LAQO Insurance elevates support with Infobip’s gen-AI and Azure OpenAI partnership
30%
of queries are handled by the AI digital assistant
90%
of queries are handled within 3-5 exchanged messages
Challenge
Enhance customer service and provide 24/7 fast, accessible, and personalized support
From offering metaverse experiences to using telematics data to encourage better driving habits, LAQO is not your typical insurance company. As Croatia’s first fully digital insurance provider, LAQO by Croatian Insurance is making waves across Central East Europe with its unique blend of seamless digital processes and customer-centric innovation.
From the get-go, LAQO has been continuously working on strengthening its digital identity through numerous innovations. Innovation is at the core of the brand, and this is shown by the projects we have successfully implemented so far.
Ana Zovko
Director at LAQO
With a strong history of innovation, LAQO wanted to enhance its customer service and provide fast, accessible, and personalized support. Offering 24/7 customer support was the ideal solution that would tackle the challenge of optimizing the company’s customer service.
For LAQO it was important to choose a communication partner and a strategic partner with whom they could continue to explore new avenues for collaboration, identify synergies, and capitalize on opportunities. Along with having a shared goal to further expand and deepen the partnership, ultimately delivering exceptional value to clients and achieving mutual growth and success.
Solution
Adopt a GPT-enabled assistant for customer support using Infobip’s Gen-AI and Azure OpenAI Service
In partnership with Infobip and Microsoft, LAQO used Azure OpenAI Service through Infobip’s cloud communication platform to develop a digital assistant, Pavle, that can support customers 24/7 while improving customer experience and driving loyalty. The digital assistant is customizable to suit specific customer needs and can handle many customers simultaneously.
A new chapter of partnership
LAQO turned to its long-term partner, Infobip, who had previously equipped the insurance company with an omnichannel cloud contact center solution to connect customers over their preferred messaging channel. Infobip, known for its relentless innovation in generative artificial intelligence (AI) on top of their communication platform, collaborated with LAQO’s marketing agency, Bruketa&Zinic&Grey to initiate the project and define the brand’s character.
With its vision to shape the future of market communication, Bruketa&Zinic&Grey shaped Pavle’s character into a human-like bot with a great sense of humor in line with LAQO’s brand personality at every stage of the customer journey.
Later, we sat down with LAQO team to map the company’s customer support journey. LAQO saw that although all the information was covered on its website, clients didn’t have time to read it. They preferred to talk to an agent via a popular channel like WhatsApp Business Platform. So, LAQO looked for a sustainable solution, and Infobip provided it.
To tackle repetitive queries, LAQO and Infobip teams set out to design the AI Assistant’s decision-making structure using Azure OpenAI Service and Infobip’s chatbot building platform, Answers. Building the AI Assistant took two weeks, but the real challenge was language. The Croatian language is not as supported as English, so Infobip worked closely with LAQO to fine-tune wording to ensure accuracy. With the documentation ready, the team was ready to set up a new version of the AI Assistant in five minutes.
The next step was to test and refine the assistant continuously. The team made sure that the AI Assistant could only cover insurance claims and general information about LAQO to avoid giving misleading information. LAQO also took special care to minimize hallucinations or confident responses that aren’t justified by training data.
Addressing hallucinations such as adjusting temperature is the usual first step—i.e. the parameter in the algorithm itself that controls the randomness or uncertainty of the outcomes. Infobip used advanced prompting techniques and carefully prepared content.
Danijel Temraz
Principal Engineer at Infobip
Infobip also worked closely with its partner Croatian Telekom, a member of the Deutsche Telekom Group, to implement the solution’s technical delivery.
We are developing new, rich functions to improve the interaction between LAQO customers and the brand. Pavle will now be able to share images and videos connected with the questions, making the whole interaction more engaging. We are also working on the multi-personality feature.
Martina Ćurić
Staff AI Engineer at Infobip
Pavle is now available to assist and greet customers 24/7 over WhatsApp Business Platform and transfer them to a live agent for more complex queries. The digital assistant offers guided steps in swiftly processing accident claims. After confirming insurance coverage, the AI Assistant directs customers to the app where they can report the incident.
Result
30% of customer queries are resolved through the AI digital assistant
Today, LAQOs digital assistant is handling 30 percent of customer queries, freeing LAQO’s agents to focus on complex cases and customer acquisition. This also resulted in faster claim resolutions, allowing agents to resolve damage claims within 24 hours.
For third parties impacted by a LAQO-insured driver, AI Assistant provides a web link to a process that’s just as automated to facilitate claim processing.
LAQO GPT sets a new benchmark in customer support automation by offering natural, human-like and user-friendly conversational experience that not only provides immediate and high-quality assistance to users but also delivers exceptional value.
Željka Stiblik
Senior CX Consultant at Infobip
Optimizing customer support and agent efficiency
The AI Assistant has completely redefined customer support for LAQO, gaining the immediacy that insurance customers require. In addition, 90% of queries are now resolved in an exchange of three to five messages. Pavle also provides consistent answers, unlike human agents who might vary in their responses. This consistency is essential for us to maintain customer trust.
The AI Assistant also brought about a more optimal allocation of human resources. Agents initially saw it as a burden due to the rigorous testing, but after a few days, they recognized the benefits.
Now, we can automate great customer support and our agents can spend time helping new customers, dealing with complex cases, or building new features. What’s more, we spend 10 percent less effort on our contact center. Even with growing demand, we don’t need to expand our team at this point. And when we save money and resources, we can redistribute it to other initiatives important to us.
Monika Tonžetić
Head of Digital Sales and Customer Support at LAQO
Charting the next chapter
LAQO is laying the groundwork for its next big move, which involves allowing Pavle to sell insurance policies and provide specific information to prospective customers. What’s more, LAQO is working on humanizing customer interactions further by adding new elements to the AI Assistant’s reply repertoire. Pavle will be able to share images and videos connected with the question itself, making the whole interaction more engaging.
Both LAQO and Infobip recognize that given the complex regulations in insurance, innovation must be both daring and diligent. As the technology partner, Microsoft provides the rigor in responsible generative AI, while Infobip offers technology and expertise in crafting user experiences that build lasting relationships.
