Industry – Unlocking the Potential of Omni-Channel Communications
• Read 3 Ways Conversational AI Aids Collections & Customer Support
• Explore how FICO helps fight fraud, regardless of channel or portfolio
• See how Customer Communications Services for Fraud engages customers in real time to disrupt a variety of fraud typologies
• Learn how real-time customer communication can be a competitive differentiator across the entire customer lifecycle