UME: Empowering financial inclusion with conversational messaging and omnichannel support

80%

of chatbot conversations resolved without human assistance

100%

conversation rate for debt collection via RCS

54%

cost reduction in debt collection by utilizing RCS

CHALLENGE

Scaling support while maintaining personalized, conversational approach

UME, a Brazilian fintech innovator, is on a mission to democratize access to credit, particularly for underserved communities. Operating in 12 Brazilian states, UME facilitates purchases at over 300 partner stores, with nearly 100% of credit requests and approvals managed seamlessly through their mobile app.

However, as demand surged, UME faced challenges scaling its customer communication while preserving the personalized, human touch crucial for building trust and fostering financial well-being.

Long support queues and a lack of integration with chatbots and AI solutions hampered personalization and operational efficiency, especially in crucial areas like credit recovery.

UME needed a more agile, effective, and scalable solution to handle growing demand while delivering empathetic experiences that would improve customer satisfaction and drive business growth.

SOLUTION

Building trust and accessibility with conversational messaging and omnichannel solutions

UME partnered with Infobip to obtain a comprehensive conversational experience platform that addressed all its scalability, personalization, and omnichannel automation needs. Enabling them to connect with customers in a way that is both efficient and empathetic.

Our customer engagement solution, Moments empowered UME to orchestrate personalized customer journeys across multiple channels, including SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, push notifications, Email, and WhatsApp Business Calls.

By intelligently routing communications based on individual customer preferences, UME ensures that customers receive information and support through their preferred channel, fostering a sense of accessibility and understanding.

In addition, our customer data platform, People CDP, played a crucial role by intelligently segmenting and personalizing messaging based on individual profiles and interaction history.

We understand that accessing credit can be a sensitive and sometimes stressful experience. With Infobip’s platform, we can tailor our communication to each customer’s unique situation, providing the support and information they need, when they need it, through the channel they prefer.

Henrique Padovani

Collection Manager, UME

UME leverages RCS as its primary channel for proactive communication, including transactional messages, payment guidance, and debt prevention. SMS serves as a reliable failover. WhatsApp is strategically used for customers with existing debt, focusing on debt collection, answering customer inquiries, and driving engagement within a 72-hour window. And Email is used to respond to certain queries and for one-way marketing messages.

To further enhance customer support and streamline operations, UME implemented AI-powered chatbots on WhatsApp and RCS using our chatbot building platform, Answers. The chatbot was easily integrated into OpenAI’s ChatGPT API’s.

Customers can easily check credit limits, generate invoices, get answers to their questions, and even renegotiate debts through these conversational interfaces.

Also, our CX Consultancy team collaborated closely with UME to help fine-tune processes, flows, and journeys, maximizing the impact of the platform.

“Infobip is more than just a technology provider; they’re a true partner,” adds Padovani. “They understand our business and our customers, and they’re committed to helping us build a communication strategy that is both effective and empathetic.”

The RCS loan journey

UME utilizes RCS for proactive communication, aiming to empower customers with information and prevent potential debt issues.

RCS is used to proactively reach out to the customer and offer them personalized loans, payment due dates, available payment options and support for delays.

UME leverages rich cards and quick reply buttons within RCS to make it easy for customers to access their account details, review their purchase history, and set up payment reminders.

RCS has been a game-changer for us, its rich media capabilities improved our efficiency in communicating what we needed in an engaging way, and also it helped boost UME’s credibility with our customer.

Henrique Padovani

Collection Manager, UME

A few days before a payment is due, customers receive a personalized RCS message reminding them of the upcoming due date and offering various payment options. They can tap a quick reply button to access their digital invoice or choose to set up automatic payments directly within the RCS conversation.

If a customer misses a payment, they receive a friendly reminder via RCS with tailored payment solutions and links to relevant support resources.

UME also uses RCS to promote new features, offer personalized deals, and gather customer feedback through interactive surveys. The conversational nature of RCS allows for a two-way dialogue, enabling customers to ask questions and receive immediate support, all within the same interface.

Providing support via WhatsApp

WhatsApp is primarily used for onboarding customers and supporting those who are facing challenges with their payments or have outstanding debts. UME’s WhatsApp strategy focuses on quick onboarding, empathetic debt collection, providing support, and resolving customer queries.

The WhatsApp journey begins after a customer’s credit is approved. They receive a welcome message, outlining their credit limit, payment due dates, and available payment options.

When a customer falls behind on their payments, they receive a personalized WhatsApp message acknowledging their situation and providing assistance. UME leverages WhatsApp’s interactive message templates to present different debt renegotiation options, allowing customers to choose a plan that suits their current financial circumstances.

Customers can also initiate conversations with UME through the WhatsApp chatbot to ask questions about their account, payment options, or any other concerns they may have.

If the chatbot is unable to answer a specific question, the customer can easily connect with a human agent for further assistance. UME also uses WhatsApp to send transactional messages, such as payment confirmations and updates on debt renegotiation plans.

The 72-hour window engagement strategy ensures that UME remains in close contact with customers who are facing financial difficulties, providing timely support and helping them get back on track.

Recognizing the importance of human connection, especially when dealing with financial matters, UME pioneered the use of WhatsApp Business Calls for personalized support. Customers can seamlessly transition from chatbot interactions to voice calls, enhancing trust and customer satisfaction.

Sometimes, a quick phone call can make all the difference and WhatsApp Business Calls allow us to offer that human touch, providing personalized support and reassurance when customers need it most. It’s about building relationships and showing our customers that we’re here to help them every step of the way.

Henrique Padovani

Collection Manager, UME

RESULT

Double the support capacity and 30% cost reduction

The combination of these solutions and services transformed the way UME interacts with its customers, improving response times, communication, personalization, and user satisfaction. This led to impressive results:

30% reduction in platform costs through integrations and centralized management
Doubled debt renegotiation capacity through chatbots and AI
80% of chatbot conversations resolved without human assistance
50% reduction in campaign execution time due to segmentation and automation
156% improvement in payments from customers without outstanding debt
30% increase in invoice requests via RCS, with nearly 95% conversion compared to 60% for SMS
46% conversion rate on WhatsApp
100% conversation rate for debt collection via RCS, compared to 60% for SMS, demonstrating increased customer engagement and trust
54% cost reduction in debt collection by utilizing RCS

Infobip is not just a provider; it’s a partner. They truly helped understand our needs and adapt their solutions to support us effectively and build a conversational loan experience over WhatsApp and RCS.