Our advantage is that we have a group of people with a different mindset who are willing to challenge these rules. We aim to show our customers that insurance can be intuitive and user-friendly. Everything our customers need will be available on their phones. In an industry that can be intimidating due to its complexity, we want to simplify our customers’ experience. We don’t just sell policies; we want to be with our customers throughout their life.
Ivan Bimbi
Head of Digital Strategy and Processes at LAQO
Company Profile
LAQO Insurance
LAQO stands out as Croatia’s first fully digital insurance company, disrupting the market in its domestic market and Europe. With offers including vehicle, travel and pets insurance, LAQO replaces traditional paper workflows with streamlined digital processes. The company’s digital-first ethos even led to a gamification feature, LaqoPrevent which uses telematics to encourage better driving habits, rewards responsible driving, and explains how customers can reduce their CO2 emissions. Beyond its core services, LAQO has ventured into digital innovation, introducing features like cryptocurrency payments and even a metaverse museum in Decentraland highlighting the evolution of insurance.
Readmoo: Scaling customer service and improving agent productivity with a unified contact center solution
20%
increase in customer service team productivity
Challenge
Provide a high quality and cost-effective service to a growing customer base
Readmoo is a pioneer in the eBook market, specializing in traditional Chinese texts. Launched in 2012, it has grown to over 1.3 million customers, primarily in Taiwan but with a global customer base of around 30%. As the first vendor to enable readers to switch between horizontal and vertical text flow it provides a flexible and easy reading experience. With all purchased books stored in the cloud, customers can read any time on phones, tablets, or Readmoo’s eReaders mooInk.
With high numbers of Chinese readers around the world signing up to their unique service, Readmoo wanted to be able to provide a fast, consistent, and high-quality service as the business expanded and the volume of sign-ups and product queries grew.
The three primary channels for customers to get in touch were Email, Voice and Messenger. However, each of these channels was managed individually, with inconsistencies in response times and no sharing of information between them. As a result, customers often had to repeat information when they switched channels or spoke to a different customer service agent.
Readmoo was looking for a provider who could consolidate all the channels that they used into a single solution and enable them to provide the service they were capable of in a cost-effective, and easily scalable way.
Solution
A consolidated and flexible customer service solution
Having been introduced to Infobip via the Taiwan Internet and eCommerce Association, they recognized that we could provide the consolidated solution they were looking for, with the added benefit of an experienced local team in Taiwan.
Readmoo provides a number of options for customers and the book publishers they work with to get in contact. Users of the Readmoo app on smartphones, tablets or Readmoo’s eReaders mooInk can fill out a contact form within the app which automatically formats the query into an email and sends to the customer service team. Within the form they can also choose how they prefer to be contacted. A similar form is also available on Readmoo’s website.
By implementing Conversations, our cloud contact center solution and People CDP our customer data platform, agents would have a single solution interface for consolidating all requests and queries from Email and Voice channels. In addition, they could use Conversations’ direct inward dialing (DID) capability to transfer incoming calls from the landline to their laptops for easier handling.
Conversations’ workflow and reporting capability would enable managers to make optimal use of agents’ time and ensure short wait times and consistently good service for users.
Using People CDP, they would also be able to consolidate all customer data in a single location so that agents always had access to every customer’s history and context and therefore provide a more efficient and personalized service. Agents would be empowered to continually enhance the data, for example by adding phone number and address details if these hadn’t already been recorded.
Result
20% increase in productivity for customer service team and improved internal collaboration
In addition to a significant improvement in the productivity of customer service agents, there have been other major benefits across Readmoo’s business.
Improved agent productivity
By removing channel silos and providing easier access to customer data, agents have been able to reduce the average time it takes to resolve queries and therefore handle more queries without requiring additional resources.
Our Conversations solution has also provided the customer service manager with clear visibility of each agent’s workload, who is currently on a call, who is working on urgent tasks, and the overall task completion rate. This has provided them with the tools required to improve team efficiency.
Overall, the increase in agent productivity has been measured at 20%.
Empowered internal teams
Consolidating all customer data in the People CDP has facilitated better information flow and collaboration between departments.
Improved customer experience
In addition to reduced wait times when contacting the support team, customers enjoy a more streamlined experience because agents have instant access to their transaction history and previous interactions. This means they don’t need to repeat information that they have already provided.
Readmoo is committed to providing the fastest and most effective service for our customers. With Infobip, we got a unified solution with a contact center and customer data platform that helped us unlock efficiencies, improve internal collaboration, and enable us to communicate more effectively with our customers over Voice and Email. All contributing to helping us achieve our business goals.
Lulu Liu
Customer Service Team Manager, Readmoo
Find out how a cloud contact center solution has transformed these brands’ customer service operations:
Company Profile
Readmoo
Readmoo, a pioneer in Taiwan’s rapidly growing eBook marketplace, is the largest vendor of eBooks in traditional Chinese. With Readmoo users can enjoy a wonderful reading experience on their phones, tablets, or using Readmoo’s eReaders mooInk. Launched in 2012, Readmoo has grown to over 1.3 million users worldwide.
Avon Morocco: 50% more sales representative activations thanks to Infobip’s SMS
50%
more activations
Challenge
Digitally transform recruitment of sales representatives
The origin of Avon Products, Inc. dates back to 1886, and over the years, they have become known for enabling women to earn independent incomes through the direct sales of cosmetics, perfume, and jewelry. One of the markets they operate in is Morocco, where Avon Maroc launched operations in 2001.
Avon pioneered a direct selling model via local representatives, which has grown into a network of 5 million women across more than 50 markets. The company recruits and develops door-to-door salespeople (also referred to as “Avon ladies” or “Avon men”) to sell skin care products, jewelry, accessories, and clothing.
But in an ever-digitalizing world, Avon was pressured to adapt their sales model to continue expanding their business. They also struggled to attract younger representatives and customers.
