Heightened Demand for Digital Transformation in SACCOs to Boost Customer Experience

By Leonida Kombo,

In 2020 Kenya’s financial institutions’ digital readiness was put to test. To date, pressure is mounting on Kenyan Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (SACCOs) to fast track the improvement of their digital platforms despite the major strides they have made in Customer Experience over the past decade. Kenyan consumers are increasingly favouring online services in the financial sector particularly mobile and internet banking.

Customer expectations are changing and they want to feel that they are in control. SACCO members need to be offered convenience. Mobile advancements in other sectors such as Traditional Banking, e-commerce and mobile money providers have already implemented efficient mobile services such as mobile wallets. This has caused members, particularly the youth, to have higher expectations on mobile service delivery from other service providers.

It is important to note that customer expectations are based on previous experiences with a company’s products and services so keeping a pulse on this is not only a nice to have but essential to the business. Ajua has worked with several SACCOs in Kenya to help them understand & analyze their members’ experience. This has enabled many SACCOs to shape their next products, services or even make decisions on the expansion of branches’ necessity and receivership into the market.

Most importantly, having the right strategy starts with access to data, if your different departments aren’t working together as a cohesive whole, you cannot ensure a streamlined customer journey. In order to truly implement data-driven decision-making, organizations must take on a customer-centric approach. Customer centricity demands a shift in organizational culture. The value to put the customer first should be shared from the leadership team and across operational teams. Different departments need to work together as a cohesive whole to ensure a streamlined customer journey.

With the right technology, SACCOs can provide their members an omnichannel experience. Essentially the ability to connect with members at their convenience across different touchpoints in real-time. Traditional methods such as suggestion boxes, physical questionnaires and emails often yield poor results. Ajua has helped SACCOs make their businesses more efficient and reduce operating experience through its platform. Most SACCOs Ajua has worked with initially used these traditional methods and reported that these methods were not timely and often recorded low engagement with members. Such inefficiencies would often result in delays in solving members’ problems ultimately resulting in churn.

The most notable effect of focusing on exceptional Customer Experience delivery is revenue growth. Customer churn costs enterprises upto 50% of the marketing budgets in Sub-saharan Africa, increasing the customer retention rate is a sure win not just on budgets but on the overall growth of a company. Customer loyalty is the result of a company consistently meeting and exceeding customer expectations. 64 percent of people think Customer Experience is more important than price in their choice of brand. This goes to show that customers are highly likely to switch brands due to poor customer experience. According to Richard Owen, Co-Founder of the Net Promoter Score, Founder of CX Cognition and Board member at Ajua, brands with superior Customer Experience are likely to bring in 5.7 times more revenue than competitors that lag in customer experience.

In conclusion, SACCOs can fast-track their digital transformation by getting a 360-degree customer view. This will not only enable them to demystify their audience personas but also carry out predictive analyses. Simply put, in addition to having a background on your customers’ previous behaviour, you will now be able to predict what they are most likely to respond to.

About Ajua

Ajua is Africa’s first Integrated Customer Experience company for businesses on the continent. We exist to bridge the gap between businesses and their customers. Ajua’s technology integrates with businesses at the points that matter most to their customers to measure and optimize their Customer Experience. Our plug-and-play platform has enabled leading brands of various sizes and industries on the continent to create actionable strategies that drive business growth.

Ajua officially rebranded from mSurvey on July 31st, 2019 to reflect our growth, ambition and African Identity in our corporate brand.

Contact:

To learn more about Ajua and Integrated Customer Experience, please contact the Marketing team at [email protected] or Leonida Kombo – Communication & Content Manager, Ajua | [email protected] | +254 726 024 751.