Henrique Padovani

Collection Manager, UME

COMPANY PROFILE

UME’s mission is to democratize access to credit, empowering underserved individuals to achieve their goals. They operate at the point of sale of partner retailers, delivering fast, accessible credit solutions that prioritize customer experience and empathetic support. Through this approach, they build profitable and secure partnerships.

Cabify: Combatting artificial inflation of traffic and enhancing CX with innovative fraud and security solutions

15.7%

financial loss reduction in one quarter

CHALLENGE

Mitigating fraudulent and artificially inflated SMS traffic in real-time

Cabify is a leading multi-mobility company with a mission to improve how people, businesses, and drivers connect safely in over 40 cities.

To do this the company relies on multiple communication channels, including reliable and legitimate text messaging to facilitate trustworthy customer experiences.

From sending OTPs for verification to providing real-time updates on ride status, SMS plays a key role in ensuring customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. Because of this, Cabify is constantly implementing new solutions to mitigate the significant challenges posed by Artificial Inflation of Traffic (AIT) within tech services.

“We aim to address these challenges as we know first-hand how important security is in our value proposition,” said Jesús Díaz, Engineering Manager at Cabify.

“We proactively started seeking solutions to help identify and stop bot-generated artificial traffic. However, these measures were difficult to apply equally in every market, making it a non-scalable solution,” he said. Traditional methods of mitigating AIT, such as IP blocking entire countries where the problem occurred, often led to the unintentional blocking of legitimate SMS traffic.

Over the years, AIT practises evolved, and a more robust solution was needed to ensure stronger response potential.

Jesús Díaz photo — Jesús Díaz
Engineering Manager, Cabify

To address the pressing challenges posed by AIT and enhance the user experience, Cabify sought a reliable and innovative communication partner.

SOLUTION

Safeguarding SMS traffic with an AI and machine-learning powered solution

Cabify was already using Infobip’s SMS services for various marketing and operational needs.

“We were already working with Infobip in the marketing team, and they were happy with the service,” Jesús Díaz explained.

Impressed by our reliable infrastructure, delivery capabilities and excellent customer service, Cabify turned to Infobip Signals, an intuitive machine learning solution designed to detect and block fraudulent traffic.

Jesús Díaz noted, “We started talking about Signals and we said: Let’s try. Let’s see how it works.”

Infobip Signals employs machine learning to automatically detect and block fraudulent traffic without any interventions from the business. By identifying patterns and anomalies, the solution effectively distinguishes between legitimate and bot-generated traffic and automatically blocks fraudulent traffic without any need for intervention from the business’ end.

In addition to enhancing security, Cabify sought to improve the user experience of OTP delivery. With more customers using WhatsApp for P2P messaging, Cabify chose the channel as their primary OTP channel, with SMS as a failover to ensure guaranteed delivery.

“WhatsApp is very commonly used. So, we started to deploy it, and the experience has been good,” said Jesús Díaz.

The zero-tap OTP autofill feature on WhatsApp, powered by our platform, further streamlined the process, eliminating the need for users to manually input OTPs on Android phones. This innovative approach improved customer satisfaction and reduced friction in the registration and login processes.

RESULT

Fraudulent message blocked effectively and increased operational efficiency

By implementing our fraud and authentication solutions, Signals and OTPs via SMS and WhatsApp, Cabify achieved significant improvements in security, customer experience, and operational efficiency.

Real-time monitoring and blocking of AIT strengthened Cabify’s position as a safe mobility company.

Some of the key results included:

The financial loss caused by AIT was reduced by 15.7% in a quarter

Smoother user experience

Higher operational efficiency
Higher OTP delivery rate

In addition, implementing and going live with Signals took less than 10 minutes to set up, making it an effective and quick solution.

By using our fraud and security solutions, Cabify has not only overcome the challenges posed by AIT but has also elevated its customer experience and strengthened its position in the market.

COMPANY PROFILE

Cabify is a leading multi-mobility platform that aims to transform cities into better living spaces through innovative ride-hailing solutions. Operating in multiple countries across Latin America and Europe, including Spain, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, and Uruguay, Cabify connects passengers with a network of professional drivers. The company offers a range of services, from ride-hailing to corporate mobility solutions, providing safe, reliable, and efficient transportation options.

Mukuru: Faster customer service and reduced costs with WhatsApp Business Platform

30x

increase in active digital wallet customers

92%

read rates in WhatsApp campaigns

CHALLENGE

Enhancing financial services accessibility and maintaining meaningful customer interactions

Mukuru, a leading financial services provider serving over 17 million users across over 70 countries in Africa, Europe, and Asia, faced the challenge of transitioning from cash reliance to digital wallet adoption across Africa. Serving the emerging African market and migrant workers, Mukuru needed to make its services more accessible over channels that customers prefer, while maintaining meaningful interactions.

Previously, customers accessed services through the Mukuru mobile site, app, and USSD. However, with a high volume of money transfers, Mukuru sought to optimize communication channels, enhance the customer journey, and reduce costs by providing an additional channel with better functionality than USSD.

SOLUTION

Connecting with customers and driving digital adoption with WhatsApp Business chatbot

Mukuru identified WhatsApp as the ideal channel for customer transactions and communication, given its popularity in Africa and global reach. They developed a WhatsApp chatbot to facilitate faster money transfers 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 digital stores of value (Mukuru Wallet or Mukuru Card)
ordering groceries
buying airtime or electricity
paying for DSTV

Before sending WhatsApp notifications, Mukuru secured customer opt-ins through three methods: directing users to opt in via their Facebook page, offering the option to select WhatsApp during sign-up, or collecting consent during customer service calls. This process was streamlined with full support from our team during onboarding, technical implementation, chatbot logic development, and WhatsApp template registration.