Avon Maroc was not exempt from these challenges and needed to address the following:
- Embracing digitalization while preserving their traditional direct sales model
- Recruiting, onboarding, and growing a younger representative base
- Finding a stable and reliable messaging service provider to reach representatives
- Sending tactical messaging with personalized offers and communications
Solution
SMS to activate Avon’s sales network in a reliable manner
Avon Maroc’s first step to address these challenges was to launch an internal application, Avon Grow, to digitalize its entire recruitment process. The next challenge was to drive traffic to the application, and they opted for SMS to promote Avon Grow.
While Avon already had an SMS service provider, they lacked personalization and tracking capabilities. Avon chose Infobip’s SMS as a replacement, which they could easily integrate into their existing platform thanks to our API.
Infobip’s SMS service also has tagging and customization capabilities with real-time reporting, which further enabled them to customize and send targeted messages to drive registrations on Avon Grow.
Infobip’s SMS service efficiently segments profiles into groups, enabling tailored communication. Avon leveraged real-time reporting to gain valuable insights and improve targeting through factors like duration of activity, driving more registrations.
Security is not neglected throughout this process either. Once prospects have registered on Avon Grow, group leaders manually process their information to prevent fake recruitment. In addition to manual security measures, authentication links are also shared via SMS to verify identities and complete the registration process.
Once representatives are registered, they receive further SMS messages to onboard them with information about the brand, processes, and other digital tools at their disposal.
Avon Maroc uses bulk SMS to send automated messages and time-sensitive information to drive sales of specific products. And thanks to data gathered by their internal CRM system, they send tactical, personalized SMSes to individual representatives to drive sales. The tracking functionality also enables Avon to target and incentivize inactive representatives.
For example, suppose a representative missed or stopped selling a specific product. In that case, they will send a personalized SMS with a special offer to incentivize them to include the product in their stock.
Result
50% more reactivations with SMS
SMS through Infobip has helped Avon efficiently reach all its representatives.
Thanks to Infobip’s SMS service, Avon Maroc can target their campaigns more effectively and drive more sales through tactical, personalized messaging. As a result, they reactivated more than 50% representatives. Up to 10% of these activations were based on personalized offers.
The tracking and customization capabilities of Infobip’s SMS solution also enabled the company to better target and attract a younger age base. Representatives between 20 and 29 make up 30% of their network, while those between 30 and 39 make up 32%.
Our SMS solution allows Avon to send over one million messages each year.
Relying on Infobip as a partner for our digitalization was an excellent choice. The group not only supported us in our efforts but also made relevant proposals and brought real added value thanks to its expertise. After those good results, the ambition is to work with Infobip on WhatsApp and chatbot in the following months.
Imane Ettaki
Communication and digital marketing specialist, Avon Morocco
Find out how Infobip has helped other brands achieve their goals with SMS
Company Profile
Avon Morocco
Avon is a company operating in cosmetics and perfumery following the direct sales model. The brand, founded in the USA 135 years ago, relies now on a network of 5 million sales representatives and exists in more than 50 countries. Avon is committed to the emancipation of women through entrepreneurship, health, and the democratization of cosmetics. The brand’s ability to innovate is visible on the product level and in the digitalization of its processes.
Infomedia: Increase in channel revenue and customer engagement with omnichannel marketing
2%
increase in channel revenue
Challenge
Increasing engagement and conversion and lowering dependency on traditional ad channels
Infomedia is a digital marketing agency responsible for one of Easter Europe’s leading eCommerce solution providers Providio. Infomedia’s marketing efforts coupled with Providio’s brand building solutions they handle the entire customer journey for some of the regions B2C retailers, right from importing and ordering to post-sale support.
Until now, Infomedia was reliant on Facebook ads to run campaigns for Providio to reach new audiences and initiate engagement with customers. However, only using Facebook ads was limiting and expensive. Providio needed an innovative omnichannel solution that could help them give their retail clients the reach, conversion, and branding to stand out in the marketplace.
Since the majority of their client and customer base was situated in Eastern Europe, they started exploring Viber for conversational engagement and SMS for sending timely transactional promotions. However, there was still one element missing, and that was personalization.
Facebook ads and bulk promotions weren’t getting the desired engagement and conversion. And finding a single communications platform that could leverage customer data to help create and orchestrate marketing campaigns in an omnichannel way was proving difficult.
Solution
An omnichannel customer engagement solution for personalized promotions over Viber and SMS
Enter Infobip’s omnichannel communications platform. Infomedia and Providio were familiar with sending bulk SMS promotions over our platform in the past and decided to revisit and explore sending campaigns over Viber as well.
Viber provided them with rich conversational marketing campaigns, while SMS was the reliable failover channel for urgent, timely messages.
In addition, our customer engagement solution Moments along with our customer data platform People allowed them to create personalized campaigns over Viber and SMS, thereby lessening their dependency on Facebook ads.
The drag-and-drop ability of our platform made it easy for Providio to create campaign flows and trigger event-based messages with simple APIs for cart abandonment, promotional events, and geo-targeted promotions.
Moments empowered them to customize multi-step campaign flows and deliver tailored messages for each customer over the channel they preferred without any manual workload.
The People API allowed them to easily connect data from their platform to ours to create communication flows based on category, cost, and purchase history, and build audience segments for each campaign.
After successfully integrating our 1-way messaging, Infomedia looked for a solution that would enable them to use 2-way messaging on channels like Viber, Email, and WhatsApp. For that purpose, they implemented our cloud contact center solution Conversations. This enabled them to come in more immediate contact with customers.
Result
2% increase in channel revenue with personalized omnichannel campaigns
Not only was the integration of Viber, SMS, Moments People, and Conversations easy, but it also helped them improve their engagement rates.
Having an omnichannel approach ensures that the right message is sent on the channel their customers prefer and a failover is triggered over SMS in case there is loss of data. Making sure every campaign is delivered.
Personalized marketing campaigns over Viber and SMS have increased their channel revenue by 2%.
Now, with the implementation of WhatsApp they are working closely with the Infobip team to understand the best channel for each country with the aim of increasing their channel revenue by 5-10%.
Infobip’s communication platform empowered them to adopt an omnichannel marketing strategy, unify data, enable two-way customer engagement and provide support thereby resulting in an increase of ROAS and ROI. All on one platform.
