Redefining Customer Engagement with RCS for Business: Discovery from Google Search

When customers search for your brand or customer care, the intent is already there. In fact, it is one of the highest intent moments.  

When users don’t find the information they were looking for, they abandon the journey. Sometimes these drop-offs happen not because of a lack of intent but because of friction. A website redirection, a lengthy form, an app download prompt – these are all multi-step journeys. And every step in the journey is a potential exit point.  

This is no news. It is a well-known insight, and one that brands have been working tirelessly to solve for. Meta’s Click-to-WhatsApp (CTWA) Ads offer a solution for brands running ads on their platforms where the click-to-fulfilment journey is compressed to a single click.

But what about the one channel where customers with the highest intent are found?  

The Search Bar: Where Intent Is at Its Peak

68% of the online journeys begin with a search engine. And Google accounts for ~90% of the global search engine market share. Yes, AI tools like ChatGPT are changing how people find information. But when it comes to looking up a specific brand, checking a business's contact details or finding customer support, Google remains the dominant starting point for most customers.  

The search bar isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Until now, the journey from search to fulfilment has required customers to navigate several touchpoints. It has also been friction-heavy by design, putting a higher cognitive load on the customers.  

Discovery from Google Search, a new entry point for RCS for Business, changes this fundamentally.

What If Search Didn’t Lead to Friction – But to Action

Google recently launched a new entry point for RCS for Business. When enabled, the RCS for Business: Discovery from Google Search feature shows a chat on Google Messages button along with the existing call and website options in the brand’s Google search listing. When clicked, it opens a native RCS conversation without any additional steps.  

Moving high-intent customers from search to live, branded conversation in a single action has never been this simple and seamless. With this feature, brands can:

• Turn discovery into active conversations

• Solve queries with a personal touch

• Generate high-intent leads

• Instantly convert leads to customers

There is a direct correlation between short customer journeys with minimum redirections and higher engagement, better customer satisfaction and lower abandonment rates.  

Inbound, organic leads convert at a rate nearly double that of outbound/paid leads. The ability to intercept and manage inbound queries at the moment of highest intent, i.e., at the search bar, improves both operational efficiency and customer experience.  

From Proactive Engagement to Reactive Resolution – Key Use Cases

Brands can enable two use-cases with the RCS for Business: Discovery from Google Search feature, addressed to different stages of the customer journey – discovery and support. Both require activation by Google and are configured through a verified RCS Business Messaging bot/agent. And both are keyword-triggered!

Discovery: Proactive Engagement at the Point of Highest Intent

This entry point appears when a customer searches for your brand directly – a high-intent, top-of-funnel moment where interest is already established. Instead of letting that intent dissipate, you can engage and guide the customer instantly toward conversion within a single conversation. With AI-powered, hyper-personalised interactions in the chat window, you can recommend the right products, resolve queries in real time, and steer customers confidently toward a decision before they drop off or abandon the journey.

Brands across industries can leverage this entry point to capture and turn intent into revenue. From checking loan eligibility, to browsing flight options, scheduling health check-ups, purchasing clothes and accessories, exploring courses or shortlisting properties without visiting a website or an app.

Customer Support: Reactive Engagement at the Point of Concern

This entry point appears when a customer searches for your brand’s customer support. The customer has a problem. Or a question about shipping, delivery, return, etc. The priority is accurate and fast resolution. In a single click, the customer lands in your verified RCS messaging channel. AI plays a key role here: handling recurring, simple queries instantly, triaging complex cases, and seamlessly handing off complex queries to human agents with full context already captured.

Brands across industries can leverage this entry point to resolve queries quickly, deliver superior customer support and ensure continued customer loyalty. Whether it’s reporting an unrecognised transaction, cancelling or modifying bookings, rescheduling appointments, initiating returns and refunds or tracking property application and possession timelines.  

In partnership with Karix, one of India’s leading banks enabled a search-to-chat RCS experience via the RCS for Business feature. A “Send message” option appears on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), which redirects users to the bank’s official RCS chat window when clicked.  

In both discovery and support journeys, AI-powered real-time intent detection, personalised recommendations, hyper-personalised image & video-based journeys, and instant resolution turn static interactions into guided, outcome-driven conversations.

All You Need to Know Before Rolling Out

Before you opt in and create a search-to-chat journey for your brand on RCS for Business, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• This feature is currently in Beta phase, with only a select number of BSPs getting early access.  

• It is currently available for Android devices only

• If the user does not have the RCS app installed, they are redirected to the Play Store to install the app and then continue the same journey.

• To begin with, the “chat on Google Messages” option will appear on <10% of total brand searches  

Conclusion

The logic is simple: The fewer the steps from query to resolution, the fewer the chances of a user dropping off. Brands that will win customers won’t be the ones with the biggest budgets, but those who will show up at the right time on the right channel.  

As Google's biggest partner in India and Growth Partner of the Year '25, Karix has early access to the latest RCS for Business features and the expertise to help you make the most of it. From setting up your verified RCS agent to designing the chatbot journey and blending in AI – we handle it all, end-to-end.

Write to us at marketing.karix.com, and we'll show you how to start capturing customers at the moment they're searching for you with the RCS for Business: Discovery from Google Search feature.