Mukuru: Faster customer service and reduced costs with WhatsApp Business Platform
42%
of customers now use WhatsApp
15%
increase in CSAT
25%
list WhatsApp as their sign-up channel of choice
Challenge
Make the service more accessible over channels customers prefer
Mukuru helps the emerging African market and migrant workers to transfer money internationally at affordable costs. Once signed up, users have the option to complete money transfers along with other financial services. Prior to 2019, channels available to customers included the Mukuru mobile site, app, and USSD.
The company wanted to provide its customers with an additional channel to complete transactions and receive support – one that has better functionality than USSD and is frequently used by customers.
Solution
Introduce a WhatsApp Business chatbot for quick, real-time service and support
With services provided to millions of users in over 50 countries in Africa, Europe, and Asia, Mukuru chose WhatsApp to be the new channel for customer transactions and communication. The choice was obvious since WhatsApp is one of the most popular communication channels in Africa – and the number one chat app in the world.
Mukuru created a chatbot over WhatsApp, which helps customers manage their money transfers faster without assistance from a live agent. To use WhatsApp with Mukuru, customers start a WhatsApp chat with the company to sign up for the service. Once the chatbot responds, customers receive menu options from which they can choose what they want to do next, including:
- automatically creating a Mukuru account
- selecting from 10 language options
- transferring money across borders
- managing their Mukuru Wallet (Mukuru Card)
- ordering groceries
- buying airtime or electricity
- paying for DSTV
The company also connected WhatsApp to its contact center to enable customers to chat with an agent when necessary.
The adoption of WhatsApp as a sign-up, transaction, and communication channel among Mukuru customers grew during the COVID-19 pandemic as people turned to digital alternatives that would help them assist family and friends abroad.
However, before sending any notifications over WhatsApp, businesses are required to collect opt-ins from customers. Mukuru did this by:
- Directing customers to Mukuru’s Facebook page, where they can opt-in to WhatsApp
- Having new customers select WhatsApp when choosing their communication preferences during the sign-up process
- Enabling customers to opt-in when they call Mukuru’s customer service center
To make this all quick and easy, Mukuru received full support from our team during the onboarding process, technical implementation stage, when building the chatbot logic, and when registering WhatsApp templates.
Result
15% Increase in CSAT with 42% of customers using WhatsApp for money transfers
Introducing WhatsApp helped Mukuru assist customers at every step of the customer journey – automating sign-up, onboarding, wallet balance checks, and money transfer processes.
As a result, 42% of Mukuru customers now use WhatsApp for money transfers – with 22% opting to use WhatsApp instead of USSD. Now, 25% list WhatsApp as their sign-up channel of choice.
In addition, connecting WhatsApp to its contact center resulted in a decrease in call center costs, and an increase in agent efficiency for Mukuru. Now that customers can complete standard transactions and access FAQs via WhatsApp, Mukuru agents have more time to help customers with any in-depth issues they may have.
The company also managed to save 15% on reverse billed USSD costs per month, as well as 5% in overall transactional SMS costs.
Mukuru’s WhatsApp chatbot enhanced the customer experience by offering services over a channel that customers prefer to use. Now, Mukuru customers have a fast, streamlined experience when using WhatsApp in comparison to their previous experience when using Mukuru’s service either over USSD, calling customer service, or making the trip to a Mukuru branch office. As a result, customer satisfaction (CSAT) increased by 15% – growing from 65% to 80%.
Introducing WhatsApp as a channel through Infobip increased our customers’ satisfaction by 15%. We have noticed 42% of our customers moving to WhatsApp, with 25% listing it as their sign-up channel of choice. By introducing the self-service chatbot, we have optimized our support capability, leading to increased efficiency and cost savings. This greatly benefited our customers during the COVID-19 pandemic when they turned to online alternatives that would help them assist family and friends abroad. Working with Infobip and Meta has been efficient and effective. The team is always willing to test new use cases and get them up and running without tedious processes. We look forward to further optimizing our customer communication in new and innovative ways in the future.
Oliver O’Brien
Group Executive Head of Strategy and Business Development
Company Profile
Mukuru
Mukuru is a leading Next Gen Financial Services Platform that offers affordable and reliable financial services to an emerging customer base of over 10 million across Africa, Asia, and Europe. With over 100 million transactions to date, the core of Mukuru was built to provide international money transfers and since then have developed a set of services to address the broader financial needs of its customers. The company now operates in over 50 countries and across over 300 remittance corridors. Mukuru has been named one of the FXC Intelligence Top 100 Cross-Border Payments Companies in 2022. Mukuru is listed as one of the top eight global, independently owned businesses in the remittances space.