Infobip’s communications platform helped us improve our ROAS and ROI by blending rich media channels such as Viber and WhatsApp with the reliability of SMS. This along with a customer data platform, customer engagement solution and contact center solution empowered us to move towards two-way interactions and provide support. And to top it all the solutions were easy to integrate and the ability to manage all communications over one platform helped reduce operational load.”
Boris Despot Vuletić
Director of Business Development, Infomedia
Find out how Viber powered by Infobip can deliver the best results
Company Profile
Infomedia
Infomedia is a digital marketing agency from Banja Luka, managing eCommerce increasing ROI for eCommerce brands in Eastern Europe with complete in-house solutions for building branded products. They have complete solutions from product curation, manufacturing, importing up to product ordering and post-sale activities.
Imagine CX: Increasing revenue with innovative communication solutions via Infobip and Oracle’s partnership
193%
increase in potential clients
5%
increase in sales revenue
Challenge
Need for a communications solution provider to seamlessly integrate with existing Oracle and address CX needs
Latin America’s leading business consulting firm Imagine CX, strives to be a strategic ally to brands by developing high-impact customer experience and digital transformation initiatives.
As an Oracle Gold Partner, they were on a look out for a comprehensive communications solution provider that they could easily integrate to scale their client’s customer experience and address a range of challenges and needs such as:
- Centralizing customer information
- Sending mass messages through WhatsApp
- Routing customers to specialized advisors
- Streamlining customer communication
- Enhancing omnichannel customer experiences
- Automating messaging processes
- Personalizing customer interactions
- Gaining data-driven insights
- Improving customer engagement
- Increasing operational efficiency
They needed a communications technology partner that could easily integrate with their existing Oracle Sales, Oracle Eloqua and Oracle Service solutions, and strengthen their business globally through:
- Market expansion: By helping expand their services to new markets and leverage each other’s strengths and market insights to identify strategic opportunities and unlock new growth opportunities
- Continued client success and support: Working closely together to ensure joint clients receive the highest level of service and support throughout their journey. Deliver exceptional customer experiences, drive client satisfaction, and foster long-term partnerships.
For Imagine CX, it was important to choose another Oracle partner with whom they could continue to explore new avenues for collaboration, identify synergies, and capitalize on opportunities. Along with having a shared goal to further expand and deepen the partnership, ultimately delivering exceptional value to clients and achieving mutual growth and success.
Solution
Partnering with Infobip to integrate WhatsApp Business Platform and Moments with Oracle Sales, Oracle Service, and Oracle Eloqua
Imagine CX chose Infobip as a partner due to our comprehensive communications platform, global reach, technological innovation, strong reputation, and partnership approach.
Our wide range of offerings allowed us to provide our clients with an integrated communication platform, while their global infrastructure and partnerships ensured seamless solutions on a global scale.
They integrated WhatsApp Business Platform powered by Infobip along with our customer engagement solution Moments with Oracle Sales, Oracle Service and Oracle Eloqua to enhance customer experience processes. This integration provided significant benefits to their clients and allowed them to send conversations to Oracle Sales, Oracle Service, and Oracle Eloqua.
This integration of Infobip’s solutions and Oracle with their microservice, allowed ImagineCX to:
- connect customer information with agents
- centralize all customer data in one place
- give their clients a complete view of customer information, including purchased products, previous interactions, and other relevant details
- efficiently manage and direct WhatsApp conversations
In addition, this integration of Oracle, Infobip, and Imagine CX has been a key factor to their growth and success. By leveraging each platform’s strengths and harmonizing the varied functionalities, the partnership allowed ImagineCX to create a unified experience for their clients.
Both ImagineCX and Infobip’s commitment to innovation, customer-centric approach, and successful platform integration helped foster a successful and mutually beneficial partnership.
Together, with Infobip’s hands-on approach and ImagineCX’s knowledge we have implemented various successful strategies and approaches.
In-depth needs assessment: We work closely with clients, understanding their challenges and goals, to develop targeted solutions.
- Tailored solution design: Leveraging our platforms and services, we craft custom solutions that perfectly fit the clients needs.
- Active support and collaboration: Ongoing assistance and open communication ensure swift problem-solving and adaptable solutions.
- Innovation and evolution: We embrace tech trends and feedback, driving continuous enhancement and cutting-edge solutions.
The Infobip and Imagine CX partnership in action
Elevate customer chats
Imagine having all your customer chats in one place! With Infobip’s WhatsApp Business Platform and Moments playing nice with Oracle Sales and Service Cloud and Imagine CX’s expertise, several companies like digital platforms of basic SME services and real estate platforms in Colombia now manage chats seamlessly for a bird’s-eye view.
- Chat history, sorted: Thanks to this handy integration, WhatsApp talks are neatly logged in Oracle Sales, making it a breeze to track past conversations and offer that personal touch.
- WhatsApp at your fingertips: No more app hopping! The agents chat directly within Oracle, zipping up response times and keeping it all in one handy spot.
- Tailor-made conversations: Now, WhatsApp chats work seamlessly with other interactions in Oracle Sales, paving the way for personalized, spot-on service.
Upgrade text messaging and automate processes
Mixing Oracle with Infobip’s text messaging and Imagine CX’s expertise allowed a well-known insurance agency nestled in the heart of Colombia’s financial landscape to serve up campaigns with a personalized punch.
Process automation: Through the seamless integration of text messaging services with Oracle Sales and Service Cloud, they have successfully executed highly effective text message campaigns. This integration has empowered them to leverage their CRM data for the creation and deployment of personalized campaigns on a significant scale through the capabilities of Infobip. Furthermore, with the strategic implementation of Imagine CX’s custom microservice, they have achieved process automation, streamlining campaign creation based on CRM insights, and enabling the automated dissemination of mass text messages. As a result, substantial time and effort have been conserved in the management of campaigns.
Result
193% increase in potential clients and 5% contribution to sales
In summary, integrating Oracle, Infobip, and Imagine CX platforms has provided our joint clients with a unified and efficient platform to handle WhatsApp conversations, offering a more comprehensive service experience and improving customer information management.
