Chat-based customer engagement is on the rise as businesses work to stay ahead of the curve in an environment driven by consumer behaviour and change.

The rapidly evolving digital age requires businesses to “be where the customers are”, regardless of the channel or location, with the ‘chat economy’ the latest phase in the evolution of the digital economy.

Technology has significantly transformed the way the basics of life are accessed, including transport, music and food, says mobile technology group Clickatell chief marketing officer Nirmal Nair.

“For people and businesses, a bigger seismic shift is happening right now: the chat economy,” he adds, noting that, in a world of ‘mobile first’ growth, particularly in emerging economies, people’s expectations of businesses are evolving.

“We see the chat economy taking shape – and it may prove to be the biggest, longest and most globally transformative chapter in the unfolding story of the digital economy,” says Nair.

Asynchronous messaging, immediate responses, convenience, personal interactions and more streamlined experiences are driving consumers’ preference for chat applications as a communication path.

“Customer service is no longer restricted to interactive voice responses or phone calls with inherent wait times – customer service can be real time and set at the customer’s preferred time,” says Clickatell chief product and technology officer Jeppe Dorff.

In addition, consumers want to use their preferred channels of communication to engage with brands, demanding platforms with speed and efficiency, using a mix of channels most convenient for them, including SMS and chat platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

“Chat has advantages over other digital options beyond not requiring downloads of single-brand applications. People already spend significant time within their favourite chat applications,” Nair says.

Smartphone Access
More than 2.3-billion people, or 34% of the world’s population, access the Internet through smartphones, and a significant percentage of people use at least one chat application.

Data from Statista shows that, in general, WhatsApp had 1.6-billion monthly active users across 180 countries in April, followed by Facebook Messenger with 1.3-billion monthly active users, while WeChat dominates the Chinese chat landscape with about one-billion users.

Research by Pew Research Centre reveals that 57% of users in South Africa are using WhatsApp.

As a customer engagement company, Clickatell has showcased the power of chat-based engagement for businesses to unlock speed and efficiencies for consumers.

Established in 2000 in South Africa and headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in Toronto, Nigeria and Cape Town, Clickatell’s mobile engagement and real-time mobile transaction platforms have seen significant growth over the past few years, owing to changing consumer behaviours and businesses’ need to adapt in the rapidly evolving digital era.

Conversational commerce, a convenient way to engage customers at scale, is surging on the back of a rapid increase in the number of smartphone users, which is expected to pass the five-billion mark this year.

A PwC study found that consumers would spend more in exchange for positive, speedy and efficient brand experiences.

Further, statistics disseminated in Smooch’s ‘State of Messaging 2019’ report reveal that 83% of consumers mainly use messaging applications to learn about a product or service, 76% to get support and 75% to make a purchase.

“We have seen hundreds of businesses apply for the WhatsApp business solution we offer. We see the foundations of a chat economy being built, which will be the future for local and global business-consumer engagement,” says Dorff.

Recently, the company noted brands increasingly aiming to create a stronger brand presence with their customers.

“Commerce is, in essence, an extension of any customer engagement, and having the embedded capability to provide a rich customer engagement experience makes it easier for customers to engage and conduct business with brands, and for brands to provide a rich informational and transactional experience without requiring the customer to leave the channel,” he adds.

WhatsApp is a broad-reach chat environment with strong consumer acceptance, and its commitment to privacy and security has created an “ideal platform” for commerce and customer engagement.

Delivering chat commerce experiences on WhatsApp is one of the most efficient ways of reaching a maximum amount of consumers who can immediately benefit from the services offered on the channel.

However, businesses have largely lacked the tools to message with customers in a personal, secure and scalable way.

Chat interactions must support intuitive product selection, friction-free payments and fulfilment experience, as well as simple identity management that is essential to building trust in chat commerce and maintaining the simplicity of chat.

“Our products are based on the simple idea that communicating with a business should be as easy and uncomplicated as chatting with family and friends using the mobile devices and applications you already use every day,” Nair says.

