K-Electric: 90% increase in digital penetration with WhatsApp chatbot powered by Infobip
45%
of digital interactions happen on WhatsApp
8,000
bill downloads per day
Challenge
Strengthen CX and enhance accessibility by scaling K-Electric’s digital presence
K-Electric (KE), Pakistan’s integrated power utility provider constantly strives to deliver superior services to their customers including those living in the financial and industrial capital – Karachi. To achieve this, KE recognized the importance of digital transformation to deliver truly customer-centric experiences to meet the new market requirements and changing consumer needs.
A deep dive into KE’s customer interactions revealed that 15% of the customers were visiting physical customer touchpoints repeatedly for relatively simple requests such as copies of electricity bills and tax certificate collections. This led to a high volume of requests, especially during bill due dates, at physical service centers resulting in inconvenienced customers. The average wait time for the call center was 20 seconds, but due to the high influx of calls the wait time became longer, leading to a weaker customer experience.
With a growing customer base, expectations around ease of service increased as well. This made scaling accessibility to support teams and services critical to strengthening customer experience and retaining KE’s position as a leading service provider.
The challenge was finding a way to optimally serve customers and minimize the need to visit physical service centers or call the helpline for services that could be easily available from the comfort of their homes.
To achieve this, they needed to invest in providing services over their customers’ preferred channel, but without cannibalizing their app, KE Live – a full-service solution. They were looking for a solution that helped them achieve their strategic digitalization goal to:
- Increase customer adoption of KE’s digital touchpoints
- Redirect interactions from physical channels to digital ones, prioritizing customer convenience and economic benefit for the business
- Scale KE’s ability to address 24/7 queries even under contingency situations
- Reducing customer commute costs and waiting time
- Provide cost and time-effective service by minimizing deployment lead-time, investment/maintenance of brick-and-mortar infrastructure
KE sought a partner with experience and proven ability in deploying customer touchpoints that met the above objectives cost-effectively and underpinned the entire process with technological and maintenance support, and always-on customer service.
Solution
A scalable and customizable self-service chatbot
Karachi’s digital penetration stands at 53%, with at least one smartphone in every home. And with WhatsApp being the most popular chat app due to its free usage, easy-to-use interface, and social capital, it was an obvious choice to scale customer connections. Additionally, the channel didn’t require any additional installation as customers were already using it.
As a Meta partner, Infobip had successfully deployed the WhatsApp Business Platform for leading telecom, utility, and financial organizations in Pakistan and around the world. The popularity, results and accelerated uptake of WhatsApp chatbots for customer service by our platform, made us a reliable choice to help KE accelerate their transition to 24/7 accessibility, cost effectiveness and digitalization.
Our communication platform empowered KE to build a personalized self-service chatbot to provide the right service at every touchpoint in the customer journey with our chatbot building platform Answers. It also enabled language localization allowing for the adoption of the channel with non-English speaking customers. In Pakistan, this was the first-time any utility company had aggressively invested in digital customer connections, making KE a pioneer in their field.
The self-service chatbot on WhatsApp was built with a menu that addressed and resolved 90% of the most frequent customer queries within a few clicks. Our local knowledge and global expertise helped with designing an ideal chatbot for KE.
A key element that contributed to the commercial success of this project was the involvement of KE’s 10,000 employees, who were also the utility’s customers. This diverse employee base provided a rich testing ground for the initial iterations of the application’s menu which could address key customer needs. This was bolstered by a robust internal communication effort to cascade the message to employees, converting them into advocates of WhatsApp in their social circles.
KE focused on converting both physical and SMS interactions into digital ones by promoting WhatsApp. These efforts were supported by digital marketing campaigns to create awareness around the new channel and its various customer benefits. Conversion was promoted through a single-click or QR-code scan across all communication touchpoints including social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, SMS, email, point-of-sale, and employee referral programs.