This helped Imagine CX:
- Generate more business opportunities resulting in a 193% increase in potential clients
- Successful closing of major deals with a 5% contribution to total sales
- Organize six impactful in-person events that saw a 200% increase in participation and strengthened the partnerships joint value proposition
Our partnership has yielded substantial accomplishments, including successful project deliveries for major clients in South America. These implementations showcase our expertise and the seamless synergy between our organizations.
In fact, one of our joint clients, a digital platform that provides services for SMEs, achieved substantial results including streamlined customer service and elevated experiences. By integrating Oracle Service Cloud with Infobip’s WhatsApp Business Platform and Moments, they witnessed remarkable impact: 388% increase, serving 75,000 services, with 60,000 seamlessly managed via WhatsApp integration in 2021.
Lastly, through the partnership Infobip and Imagine CX united for impactful joint marketing and thought leadership initiatives, joining forces in prominent events like the Customer Experience Conference (GO CX) and localized gatherings nationwide. These endeavors amplify the partnerships visibility, credibility, and mutual market positioning, harnessing shared experiences for elevated success.
Over the past four years, our partnership has produced significant results. We have generated business opportunities resulting in a 193% increase in potential clients. Our team has successfully closed major deals, contributing 5% to total sales at Imagine CX. Additionally, in 2023, we organized six impactful in-person events across three cities (Barranquilla, Cali, and Bogotá), which saw a 200% increase in participation, enhancing networking opportunities and fostering engagement. This data reflects the positive impact of our association and the relevance of our solutions in the market.
Katleen Carvajal
Head of Marketing, Imagine CX
Find out how other businesses are using WhatsApp Business App and Moments
Company Profile
Imagine CX
Imagine CX is a business consulting firm specialized in leading high-impact processes of digital transformation and business strategy in the largest companies in Colombia and Latin America in different sectors. They support companies in the design and implementation of strategic initiatives, articulating processes, technologies and corporate culture through the extensive knowledge and experience of their CX consultants. They currently operate in 7 countries within Latin America and looking to expand beyond that in the near future.
Apollo 24|7: Digitally transforming healthcare CX with a unified omnichannel approach
95%
omnichannel delivery rate
72%
increase in average revenue per order using WhatsApp Flows
Challenge
Digitally transform healthcare services to become more accessible and patient-centric
Apollo Hospitals has been at the forefront of the private sector healthcare transformation in India, working hard to create a more patient-centric approach. To match their brand’s legacy, they launched Apollo 24|7, a digital healthcare platform to improve the delivery of healthcare services.
This was in line with the shift in patient expectations to receiving personalized healthcare services at their fingertips.
In their bid to digitally transform the healthcare sector, Apollo 24|7 allowed patients to book appointments, access medical records, and receive medical advice remotely, all via a mobile app.
However, to do so effectively they needed an omnichannel communications approach to ensure patients and the healthcare services were well-connected to deliver better efficiency.
Their aim was to provide:
- Efficient operations: Streamlining their healthcare operations with a cost-effective solution.
- Enhanced communication: Improve communication by allowing patients to easily interact with them and access services over their preferred channels.
- Lead generation: Drive more leads, engage existing patients, and increase revenue and appointment bookings among patients scheduling diagnostic tests.
- Increased customer engagement: Utilize digital channels for engaging and fostering customer loyalty.
- Improved outcomes: Deliver better results and satisfaction by providing data-driven insights and personalized treatment options.
- Personalized re-engagement: Automate payment reminder, cart abandonment, and appointment booking use cases to avoid patient drop off.
Overall, they wanted to boost the digital adoption rate among their customers and partners and build a resilient and future-proofed healthcare system. For that, they need an omnichannel communications provider that allowed them to orchestrate personalized patient journeys across multiple channels and provide conversational experiences.
Solution
CPaaS omnichannel solution to provide end-to-end patient care
Apollo 24|7 chose Infobip’s omnichannel communications platform in a bid to bolster their app and provide round-the-clock service over channels their patients prefer.
Infobip provided Apollo 24|7 a unified omnichannel solution along with leading CPaaS capabilities over a single robust communications platform empowering them to create customized journeys through:
- Unifying patient data with our customer data platform, People CDP to trigger personalized messages, send reminders and give customer care agents a view of the patient’s history.
- Automating messaging flows and triggering events in real-time with our customer engagement solution, Moments for personalized campaigns and sending notifications in real-time.
- Providing always-on assistance with an intuitive chatbot using our chatbot building platform, Answers for assisting in replying to common healthcare queries.
- Delivering live support with our contact center solution, Conversations and to route calls to the right practitioner.
To cater to their patients’ preferences, it was essential for Apollo 24|7 to ensure that their healthcare services were readily available on the patient’s preferred channels. Namely, WhatsApp, RCS Business Messaging, Voice, Instagram, Messenger, and Live Chat.
Apollo 24|7 was able to seamlessly integrate these channels with a single API, helping them scale operations, maximize efficiencies and avoid hardware investments. Infobip’s CX Consultants helped Apolo’s team implement the right use case over the right channel, leading to a personalized approach for:
- Checking symptoms
- Booking and managing appointments
- Booking diagnostic tests
- Getting lab test results
- Running loyalty and marketing campaigns
- Delivering live support
To allow patients who are feeling unwell, or who see the need to visit a doctor, Apollo 24|7 designed a symptom checker. All patients need to do is fill in their details and select the symptoms to get appropriate guidance and next steps. To make it more accessible, Apollo 24|7 built a WhatsApp chatbot using Answers to give patients quick access to the Symptom Checker.
The chatbot made the process interactive, just like talking to a personal practitioner.
The digital transformation of private healthcare services included crucial components, such as:
Appointment booking and management
Integrating Voice as a channel helped provide a personalized approach and ensured patients were routed to the right consultant. Voice API was integrated to their customer care center to contact patients who dropped off or were disconnected while booking appointments.
Patients were then called back with options to route them to the right consultant or person who could answer their query.