Clickatell also offers its ‘One API for messaging’ solution, enabling companies to integrate multiple channels into their business systems using a one-time integration. (API stands for ‘application programming interface’.)

Secure Two-Way Chat
The WhatsApp business solution can be used to send and receive messages, images and videos, while tracking the status of sent, delivered and read messages and leveraging a secure two-way chat with customers, besides others.

“Businesses are eager to engage their customers in real time through their favourite chat applications, and we are enabling them to do just that,” he says.

Recent examples include several major African banks and telcos.

Clickatell has onboarded clients such as MTN South Africa, which became the first telco to launch chat commerce on WhatsApp, as well as GTBank, First Bank of Nigeria and United Bank for Africa (UBA), besides others, which have all successfully deployed chat banking capabilities on WhatsApp across Africa.

Clickatell is working with banks to foster financial inclusion, offering key services on WhatsApp, with chat banking “only the beginning”.

“There is no doubt that some industries are more aggressive in terms of adopting these types of services – we have seen a large pull from banks across the world to leverage our solutions. We offer broad banking services on several chat channels and are experts in helping our customers identify their pain points and implement solutions which are specific to them,” says Dorff.

Clickatell pioneered the chat banking innovation through WhatsApp, with strong emphasis on security to make WhatsApp a risk-free and convenient business engagement channel for customers.

The ground-breaking banking platform was launched in Nigeria with UBA, with customers able to undertake their banking activities on WhatsApp and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, more commonly known as USSD, with additional channels slated for 2019, the company highlights.

Multiple layers of encryption and authentication ensure a safe and hassle-free transactional experience, Dorff points out.

Steward Bank, in Zimbabwe, worked with Clickatell to provide the chat commerce channel, attracting over 30 000 users in the first three weeks.

Steward Bank customers can check balances, access customer service, open accounts, buy airtime, pay bills and buy digital products.

“Just over 37 000 customer profiles were registered in the first three weeks following the launch,” says Steward Bank CEO Dr Lance Mambondiani.

A launch with First Bank of Nigeria marked the third large-scale deployment by Clickatell in the African market within one month in 2018.

“By providing consumers with what they want, when they want it and integrating solutions where they engage and transact, Clickatell innovation like Chat Banking on WhatsApp paves the way for consumers to gain confidence and trust in digital transactions,” Dorff notes.

Clickatell is diligently pursuing its goal of reaching all Nigeria’s banked consumers.

While the WhatsApp business solution is revolutionising how financial institutions engage with their customers, the platform’s capabilities are being rapidly extended to other verticals, including retail, ecommerce and travel.

“Banking has been quite explosive for us, but we are seeing great traction in telecoms and travel as well.

“We are seeing a great deal of retail businesses, financial services, and even hoards of smaller businesses that are forward thinking.”

In a first for a South African telecomminications firm, MTN Chat will enable customers to initiate the purchase of airtime and data bundles within their WhatsApp chat session, with plans in place to unlock customer support and self-service options, including performing upgrades, managing their accounts and receiving ‘low balance’ alerts.

“The Clickatell offering provides an easy, secure and convenient way of giving users control over their accounts through WhatsApp, a platform they already have an affinity for,” says MTN South Africa corporate affairs executive Jacqui O’Sullivan.

In retail, a business can manage general customer enquiries; respond to enquiries about refunds, returns and product availability through chat; connect customers to order details; and send customers shipping and delivery information and confirm purchases – all automatically.

Ecommerce businesses can use the WhatsApp business API to unpack order information, such as purchase, tracking and delivery updates; product availability; and billing enquiries, including status on returns, payments and other billing issues.

“We are on a journey with an incredible focus [on becoming] the preferred partner to our customers on all channels in all servicing verticals, including bots and chat desk, besides others,” Dorff says.

“We are scaling up our global efforts with offices in Toronto, California, Lagos and Cape Town – we are ready for global scale.

“Right at this moment, we are laser-focused on delivering delightful customer experiences for our customers and helping them take advantage of all the capabilities of our turnkey solutions,” he concludes.