Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the customer engagement platform that drives real-time, personalised experiences for today’s leading brands, today announced that Fresha, a leading booking platform for the beauty and wellness industry, is building deeper customer trust and driving significant business growth by adopting Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging, powered by Twilio and Google.
Fresha, which facilitates over 700,000 appointments daily for its 130,000 partners in 120 countries, upgraded from traditional SMS to RCS to transform standard notifications into trusted, branded conversations. The move resulted in an immediate and measurable uplift across the customer journey, including a 41.3% read rate on appointment messages and a 7.1% increase in customer reviews.
“We’re here to make life easier for salon owners, putting their needs front and center in everything we design,” said Jeremy Miller, Head of Product at Fresha. “When messages come from a verified, recognisable Fresha brand, people engage more because they know it’s genuine. That trust leads to stronger relationships and better outcomes.”
Verified and Interactive Messaging Drives Measurable Business Impact
Unlike traditional SMS, RCS offers a secure, high-impact channel for customer communication, featuring verified sender identities, rich media, and interactive buttons. For Fresha, this meant replacing plain text messages with dynamic, branded notifications for confirmations, reminders, and thank-yous.
With Twilio’s seamless API, Fresha deployed RCS with no code changes, achieving standout results compared to SMS:
- Higher Engagement: Appointment-related RCS messages achieved a 41.3% read rate.
- Increased Confirmations: A 6% increase in customers confirming their appointments.
- Post-Appointment Growth: The interactive prompts led to a 7.1% jump in customer reviews and a 5.3% increase in tipping, directly boosting partner revenue.
- Superior Deliverability: RCS messages reached a 99.2% delivery rate, ensuring critical communications were consistently received.
“RCS stands out because it’s trustworthy,” saidStephen Brough, Global GTM Head – RCS for Business at Google. “When customers clearly see who is messaging them, they engage more – they’re more likely to respond, confirm appointments orshare a review. Trust makes all the difference.”
Building Seamless Omnichannel Experiences with Twilio
Fresha, a Twilio customer since 2016, initially implemented SMS and gradually adopted additional channels such as WhatsApp, email, voice, chat, and RCS. The integration of Twilio Flex to centralise these channels was enabled by Twilio’s strategic partner, Zing. With the help of Twilio’s solutions, Fresha can now build and launch new features at pace, focusing on local customer preferences and staying trusted and compliant as they grow.
Jeremy Miller, Head of Product at Fresha said:“Twilio lets us launch in new countries with complete confidence that our messages will be delivered, protecting the customer experience no matter where we go.”
Peter Bell, EMEA Vice President of Marketing at Twilio said: “In today’s digital age building customer trust has never been more important and yet we’re all increasingly mistrusting of communication channels. In fact, according to Twilio’s SOCER report 61% of consumers don’t believe brands use their data in their best interest. By adopting RCS, they’ve transformed messaging into a secure, branded space their customers recognise and trust. With Twilio’s technology, Fresha is building stronger relationships from the first booking to the final thank you and beyond.”
Legal Disclaimer: The Editor provides this news content "as is," without any warranty of any kind. We disclaim all responsibility and liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. For any complaints or copyright concerns regarding this article, please contact the author mentioned above.