Additionally, integration with the contact center allows customers to chat with an agent when needed, enhancing support.

In parallel, Mukuru implemented Infobip’s customer engagement s olution, Moments. They launched a campaign in Zimbabwe that played a key role in encouraging customers to move from relying on cash to adopting digital wallets.

Understanding customer touchpoints and preferred channels is crucial, and moving the needle on cost-to-acquire with an integrated platform is powerful. Africa’s emerging consumer market offers vast potential beyond money transfer, expanding into a full ecosystem of financial services. The differentiator lies not just in pricing but in delivering messages through the right channel at the right time, continuously curating better experiences for our customers.

Sandy Rheeder

Chief Information Officer, Mukuru

RESULT

Over 30x increase in active customers and 92% read rates with WhatsApp, halving drop-off rates and cutting costs by 15%

Integrating WhatsApp and Infobip’s Moments has yielded impressive results for Mukuru. The shift from cash reliance to digital wallet adoption has been remarkable, with active customers increasing from just 4,000 in December to 129,000 by March. This allowed Mukuru to engage in meaningful two-way conversations with customers and reconnect with those who were previously disengaged. The effectiveness of this approach is highlighted by the success of WhatsApp campaigns, which consistently achieve read rates above 92%.

Moreover, the implementation of WhatsApp Flows has significantly enhanced the customer journey by reducing the process from 17 steps to just 2, halving the drop-off rate in Botswana. This streamlined experience has improved product usability and customer sentiment, providing an app-like feel with interactive elements. Mukuru’s strategic use of a multichannel approach, with a focus on WhatsApp, has not only optimized communication but also reduced costs, saving 15% on reverse billed USSD costs and 5% on transactional SMS costs.

These results underscore Mukuru’s commitment to leveraging technology to enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency, setting a strong foundation for future growth in the financial services sector.

Mukuru’s future goals include deepening their collaboration with Infobip to advance their AI strategy, focusing on delivering quick, accurate responses to common customer questions like “What is this?” or “How much does it cost?”

This kind of automation not only boosts operational efficiency but also empowers customers and supports financial inclusion, such as guiding someone through sending money to a family member in Nigeria via conversational AI.

However, implementing AI in banking is complex due to strict regulations and the need for absolute trust. That’s why Mukuru is taking an incremental, roadmap-driven approach and is confident that, with Infobip’s expertise, they can navigate these challenges while staying aligned with their core systems and delivering real value to their customers.

Previously, our communication was one-sided, sending messages and hoping for a response. Now, with two-way engagement, we’re having real conversations, reconnecting with customers we hadn’t engaged with in a while. The impact is clear: our WhatsApp campaigns through Moments consistently achieve read rates above 92%. Collaborating with Infobip’s CX team, we’re excited to track click-throughs and further enhance our engagement strategies.

Jennifer Stevens

Head of Product: Customer Domain, Mukuru

COMPANY PROFILE

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.

Annapurna Financial Services: Enhancing operations and CX with digital communications

increase in digital engagement

12%

increase in product adoption

CHALLENGE

Streamlining customer communications and maintaining operational efficiency

Annapurna Financial Services, a leading micro-finance institution in India, plays a crucial role in promoting financial inclusion by providing essential financial services to underserved women.

The financial provider faced significant challenges in streamlining communication and improving operational efficiency across various aspects of its operations. These issues were particularly evident in managing customer interactions, compliance implementation and overall service delivery.

Some of the key challenges included:

Delayed customer response: Customers often missed reminders or failed to respond in a timely manner, leading to delayed payments and communication gaps.
High operational cost: Traditional manual processes for follow-ups and customer engagement required considerable manpower and resources, driving up operational costs.
Compliance risks: Ensuring regulatory compliance across multiple communication channels remained a persistent challenge.

To overcome these obstacles, Annapurna sought a solution that could help streamline their customer communications, increase operational efficiency, and drive business growth.

SOLUTION

Embracing digital transformation for enhanced operations and communications

To address these challenges, Annapurna partnered with Infobip to implement a comprehensive digital transformation strategy.

Our communications platform enabled Annapurna to integrate SMS, IVR, and WhatsApp-based solutions to enhance efficiency, reduce manual intervention, and improve customer engagement.

To power up two-way customer interactions and provide 24/7 customer support, our platform helped provide a conversational experience with our customer engagement solution Moments, chatbot building platform Answers and contact center solution Conversations.

This holistic approach enabled Annapurna to provide:

Automated SMS reminders: Timely alerts were sent to customers regarding important dates and updates, ensuring they remained informed.
IVR Voice calls: Interactive voice reminders helped provide customers with important information, driving more responsive behaviour.
WhatsApp chatbot: Available 24/7, the chatbot provides instant access to essential information, enabling seamless self-service and enhancing the customer experience.

RESULT

Transformative shift in customer experience and operational efficiency

By partnering with us, Annapurna Fianance has enhanced its operations while continuously bridging the digital divide with Infobip’s product:

Elevated customer experience: Seamless, timely communication through SMS, Voice IVR and WhatsApp has improved customer interactions, reduced missed payments and strengthened long-term relationships.
Stronger customer confidence: Transparent and proactive engagement has built customer confidence, reinforcing trust in the company’s financial services.
Improved accessibility and convenience: The 24/7 WhatsApp chatbot and automated reminders provide instant support, making financial services more accessible and efficient.
Enhanced compliance and transparency: All communications adhered to RBI (Reserve Bank of India) guidelines, ensuring compliance and transparency throughout the process.

Some of the results included:

2x increase in digital adoption: A significant surge in digital engagement, with a two-fold increase in active users within just three months.
12% increase in product adoption: Successful promotion of the JIT loan through targeted messaging campaigns, resulting in an increase in subscription.

This transformation has streamlined operations and positioned Annapurna Finance as a trusted financial partner, committed to delivering an exceptional customer experience.

Annapurna Finance’s digital initiatives have streamlined its communication and operational processes, boosting efficiency, customer engagement, and compliance. With over 1.12 million active users and nearly 75% of customers in rural areas, the company has successfully leveraged automation to create a customer-centric financial ecosystem.

