Infobip‘s WhatsApp chatbot recreates the retail store in digital form as the pandemic changes customer behavior

It now handles 92% of customer queries and has helped grow revenues directly attributable to WhatsApp by five times in year one

Vodnjan, Croatia – 25 July 2022: Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, the most preferred digital telecommunications company of Indonesia, has launched a new WhatsApp chatbot to reinvigorate interactions with millions of customers, powered by global cloud communications platform Infobip. In less than six months the new chatbot has transformed the company’s customer service operations, increasing customer satisfaction by 40% and growing revenues directly attributable to WhatsApp by fivefold in the first year.

With 94.6 million subscribers, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison focuses on providing an exemplary customer experience. Calling customer service is not free in Indonesia so many of the company’s subscribers search for help online and inundate its social channels. What’s more, with Covid-19 lockdowns, subscribers were unable to seek help or make purchases from its retail stores. So, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison required a new service to respond to changing market conditions, provide continuity of service with stores closed, and answer diverse and numerous customer queries.

Infobip’s chatbot-building platform, Answers was employed to develop a new customer service channel over WhatsApp, Indonesia’s most popular private messaging platform. The high-powered chatbot covers over 200 individual use cases. These include checking balances and remaining data quotas, downloading bills, and registering for value-added services. By integrating credit cards and e-wallets, the chatbot can also manage online bill payments, account top-ups, and telecom package purchases, enabling the new channel to generate revenue. If a query cannot be solved by the chatbot, customers are transferred to a customer service agent.

Since introducing Infobip’s chatbot, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison has seen a 40% increase in customer satisfaction, with 70% of customers giving the chatbot the highest possible score. In year one, revenue directly attributable to WhatsApp has increased fivefold.

The chatbot also enables Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison to develop campaigns to reach specific customers who opted in to receive updates via WhatsApp. For example, postpaid customers who had traditionally paid bills in-person were sent links via WhatsApp to pay using their phones.