Fresha, a leading booking platform for the beauty and wellness industry, is significantly enhancing customer trust and driving business growth by adopting Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging, powered by Twilio and Google. This upgrade from traditional SMS is transforming standard notifications into trusted, branded conversations, resulting in immediate and measurable improvements across the customer journey.
Fresha, which facilitates over 700,000 appointments daily for its 130,000 partners across 120 countries, observed remarkable results after implementing RCS. This includes 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: 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,” said Stephen 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, or share a review. Trust makes all the difference.”
Building seamless omnichannel experiences
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, commented, “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, added, “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, Fresha has 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.”