In the first half of 2022, Apollo 24|7 used RCS to remind patients of upcoming appointments. These rich messages, set up in Moments, included the time and date of the appointment, name of the doctor, and the location. Patients could then confirm their attendance or reschedule the appointment with the call-to-action buttons in the RCS messages.
Booking diagnostic tests
Apollo 24/7 integrated WhatsApp Flows to help make booking diagnostic tests convenient and quick. Our CX consultants, integrated WhatsApp Flows to create a rich patient experience that empowered them to book their test sin an intuitive manner. The patient could now within WhatsApp, choose the test they wanted to book at a time and date convenient to them.
Lab test results
Regular checkups are important, and Apollo 24|7 endeavored to provide patients with the ability to book lab tests and receive the results at their convenience over a channel they were familiar with – WhatsApp.
Flows created on WhatsApp Business Platform helped customers book lab tests. Once the lab tests are booked, the customers would receive updates regarding sample collection and reports on the same platforms.
Automation
Apollo 24|7 used People CDP and Moments together to deliver personalized messages over the right channels for maximum engagement. Through Moments they were able to craft communication and campaign flows with the right triggers over the patient’s channel of choice. Apollo 24|7 could efficiently craft:
- Surveys: Post-purchase or lab test results surveys were automatically triggered over WhatsApp to check customer satisfaction.
- Appointment reminders: Nearing the scheduled date, appointment reminders and alerts were sent to patients via RCS with SMS as a failover channel.
- Campaigns: Targeted campaigns over RCS were orchestrated to boost patient loyalty.
- Lead generation: To attract new patients, Apollo 24|7 ran a phygital contest over WhatsApp. They advertised the contest in newspapers, encouraging people to opt-in to Apollo 24|7’s WhatsApp channel. Once opted in, people were directed via triggered prompts to upload a selfie and securely submit their details, which were stored in People CDP.
Live customer care
To provide round-the-clock support, Apollo 24|7 added Live Chat via Conversations to their existing customer care center. Through Conversations, agents were able to get a single view of the patient’s history, and able to provide personalized service.
Our local team of CX consultants, brought all the above use cases together to form an omnichannel strategy that took patients from awareness to conversion.
Result
Results: Improved patient experience with a 95% message delivery rate across all channels
With Infobip’s communications platform and omnichannel capabilities, Apollo 24|7 achieved significant business impact.
- Improved patient experience: Apollo 24|7 was able to provide a better patient experience by enabling them to offer more convenient, personalized, and accessible solutions.
- Decreased contact center workloads: With Voice API the number of calls to their customer care center decreased by 20% and resulted in quicker query resolution.
- Reliable messaging: From awareness to driving sales, Apollo 24|7 saw a 95% delivery rate across all channels.
- Increased conversion rate: Loyalty campaigns saw a 15% increase in conversions.
- 67% of chatbot sessions were engaged.
- 49% increase in bookings using WhatsApp Flows, compared to usual chatbot booking approach.
- 72% increase in average revenue per order using WhatsApp Flows, compared to usual chatbot booking approach
Infobip’s solution provided Apollo 24|7 with a significant competitive advantage by enabling them to operate more efficiently, improve the customer experience, access valuable data insights, become more agile, and improve communication and collaboration. Infobip’s solutions helped Apollo 24|7 deliver healthcare to their patients’ fingertips, over their preferred channels.
We were undergoing a massive transformation to expand our digital presence, streamline operations, and improve customer experience. Infobip came in as a communications partner for Apollo 24|7 to help us deliver an omnichannel approach and achieve our business goals quickly. The local team of CX consultants were prompt and were able to help us in real-time. The service, solution and experience with Infobip has been brilliant.”
Prateek Tomar
Vice President & Head of Digital Technology, Apollo 24|7
Find out how omnichannel has benefited other businesses
Company Profile
Apollo 24|7
Apollo 24|7 is a leading healthcare platform, a subsidiary of Apollo Hospital groups, offering a wide range of patient services in India. Through the platform, patients can avail of a variety of healthcare services, including online consultations with doctors, home health services, medicine delivery, and health insurance. In addition to its online services, Apollo 24|7 has also launched a chain of physical stores called Apollo 24|7 Healthstores that offer healthcare products and services, including medicines, medical devices, and health supplements.
MMDSmart: 4.5x revenue growth with SMS and Number Lookup
4.5x
revenue boost
5x
traffic boost
Challenge
Inconsistent connection quality in key markets
MMDSmart, a messaging solution provider for global telcos and enterprises, relies on high quality connectivity especially for delivering one-time PINs (OTP) sent via SMS to verify, validate, and enable account access.
Businesses expect their messaging providers to deliver OTPs as quickly and as reliably as possible, usually within 10 seconds, as delays in the account activation process can lead to a loss of customer interest and/ or account activity. Delivering these messages over indirect SMS connections can result in sluggish delivery times and lower delivery rates, which can negatively impact customer satisfaction, sign-ups, and conversions, and can result in churn.
Sending this already business critical traffic across international borders adds additional complexity, so, SMS providers need to be able to quickly troubleshoot any potential issues. MMDSmart already worked with a lot of partners, but not all of them had the stable routes suitable for OTP traffic. In cases like this, providers like MMDSmart risk spending too much time and resources monitoring and optimizing SMS routes, instead of working on growing their business.
They needed a reliable CPaaS with low-latency SMS routes and high delivery rates in key markets, as well as reliable, and responsive customer support to quickly resolve any issues.
This level of service is usually only attainable from providers who have direct operator connections and SMS connectivity.
Solution
Direct SMS connections from Infobip and Number Lookup
MMDSmart was already using Infobip’s SMS services alongside other providers. However, our 800+ direct operator connections ensured higher delivery rates and cleaner routes, which made it an optimal choice for sending OTPs over the channel.
They began moving some OTP traffic over to destinations where they didn’t have access to direct SMS connections. This provided their customers with the sort of stability and reliability OTP over SMS requires.
In addition to direct SMS connections, MMDSmart began using Infobip’s Number Lookup. Number Lookup checks the live status of mobile numbers against operator records and lets users know which numbers are available or unavailable. Clients can then remove any invalid numbers from their loyalty clubs and databases before launching campaigns. This improves campaign ROI by targeting only available customers.