Through our partnership, Annapurna Finance has enhanced customer interactions while ensuring compliance. This transformation underscores the critical role of digital solutions in making financial services more accessible, transparent, and efficient.

Infobip has been an invaluable partner in our journey to digital transformation. Their innovative solutions have empowered us to connect with our customers in a more meaningful and efficient way. By using WhatsApp, SMS, and Voice, powered by Infobip’s conversational customer experience platform, we’ve been able to break down barriers, improve customer satisfaction, and drive business growth. We’re excited to continue our partnership with Infobip and explore new opportunities to enhance the customer experience.

Ashish Mishra

Product Head, Annapurna Financial Services

COMPANY PROFILE

Annapurna Finance Pvt. Ltd. (AFPL), established in 2009, is now one of the top ten NBFC-MFIs in India. With a strong focus on financial inclusion, AFPL empowers economically backward clients, especially women, by offering need-based financial services that support their entrepreneurial journey and entire lifecycle. Committed to improving socio-economic conditions, the company promotes sustainable development through microloans, green products and efficient environmental management practices.

Hrvatski Telekom: Leveraging partnership to build AI-powered conversational support solutions for telco customers

62%

of users targeted through Viber paid outstanding bills

20%

increase in revenue through partnership

CHALLENGE

Streamlining common queries and dunning processes

Hrvatski Telekom (HT) is the leading telecommunications company in Croatia. They sell telco and ICT products and services to customers and businesses across the country. One of the major issues they faced was collecting debts from end-customers who were late paying their balances. They were using an automated recording over a voice call to inform customers that their account would be suspended but the majority of users would ignore the call.

Additionally, with their business customers, two types of requests that were most common and contributed to the high number of calls to their contact center:

1. Technical support for fiscal register service:

Businesses were often looking for technical support with their POS machines, leading to long wait times to speak with an agent. Additionally, during the busy summer months in Croatia, businesses are often looking to activate additional machines and deactivate them when the tourist season ends, which can become a lengthy process for both them and HT agents.

2. Dunning and troubleshooting

Any inquiries around viewing payments due, processing payments, and technical difficulties around bills and e-bills tend to clog the customer service telephone line. Most of these inquiries are repetitive and can be quick to resolve – but reaching a busy agent in a call center takes time.

To address these common requests from business clients, HT needed to find a way to automate responses and offload this work from their customer support agents so they can commit more time to other complicated tasks. At the same time, they needed to find a more effective way to engage with customers who have outstanding balances and prompt them to complete their payments.

To do this, they needed a conversational experience platform that could offer a full-rounded communication solution from chatbots and cloud communication services, to a customer data and engagement solution.

SOLUTION

AI-powered chatbot solutions and automated messaging to make common queries more efficient

Thankfully, HT did not need to look far for a solution provider as they were already in a long-standing partnership with Infobip.

About the partnership

The HT-Infobip partnership was initially centered around an automated programmable SMS messaging and launched in 2012. Over the years, the partnership expanded as Infobip added new tools and channels to its customer communication solutions portfolio, allowing HT to offer corporate clients from various industries upgraded packages.

These packages included CPaaS solutions (A2P SMS, Viber, WhatsApp, and Email) and SaaS solutions for uses cases that would allow these enterprises to launch and market new products to end-users. This partnership is still evolving, with HT preparing to launch packages similar to the enterprise-level one but targeted toward VSE and SME clients.

Thanks to this partnership, HT had a deep understanding of how Infobip products and solutions have been beneficial for their clients. And so, they were ready to start creating solutions to alleviate their own business challenges and reach their overall goals of:

Decreasing the number of calls to the HT call center
Improving the satisfaction of their business clients
Improving the rate at which customers paid their bills

1. WhatsApp chatbots for business clients

The first solution consisted of two chatbots that could resolve the repetitive issues around payments and fiscal registers. Infobip’s chatbot building platform, Answers, allowed HT to create chatbots that could recognize user intent and provide quick resolution to queries through its Natural Language Understanding (NLU) engine.

The chatbots were deployed over a single channel, WhatsApp, as it is popular among users in Croatia, allowing HT to offer convenient and fast service to their clients.

The first chatbot resolved queries around technical issues for fiscal registers:

Customers could use the self-service chatbot to get instructions on how to activate and deactivate POS machines, add or update products, and upload certifications. The chatbot would push all data from that conversation to the customer data platform, People CDP, to collect and store important information like permanent and temporary deactivation. Moments, Infobip’s customer engagement platform, is used to trigger an email with the deactivation or activation form the customer requested over the chatbot.

Now, customers have 24/7 technical support for POS machines without the lengthy call queue and are only transferred to speak with an agent if necessary.

The second chatbot helps customers with payment and troubleshooting requests:

Customers can request to view outstanding balances and monthly bills, activate e-billing, and get assistance with troubleshooting payment issues over the WhatsApp chatbot. The customer simply provides the necessary authentication information, which is verified via API with HT’s billing system, and the chatbot provides a PDF response with the desired information. If customers have requested to receive e-bills, an email confirmation is triggered over Moments to ensure a smooth and reassuring experience for customers.

For technical issues, customers can initiate a reboot over the chatbot. After verification passes and the connection has been checked, the chatbot returns the result of the troubleshooting action. In the case that it is not successful, the customer is swiftly redirected to speak with an agent over Infobip’s cloud contact center, where the agent is able to access the chatbot conversation for context.

2. Automated dunning messages on Viber and SMS

To improve the responsiveness of their customers and the rate at which end users paid their bills, HT decided to leverage Viber and SMS messaging to reach customers directly.

They began automating messages on these popular channels to improve their visibility and reduce the chance of their dunning efforts going unanswered. By proactively reaching out to customers about overdue payments, they aimed to lower the number of unpaid balances and reduce the number of customers calling asking for their accounts to be reactivated.

At the start of this process, HT used Infobip’s Professional Services to help design and build the chatbot. But after some time and high-quality education around Infobip products, they were ready to develop chatbots themselves. This was critical to them because as partners, HT better understands how their own clients can best use Infobip products that are offered in their telco packages.