The KE customer journey
Now, when a customer messages “Hi” on the KE WhatsApp chat, they receive a numbered menu to guide them through their query or complaint resolution process. The existing menu includes:
- making billing inquiries
- downloading bills
- reporting technical problems
- obtaining power status and schedules
- tax certificates
- applying for new connections
The menu is periodically updated by the company in line with customer needs and the latest offerings. Based on the menu selections, WhatsApp users are guided through to the information required. Based on feedback from KE’s Customer Satisfaction Surveys, we accelerated the inclusion of the Urdu language self-service menu and deployment of an Urdu chatbot leading to 43% of WhatsApp users opting to use it.
Just by scanning the QR code on the ad in the KE service center, I was able to connect with KE via WhatsApp. During the wait at the center, I was able to sort out my issue in a few clicks through WhatsApp and left even without talking to the counter staff.
It’s been around 7 months now since I have visited or called KE. With this [smartphone] in my hand, there is no need to. I have gotten the [power supply] information I need, even at 2:00 AM. I tell all my friends that this is the fastest way to connect with KE – no other utility company is as accessible or helpful as KE for its customers right now.
K-Electric customer
Given the surge in WhatsApp adoption, KE also decided to promote e-billing through WhatsApp. This eased the existing web-based, lengthy subscription process.
Result
45% of all digital interactions now take place on WhatsApp with 8,000 bill downloads per day
Within the first two months of launching, over 50,000 KE customers subscribed to the WhatsApp channel – the quickest uptake across any company in the country. In line with KE’s goal, 600,000 customers shifted from non-digital platforms to WhatsApp while digital cannibalization of the KE app was maintained below 20%.
In one year, K-Electric recorded:
65%
increase in digital interactions (from 3.27 million to 5.38 million)
45%
of those digital interactions were over WhatsApp
This makes WhatsApp the most active digital channel in KE’s digital portfolio. There was a concurrent reduction of 32% of calls to the call center and adoption of e-billing via the chatbot increased by 15%.
Their customers also benefited significantly with reduced time and cost per interaction leading to up to 350,000 monthly active sessions on the channel and the addition of 30,000 new users every month. Customer feedback surveys also indicate 90% satisfaction among customers.
Infobip and K-Electric continue to collaborate on usage growth of the WhatsApp Business Platform by adding more use cases. With more smartphone users predicted to enter the ecosystem, this has inspired K-Electric to continue to look for ways to offer more instantaneous services to customers over WhatsApp with Infobip soon.
Working with Infobip to digitally transform the way we communicate with our audience has helped us improve our customer journey, satisfaction scores and allowed us to simplify common tasks. The WhatsApp chatbot solution allowed us to reach our customers on a channel they were already familiar with. It encouraged them to take a more convenient route, communication through ‘digital interactions’. We are excited to continue to work on this solution with Infobip and develop more use cases that will bring ease to our customers.
Huma Yahya
Head of Customer Experience, K-Electric
Find out how Infobip powered WhatsApp chatbots can deliver the best results
Company Profile
K-Electric
K-Electric (KE) is a public listed company incorporated in Pakistan in 1913 as KESC. Privatized in 2005 KE is the only vertically integrated utility in Pakistan supplying electricity within a 6,500 square kilometers territory including Karachi and its adjoining areas. Their territory encompasses 7 urban and peri-urban areas in Sindh and Balochistan. The majority shares (66.4%) of the company are listed in the PSX owned by KES Power, a consortium of investors including Aljomaih Power Limited of Saudi Arabia, National Industries Group (Holding), Kuwait, and the Infrastructure and Growth Capital Fund (IGCF). The Government of Pakistan is also a minority shareholder (24.36%) in the company.
To serve customers across this area, the company operates 63 physical and mobile service centers, particularly in the highest-density areas, with centers located every 4.6 km2. To cater to evolving customer expectations around 24/7 availability, responsiveness, and convenience, the company also operates a round-the-clock helpline and a social care unit that addresses customer queries and complaints via Facebook and Twitter.