Lastly, Infobip’s support was on hand whenever there were quality or delivery issues. With InfoBip’s responsive support, MMDSmart could extend the excellent technical support that MMDSmart customers have come to expect from it.
Result
4.5x revenue increase in key markets and 5x traffic boost
Moving OTP traffic to Infobip increased the stability and reliability of A2P traffic. Confidence in the operational stability enabled the MMDSmart team to focus on growing their business by increasing the amount of traffic they were sending.
In fact, MMDSmart recorded a 5x traffic spike in some key strategic destinations by just using Infobip SMS for OTP deliveries.
Thanks to Infobip’s 800+ direct connections to operators, MMDSmart was able to reach some countries where they didn’t have zero-hop connections.
This improved SMS connectivity allowed MMDSmart to offer their customers better connections, helping MMDSmart to provide an even better service.
Thanks to Infobip, MMDSmart has additional direct connections to local operators in 40 countries worldwide and clean customer databases in more than 100 countries.
The two main benefits of working with Infobip were:
- Business growth: Instead of spending time and resources on monitoring and managing connections from other providers, MMDSmart could rely on Infobip to get good service, freeing up resources to focus on growing the business.
- Revenue growth: In some key strategic destinations, MMDSmart recorded 4.5x revenue growth.
Thanks to Infobip, MMDSmart was able to grow their OTP business and associated revenue, improving quality of service towards their customers while also providing value-added services with Number Lookup.
We work with other SMS suppliers, but not all can provide us with quality connections like Infobip.
While working with a lot of other partners, we need to allocate resources on monitoring the quality and fixing issues. And this means that we can’t focus on growth. But with Infobip, good, reliable quality service means that our team can focus on growing the business. The other benefit was that in some important strategic destinations, our revenue growth has been 4.5x. We’re not talking about doubling; we’re talking about more than four times greater revenue growth.
The Number Lookup service is amongst the best and Infobip has become one of our primary providers in this area.
As for support, we only need it when there are quality or delivery issues. Support is very responsive, and we get answers quickly. With this level of support, we can get back to our customers quickly, and this is important because we pride ourselves on giving a high level of support to our customers.”
Volodymyr Honcharenko
Head of Sales, SMS Department, MMDSmart
Find out how SMS and Number Lookup have helped other businesses
Company Profile
MMDSmart
MMDSmart, established in 2007, is a pioneer in the field of SMS business marketing and smart messaging solutions. This leading global supplier of innovative communications products boasts headquarters in Israel, as well as additional offices in Hong Kong, Kyiv, and Sofia. MMDSmart attracts top technical and professional staff, all committed to providing partners and clients with the highest quality service.
Management Financial Group: Increasing response and open rates for a multi-brand portfolio through a single communications platform
20%
higher open rates
15%
higher response rate
30%
increase in customer interactions
Challenge
Centralizing customer communications for a multi-brand portfolio
Increased competition, changing business models, security breaches, and outdated mobile experiences are only some of the challenges financial institutions face today.
As a holding company with a rich portfolio of successful business models, it is crucial for Management Financial Group (MFG) to provide its brands with a fast and secure way to keep customers informed and engaged.
Originally, MFG implemented SMS as a customer communication channel. However, differentiating contracts with each brand led the company to use the channel through multiple providers – resulting in high costs, complexity, and a fragmented experience.
To overcome these obstacles and remain a market leader, MFG needed to build a systematic communication strategy. Mainly, they wanted to introduce new, simple, and economical ways for its brands to attract, inform, engage, and retain customers on their preferred channels.
The company was looking for a one-platform solution with 24/7 support that would reduce the cost and complexity of integrating automation on the most popular communication channels. Most importantly, the financial group wanted a flexible solution that enables its brands to pick and choose the channels and services most suited for them, from one centralized place, while keeping their identity. This was especially important to ensure MFG had a robust infrastructure to support its plans to expand into new countries in the future.
Solution
Setting up new channels and automated solutions through a single communications platform
As a certified local partner, TCP (Telecom Consulting Partner) reached out to Management Financial Group to recommend Infobip as a solution to their challenges.
TCP joined our Partner Connect Program to provide a comprehensive solution that empowers brands to leverage the full potential of messaging as a strategic communication channel. The central, cost-effective, and flexible nature of our solution makes it suitable for companies of all sizes, helping them adapt to consumer demand now and in the future.
In this case, our scalable platform enabled MFG to introduce new channels in new countries through one centralized provider. Our extensive mix of CPaaS and SaaS solutions as well as our team’s responsiveness gave the financial group confidence that their long-term communication strategy will be able to grow globally.
By combining our robust messaging capabilities with TCP’s industry knowledge and expertise, MFG can unlock new opportunities to:
- enhance customer engagement
- optimize messaging campaigns
- drive meaningful business outcomes
MFG decided to follow through with this recommendation due to the wide range of customer communication channels offered, and the ability to add marketing and chatbot automation in the future – all on the same platform. They also gained access to our customer data platform, which enables them to segment and target specific groups of customers based on unique attributes, demographics, and more.
Other campaigns included collection messages which had to reach customers in a timely manner on crucial channels, and campaigns to acquire new customers.
An important part of our platform for MFG is the ability to assign administrative resources according to a campaign type using rules and functionalities. This enables the company to connect customers with the right service representative based on the nature of their query – helping them provide a personalized experience.
Result
20% higher message open rate and 15% increase in response rate
Introducing Viber with SMS failover on a single intuitive platform delivered exceptional results for MFG. The company saw a 20% increase in message open rate when using Viber and SMS as an omnichannel combination, compared to SMS alone for its welcome campaign – followed by a 15% increase in response rate.
Overall, communication increased by 30% after implementing a rich messaging channel.
Most importantly, MFG brands have a trusted and fast way to communicate with customers and can use one platform to manage all of their mobile marketing campaigns.
Working with Infobip was a seamless experience for the financial group due to thorough, easy-to-understand documentation and smooth implementation.