RESULT

Significant increase in issue resolution and completed bill payments

Overall, HT saw a decrease in the number of calls to their call center, alleviating the repetitive workload on their support agents.

When it comes to their business clients, more than half of all technical queries for fiscal registers are resolved through the chatbot without an agent getting involved and there was a significant increase in issue resolution for payments and technical support.

The WhatsApp chatbots have allowed HT to resolve technical issues which are often the most common problems telcos see reported to their customer service departments.

Their proactive dunning messages on Viber and SMS have also seen great results, with 57% of customers who received these automated messages paying their bills within five days. With such success on Viber, HT decided to also leverage the channel for promotional campaigns like for special offers or to promote gamified experiences on their mobile app.

62% of customers paid their bills after receiving a Viber message

38% of customers paid their bills after receiving an SMS

At the same time, the partnership side of the HT-Infobip relationship is flourishing, with a 20% increase in revenue coming from the upgraded packages offered to their corporate banking clients, and a boost of 10% in interactions with them.

HT has found successful support solutions for themselves through Infobip’s conversational experience platform while at the same time offering high-value products and services to their clients through this partnership.

Ivana Beli Ostarcevic Hrvatski Telekom — Ivana Beli Oštarčević
Director of ICT portfolio development and management sector at Hrvatski Telekom

COMPANY PROFILE

Hrvatski Telekom is the leading telecommunications company in Croatia providing a full range of telecommunications services – fixed and mobile telephony services, data transmission, TV services, internet and international communications. Hrvatski Telekom also provides a wide range of business solutions and services to companies of all sizes, from ICT and Cloud services to POS and customer engagement solutions, as well as Smart City solutions to local Croatian governments.

Neo Pay Iraq: Up to 60% in cost savings with omnichannel authentication

60%

in cost savings

CHALLENGE

Keeping OTP delivery consistent and secure

Neo Pay Iraq, a pioneer in Iraq’s fintech space, is on a mission to drive financial inclusion with innovative digital payment solutions. Since its launch in October 2019, Neo Pay Iraq has made secure and accessible financial services a reality for countless users. Starting with virtual cards, it has grown its offerings to include Classic and Platinum business cards, as well as the Dinar card—making payments simpler, safer, and smarter.

Despite making significant inroads in a market that is still heavily reliant on cash, Neo Pay Iraq faced a unique challenge: Delivering seamless and reliable authentication methods to their customers.

With many customers that are new to the concept of cashless payment solutions, ensuring secure transactions is crucial for building and maintaining their trust.

Previously, Neo Pay Iraq used SMS from another service provider to send one-time passwords (OTPs) for account registration and transaction approval. But connectivity issues and frequent mobile network interruptions led to inconsistent OTP delivery.

Customers became frustrated when delayed OTPs prevented them from making immediate payments. This not only impacted customer trust, but also directly affected Neo Pay Iraq’s revenue.

The rise of online scams in Iraq underscored the urgent need for a secure and trustworthy authentication system. Neo Pay Iraq realized they needed an omnichannel approach to optimize reliability, improve customer experience, and minimize fraud risk.

SOLUTION

Enhancing security and accessibility with Infobip Authenticate

Neo Pay Iraq was drawn to Infobip’s competitive pricing and our strong reputation for reliability and compliance in fintech. The company chose our omnichannel authentication solution, Infobip Authenticate to tackle its OTP delivery challenges.

Authenticate integrates instant messaging channels like WhatsApp, with SMS as a failover, ensuring secure and seamless communication. This way they benefitted from using a chat app their customers used along with our direct mobile network operator connections for reliable SMS delivery.

Additionally, WhatsApp is a widely used channel in Iraq, where many consumers rely on internet access instead of mobile networks due to unreliable connectivity.

By using the channel, businesses can have a verified WhatsApp account that enhances credibility, with a green verification badge on the sender’s profile helping to counter fraud attempts.

For customers without internet access, SMS serves as a backup. The OTPs are used in two key scenarios:

During card activation, they verify the identities of users, ensuring a secure onboarding process
An extra layer of security for each transaction by requiring users to confirm who they are in real time.

Key benefits of Infobip Authenticate that stood out for Neo Pay Iraq include:

Omnichannel support: With WhatsApp and SMS integration, OTPs are delivered reliably – even if there’s a network outage.
Easy integration: Our APIs enabled quick implementation, which could be completed within two to three weeks, including testing and optimization.
Enhanced security: A verified WhatsApp business account with a green badge combats scams, and builds customer trust.
Operational excellence: Our platform’s advanced reporting and monitoring tools streamlines OTP management and improves service quality.

Neo Pay Iraq received dedicated support during the implementation, especially when they switched from a generic sender ID to a dedicated WhatsApp sender ID to start using a verified account. This change enhanced compliance and security, ensuring a smooth and credible customer journey.

RESULT

Up to 60% cost savings and increased trust

Infobip Authenticate enabled Neo Pay Iraq to improve their OTP delivery rates and achieved 50-60% in cost savings by using WhatsApp as their preferred OTP channel.

Customers appreciate the faster delivery of OTPs and the convenience of receiving codes via WhatsApp, further enhancing their overall experience.

Furthermore, Neo Pay Iraq’s verified WhatsApp accounts increased customer confidence by cutting down on OTP fraud attempts.

Our authentication solution showcased WhatsApp’s versatility in driving engagement, and Neo Pay Iraq is now exploring new use cases, like running marketing campaigns to encourage card renewals.

Thanks to reliable OTPs, Neo Pay Iraq strengthened its authentication process and cemented its position as a trusted partner in Iraq’s move toward financial inclusion and digital transformation.

Mohammad Sinno
Head Of Strategy & Business Growth at Neo Pay Iraq.

COMPANY PROFILE

Neo Pay Iraq is a pioneering fintech company that promotes financial inclusion in Iraq through innovative digital banking solutions. By bridging the gap between consumers and merchants, they offer services like virtual and physical payment cards to empower individuals and businesses in a fast-changing market. As a Visa strategic partner, Neo Pay Iraq is driving greater financial access and innovation.