Management Financial Group looks forward to implementing marketing automation through our omnichannel customer engagement solution and setting up an automated onboarding experience using our chatbot building platform in the future.
Implementing omnichannel communication on our customers’ favorite channels using a single platform gave us great results. Viber with SMS failover led to 20% higher open rates for our campaign compared to SMS alone, followed by a 15% higher response rate. Infobip’s platform gives us everything we need to attract, inform, engage, and retain customers on their favorite channels from one workspace.
Silviya Alexandrova
Marketing Manager, Easy Credit
Find out how Viber powered by Infobip can deliver the best results
Company Profile
Management Financial Group
Management Financial Group (MFG) is a holding company, uniting leading providers of non-bank financial services in Central and Eastern Europe. MFG manages a rich portfolio of successful business models in the field of consumer loans, loans for micro and small businesses, credit cards, block chain-powered financial services, digital business and other alternative financial products and services. MFG brings together companies with different experiences, history and traditions. Some of the institutions in the structure of MFG are in the initial stage of their development, some are rapidly developing and growing, others are well established in their industry with over 12 years of experience. Easy Credit, Viva Credit and Access Finances are some of the most recognized consumer brands.
Makro: 100% increase in conversion rate with personalized omnichannel eCoupon campaign managed with Moments
100%
increase in conversion rate
20%
decrease in manual workload
Challenge
Help retail customers to benefit from government initiatives aimed at reducing the cost of essential goods
As a leading wholesale business in the Asia-Pacific region Makro supplies retailers, food service providers, SMEs, and large corporations with a wide range of products from fresh food to electronics, and many other essential items.
With the Thai government launching several schemes aimed at supporting consumers with discounts on goods from participating shops, Makro was keen to get behind the initiative and help 35,000 of their retail business customers who had registered for the Thong Fah (Blue Flag) Pracharat scheme.
This would entail generating and delivering government-approved personalized eCoupons on a monthly basis to their business customers, who could redeem the vouchers for discounts on bulk purchases that could then be passed on to end consumers. Makro would need to track which businesses had redeemed their coupons, so that they could send reminders to prompt them while the coupons were still valid.
Makro had previously used SMS to broadcast marketing messages to their retail customers. This was an effective channel, but with the complexity of managing such a large number of personalized eCoupons every month, their existing manual process for deploying campaigns by SMS was too time-consuming and did not provide the conversion rates that they were looking to achieve.
To ensure the highest delivery rates for the eCoupons, Makro was also keen to introduce a secondary communication channel to serve as a failover and to give their customers more flexibility in how they were contacted.
Solution
Using Moments to automate key communication by SMS and LINE
With Infobip’s expertise in omnichannel communication and a customer engagement solution built for scale, we were an obvious choice to work with.
SMS was retained as the primary communication channel as it is the most effective way of keeping in touch both with traditional businesses and with retailers who have mobile premises that may not always have an electricity or data connection.
For this process to be as effective and efficient as possible there was a requirement for high quality data and accurate processing. To facilitate this, we collaborated with our Partner Connect Program member Wise Target to seamlessly integrate with our solution. With a lot of experience with ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes, the partner was tasked with the syncing and cleansing of data before it was loaded into the customer data platform, People CDP. They were also responsible for generating and hosting the barcode coupon.
For phase 2, LINE was introduced as a failover channel to support SMS and ensure the highest possible delivery rates for the Personalized eCoupons and reminders. LINE was selected as it is the most widely used chat app in Thailand and many of Makro’s retail customers were already using it as a B2C communication tool. These businesses were encouraged to opt-in to receive messages, which offered cost savings on SMS.
Our local Professional Services team helped with API integration that facilitated the movement of data between LINE and the People CDP so that Moments could be used to automatically check the redemption status of every coupon and trigger reminders when necessary.
Result
Doubling campaign conversion rate with a 20% decrease in workload
Once the first phase of the solution was live, Makro saw an increase in personalized eCoupon conversion rates from 30% to 60%. This impressive increase can be attributed to the reliable delivery of the coupon, the ability to automatically send a reminder to merchants who hadn’t used it, and the high quality of the data and reporting which enabled Makro to track results with 100% accuracy.
Phase 2 was all about enabling customers to communicate on their channel of choice. Customers that had opted in to receive messages by LINE showed their appreciation with a similar doubling of the conversion rate. This was a win-win situation as it meant that Makro could benefit from the cost savings of sending a greater proportion of messages using a digital channel.
100%
increase in conversion rate from 30% to 60%
20%
reduction in manual workload to manage campaign
100%
accuracy in campaign reporting
Digital transformation
On their digital transformation journey Makro has been able to benefit from automation to reduce the manual workload required to manage the eCoupon campaign. Despite the doubling of conversion rates, they were able to reduce workload by 20%.
This shows how leveraging multiple channels not only provides customers with a more flexible and convenient experience, but also enables business to benefit from cost optimizations.
Makro has been very satisfied with the service that Infobip has provided, responding to queries immediately and helping to find the best solution to ensure the successful launch of a project that has helped so many of Thailand’s citizens.
The omnichannel capabilities that Infobip provides have played an important role in the success of our eCoupon campaigns and have helped us improve both ROI and the number of engaged customers in the scheme. By using multiple media channels, we were able to achieve higher deliverability rates for our messages and interact with our target audience on their preferred channel. Furthermore, the customer engagement solution Moments and customer data platform People CDP helped us to leverage the data for segmentation and to automate the personalization of campaigns, which resulted in reduced abandonment rates and increased engagement.
Mr. Eakarin Leemaharoungruang
Associate Director Marketing Trade Plan and Transformation
Find out how Infobip has helped other brands achieve their goals
Company Profile
Makro
CP AXTRA PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED was established in Thailand in 1988 with investment capital of 750 million baht, to operate a member-based wholesale center under the name “Makro”. Makro has continuously expanded their branches to provide a wide range of products to their professional members and business operators nationwide, including retailers, restaurants, catering businesses, service business operators, government agencies, and education institutions.
Makro is a committed business partner, and sources a wide array of quality products at a price that customers can then resell to make profit and therefore manage cash flow effectively for sustainable growth.
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.