AccioJob: Elevating customer interactions with automation and omnichannel connectivity

40%

reduction in wait times

20%

increase in CSAT scores

150%

increase in employee satisfaction

CHALLENGE

A need to automate the user journey and reduce manual processes

As a leading EdTech company in India, AccioJob is committed to helping students and job seekers launch their careers in Software Development, Data Science, and Cybersecurity through both online courses and campus drives.

To support this mission, AccioJob employed a dedicated team to manage student queries. However, over time, they noticed that 80% of these queries were repetitive, leading to a significant strain on their team’s resources.

To streamline their customer support and enable their team to focus on more complex issues, AccioJob needed a solution that would:

Reduce manual assistance by automating simple FAQs and reducing the agents’ workload
Drive higher engagement by tailoring communication based on the user profiles
Segregate new visitors from existing registered users for more targeted communication
Increase customer satisfaction by providing relevant answers to user queries related to the courses

Investing in an omnichannel communications platform was seen as a requirement to streamline their operations, enhance the user experience, and boost their lead generation initiatives.

SOLUTION

Implementing a conversational communication channel

After a thorough evaluation of multiple providers, AccioJob chose to partner with us for our exceptional omnichannel capabilities and seamless user experience. They found our platform highly intuitive, allowing their team to adopt it quickly with minimal training, maximizing efficiency from day one.

To attain their goal of automating the user journey and reduce their team workload, AccioJob selected WhatsApp Business Platform. Being the most popular communication channel in India, WhatsApp was an obvious choice.

To start with, they developed a WhatsApp chatbot for their website using our chatbot building platform, Answers, which integrated seamlessly with our cloud contact center solution, Conversations. Our professional CX consulting team provided support throughout the process and helped them design automated chatbot flows using Answers.

How did they automate the customer journey?

AccioJob used WhatsApp Flows to create automated journeys for their customers. Users could gain detailed information about the courses they showed interest in using the interactive buttons. Here’s how the automation worked:

Instant interaction: Users initiate the conversation by clicking on the WhatsApp icon on the AccioJob website.

Automated assistance: The chatbot answers FAQs and resolves simple queries related to various courses on the website without human intervention.

Smooth transition to live agents: In case of a query the chatbot can’t resolve, the customer is seamlessly handed off to an agent via our contact center solution, Conversations.

The integration of WhatsApp chatbot with our cloud contact center solution, conversations proved to be a holistic combination that not only automated the entire process but also ensured prompt and personalized assistance, enhancing the customer experience.

As WhatsApp was a key communication channel, AccioJob also leveraged it to boost their marketing initiatives. The channel was used for sending notifications, renewal reminders and promotional offers to drive business growth.

RESULT

40% reduction in support wait time

With our omnichannel communications platform, AccioJob created a rich conversational support experience for its users.

Integrating the WhatsApp chatbot with Conversations improved the response time, reduced agent workload, and enabled them to provide 24/7 support.

This helped AccioJob elevate its support system and observe significant improvements in its metrics:

40%

reduction in users’ wait time due to instant responses from the WhatsApp chatbot.

20%

increase in customer satisfaction (CSAT) due to lower wait time and smooth communication experience.

150%

improvement in team satisfaction scores after automation of their customer support process.

Infobip platform is user-friendly with excellent customer support, making it the ideal choice for our needs. The integration process was also seamless resulting in a hassle-free setup. Our experience with Infobip has been smooth and efficient.

Mansi Singh

Head of Customer Success and Partnerships at AccioJob

COMPANY PROFILE

AccioJob is a leading EdTech company based in India engaged in providing the ultimate learning platform for students to start their careers in Software Development, Data Science, & Cybersecurity through online platform and campus drives.

Choice TechLab: Scaling financial education and boosting engagement with WhatsApp automation

94%

increase in student engagement

Challenge

Reach more people and drive higher student engagement

Through its non-profit segment Arth Nirmithi, Choice Tech, a leading fintech company provides free financial literacy on stock markets to individuals in rural India and urban Gen Z.

To set itself apart from the competition and the typical customer engagement approach, Choice Tech wanted to connect with its audience on a deeper level, build trust, and make learning about stocks fun and engaging.

To do so, they needed to invest in a unified omnichannel communication platform that allows them to:

Segregate the students into segments for targeted engagement leveraging user behavior insights
Localize and personalize communication by tailoring messages to students’ preferences and interests while delivering content in regional languages
Track interactions to drive loyalty and point incentives
Increase course completion rates by keeping students engaged and motivated with timely reminders and updates

What they needed was partnering with a single communications platform that enhances their omnichannel capabilities, diversifies their channel portfolio, and helps them connect with students in a personalized and engaging manner.

Solution

Leveraging automation, data-driven insights and omnichannel customer engagement

After a thorough search, Choice Tech decided to partner with Infobip to build a holistic omnichannel student engagement solution.

They built an automated end-to-end customer journey over WhatsApp using our chatbot building platform, customer engagement solution, and customer data platform.

Using our chatbot-building platform, Answers, Choice Tech developed an intelligent WhatsApp chatbot that tailored the interactions with students, simplified onboarding and automated the entire process of issuing course certificates.

The company conducted frequent workshops and events in colleges to expand its reach and educate students on the stock market. To encourage proactive conversation after the workshop, Choice Tech launched a QR code that allows students to initiate conversation on WhatsApp with the help of pre-filled messages and download their workshop certificates.

Given the diverse topics of the workshops, it was very important to customize the messages so that the students received the correct certificate.

The next step was to get the students enrolled in a 21-day financial course segregating them into different groups with the help of our customer engagement platform, Moments. While Answers played a key role in streamlining the entire onboarding process, Moments helped send video courses on WhatsApp.

To keep the students engaged and reduce the number of dropouts, frequent reminders were sent to complete the course. Upon completing each day’s lesson, students earned some points against which they were rewarded with physical and digital products.

Thanks to our customer data platform, People CDP, Choice Tech was able to keep track of the accumulated points and leverage this data to reward the most deserving students and drive loyalty.

Interactions with the students were mostly done in local languages such as Hindi and Marathi apart from English, which made the overall communication quite engaging. Every now and then, student feedback was collected to understand the level of knowledge acquired and assess whether they were ready to experiment in the stock market.

Choice Tech partnered with Fin X to deliver a hands-on platform for students to apply their stock market knowledge in real-world scenarios.

Our conversational experience solutions empowered Choice Tech to create a communication flow to identify the users who had started the practical training using the company’s Fin X application. Accordingly, the company supported the users throughout the learning process with tailored communication.

Result

94% increase in student engagement

The seamless WhatsApp integration with Answers and Moments transformed how Choice Tech connected with its students. From instant certificate delivery to personalized learning journeys, every interaction became smooth and purposeful, driving higher engagement than using traditional email communication.

By utilizing Answers for onboarding and engagement and Moments for reminders through WhatsApp, they achieved:

94% increase in student engagement through WhatsApp compared to traditional email-based communication
78% reduction in resource delivery time through WhatsApp automation
98% of students received certificates instantly due to automation
15% of student dropout rate from 60% earlier after localized content delivery via WhatsApp

Localizing financial education in Hindi, Marathi, and English helped Choice Tech break down barriers to financial education across India. Through our omnichannel communication platform, Choice Tech achieved its goal of making financial literacy truly accessible to its target audience in 3-6 cities of India.

The support experience from Infobip has been nothing short of exceptional. Whether 3 PM or 3 AM, their support team was there, ready to help. This isn’t just about fixing issues – it’s about having a partner who ensures your success 24/7. I’ve never experienced a situation where my relationship manager wasn’t available for a query, something unheard of in today’s tech landscape. Their platform empowered us to create sophisticated yet user-friendly systems that scale effortlessly.”

Abhishek C. Gidde

Product Manager, Choice Tech Labs

Company Profile

Choice TechLab

Choice TechLab Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Choice International Ltd., is part of a leading Indian fintech group. Its key brand, Arth Nirmithi, promotes financial literacy in India, focusing on stock market education and money management. Choice International’s flagship product, Fin X, is an investment and wealth management app that empowers users to make informed financial decisions.

Ready to transform your student engagement?

Reach out to our experts to find out how our platform can help you scale financial education and drive meaningful connections.

zingala: Hyper-personalizing the customer journey with data-driven CX

53%

SMS click-through rate

Challenge

Need to leverage existing data to personalize customer experience

zingala is a leading brand in innovative consumer payments, specializing in large-amount installment plans and small-amount payments. It offers flexible and diverse payment solutions, dedicated to promoting inclusive finance and helping customers achieve their desired lifestyles effortlessly.

An essential step for zingala in being more financially inclusive for customers was to ensure data centralization, so they could tailor their messaging based on each customer’s preferences.

To optimize company operations, they needed to implement a robust system that seamlessly integrated customer data from various touchpoints.

Centralized data management:

Consolidating member data into a single location to have one single source of truth was a priority for zingala. Due to scattered data and a manual process for managing it, the company faced challenges in executing its marketing campaigns.

For example, launching an SMS or email campaign was time-consuming as it required coordination with multiple departments.

Automated marketing workflows:

Automating marketing campaigns across various channels in a synchronized manner was needed to save time and effort. This was needed not only to speed up processes but also to ensure customers received timely and relevant communication

It required a long time to prepare for marketing campaigns, and there was no way to track the effectiveness or conversion rates. It was essentially one-way communication with no follow-up. Additionally, there was no way to verify the accuracy or completeness of the extracted data.

Taimin Hsieh

Marketing Manager, zingala

Solution

Hyper-personalizing the customer journey with automation

zingala partnered with Infobip to overcome the challenges related to personalization and data management. Our conversational customer experience platform provided them with the following:

Chinese language interface: Being able to support Traditional Chinese, making it easier for the team to use and navigate.
Ease of use: Our simple, plug-and-play user interface made it convenient for the zingala team to execute campaigns seamlessly.
Native CDP integration: Our natively built customer data platform, People CDP, gave them a single source to unify, organize, and leverage member data.
Global platform: Our reputation as a global leader, demonstrated by successful case studies, showcased our capabilities and provided confidence in their choice.

In addition, our omnichannel customer engagement solution, Moments, enabled them to personalize the customer journey over SMS, Email, their mobile app, LINE, and Instagram. This omnichannel approach helped encourage repeat purchases from existing customers and design activities and content to acquire new customers.

Hyper-personalizing the customer journey

Welcoming new members:

To offer a quick onboarding experience for new members, zingala created a personalized onboarding flow. A gamified approach, dubbed the “survival mission,” was implemented to encourage new members to explore the app and learn about its features. The new members were informed about key features and ongoing offers with personalized notifications and reminders.

Engaging existing members:

zingala adopted an omnichannel approach to interact with existing members effectively by leveraging SMS, push notifications, email, and Instagram so that members receive relevant messages across their preferred channels. Using our platform, zingala segmented users based on customer attributes such as age, purchase history, and preferences to personalize their experience and deliver highly relevant messages.

Enhancing customer loyalty:

To elevate customer loyalty, zingala implemented several initiatives, such as launching personalized birthday campaigns with offers. By leveraging RFM (recency, frequency, and monetary value) based segmentation, the company was able to identify high-value customers and tailor campaigns accordingly. Similarly, customer satisfaction surveys were launched via our customer engagement solution to gather feedback and identify areas for improvement.

Interactive gamification on social media

Through our platform, they used our chatbot building solution Answers, to create an interactive experience on LINE, and Instagram Chatbots were used to engage with potential customers, collect leads, and provide information about the zingala service. The chatbots played an important part in creating gamified interactions such as quizzes and games, to increase engagement and collect customer data.

We found that with a highly targeted list and the use of Moments features to communicate, the performance metrics were excellent. This successful method can be replicated in future campaigns.

Taimin Hsieh

Marketing Manager, zingala

Result

53% SMS click-through rate and 19% rise in push notification open rate

zingala leveraged our platform to provide an end-to-end conversational customer experience with a complete nurture flow and personalization.

Here are the key results:

Increase in push notification engagement: Users who clicked on the SMS links received a follow-up push notification on the App, resulting in a 19% open rate.
High SMS click-through rate: SMS campaigns saw a remarkable 53% click-through rate, due to the use of a segmented and targeted audience.
Better email open rates: Personalizing emails based on customers’ past purchases resulted in a 4.2% open rate.

Apart from these, using Answers, zingala was able to minimize its operational cost and reduce the workload equivalent to three customer service representatives.

Not only can they reliably verify more people during the sign-up process, the use of SMS as a communication channel has led to a reduction in loan defaults as more customers can be reached and encouraged to continue with payments. Using SMS as a primary channel, backed up by push notifications ensures the best chance of reaching people.

With a rise in smartphone users across the globe, Branch is building a customer-first financial product that can be accessed completely by phone. With no need to visit physical branches that may be a long way away, or to fill out excessive paperwork, Branch is democratizing the loan market by making their products available to a far larger section of society. This led to them being named Best Digital Lending Platform of the Year award at the 13th Africa Bank 4.0 Summit in 2023 and Most Innovative Loan & Finance Brand of the Year by Africa Fintech Brands Innovation Awards in 2024.

Infobip has played a pivotal role in achieving our goal of creating a hyper-personalized customer experience. With Infobip, we have consolidated our member data and marketing channels, saving time and effort. We have also been able to design workflows and deliver tailored product recommendations using the Infobip platform, which has helped us attain higher customer engagement. I feel that Infobip has been instrumental in our growth. Without Infobip and its comprehensive service, we wouldn’t be able to reach as many members.

Taimin Hsieh

Marketing Manager, zingala

Company Profile

About zingala

Based in Taiwan, zingala launched as an independent consumer installment services brand in 2018 to enhance financial inclusion for a broader audience and help customers achieve their desired lifestyles. Today, zingala has become a leading brand in Taiwan, with a membership of 1.4 million.

Start creating hyper-personalized conversational experiences today!

Reach out to our experts to find out how our platform can help you create data-driven campaigns.

Branch: Using SMS to achieve the highest possible delivery rates for business-critical messages

89.2%

delivery rates for key SMS messages

Challenge

Help more customers access financial products by streamlining the registration process

Branch is a personal finance app based in Nigeria that provides access to instant loans for mobile phone users.

With a mission to deliver world-class financial services to the mobile generation, Branch uses machine learning to determine each applicant’s credit worthiness using information provided via their smartphones.

With no requirement to provide physical documentation, and the ease and speed of the application process, Branch makes loan products available to sections of the population that have been underserved by traditional banks.

To date it has issued 7.4 million loans to over 1.7 million customers, totaling over 282 million US dollars.

As with any service that has an application process, one of the biggest challenges for Branch is to provide a seamless onboarding experience for new users. Part of this process is to get people verified to ensure that they are who they say they are.

If this process is difficult then they are more likely to abort their application and possibly start an application with a less reputable loan company that may not comply with Nigeria’s privacy and compliance regulations. To avoid this, it is crucial that Branch has a direct and reliable way of communicating with customers during and after the application process so that they can get verified and receive any encouragement that they require.

For people who get distracted during the application process or who lose network signal, reminders sent on a channel that they check often are the most effective way of bringing them back to complete their application.

Solution

Benefit from an omnichannel approach to customer communication

With Branch’s sister company in Kenya already using Infobip successfully, the team reached out to us to see how we could help.

The most important requirement was the reliable delivery of messages during the application process. However, the cost effectiveness of the messaging solution was also important – it had to align with Branch’s business goals without impacting profitability.

SMS was identified as the best option due to its widespread use by customers and the excellent cellular coverage in Nigeria. As a backup channel, push notifications from the app could also be used in situations where a person did not have cellular signal but was connected to the internet.

For pure marketing use cases, email would also be used where the message was more detailed and needed to incorporate rich media or attached documents. Utilizing an omnichannel approach to their customer communication would give Branch the flexibility to leverage the strengths of each channel.

The role of SMS in the loan application process

The first step is for the person to download the Branch app onto their smart phone.
They then enter their mobile number and receive a one-time pin code (OTP) by SMS, which is delivered almost instantaneously via Infobip’s infrastructure.
As biometric SIM registration is mandatory for all mobile phone subscribers in Nigeria, this ensures that the person applying for the loan is who they say they are.
The next step is for the person to enter the personal details and bank verification number that enables Branch to confirm their identity and run the credit checks required for a loan offer.
If a person’s progress stalls, then SMS messages can be automatically triggered to bring them back into the process.
Once the application is submitted customers get a loan decision back within minutes or even seconds

The quicker that this process can be completed the less chance there is of a person aborting their application because they get distracted or lose network connectivity.

Branch commented on how easy the implementation process was. Their engineers had conversations with our staff who talked through the setup process and provided all the API documentation and support that they needed to get the solution up and running.

Branch were particularly happy with the service that they received from their dedicated Infobip account representative in Nigeria, who they said went above and beyond to help when they had a query.

Result

Achieving 89.2% delivery rates for key SMS messages

Being able to achieve consistently high delivery rates for business-critical messages has enabled Branch to streamline the loan application process. This has contributed towards achieving their goal of giving more people access to loan products.

89.2%

Delivery rate for SMS authentication messages.

72.4%

Delivery rate for promotional SMS messages.

Working with Infobip has been a very positive experience for our business. Firstly, the ease of integrating the SMS channel into our workflows meant that we could get up and running very quickly. The consistently high delivery rate of SMS messages gives us the confidence that we are reaching the greatest possible audience. It has allowed us to recover a higher proportion of loans that might have been lost previously, which has had a positive impact on profitability. Finally, the service we have received from Infobip staff has been excellent – during and after the implementation they have always been available to help when we have needed assistance.

Oluwaseyi Onibudo

Marketing Lead, Nigeria

Company Profile

About Branch

Branch is a personal finance app available to customers in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and India. They offer flexible loan services to meet personal and business needs without the time delays and hassle of providing the collateral that traditional institutions demand. Branch strives to ensure customer satisfaction by making services simple to access and available to customers 24/7.

Start creating hyper-personalized conversational experiences today!

Reach out to our experts to find out how our platform can help you create data-driven campaigns.