Clickatell Resources

Chat has gone mainstream. There are now almost 6B regular users of Chat apps like WhatsApp, Apple iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Instagram. Consumers can now find goods and services, make purchases, track orders, and resolve issues with a simple text or chat. Our first-ever Chat Commerce Trends Report shows just how much U.S. consumers have turned to Chat to conduct business, showing a clear path forward for organizations looking to grow new, younger customer segments, reduce service and support costs, and drive revenue by enabling transactions on Chat. Download this report to learn how to begin leveraging Chat: Consumers love Chat – 88% of consumers use chat apps on a mobile device; Facebook Messenger and Apple iMessage are by far the most common. Business are moving to Chat – 54% of those surveyed have already chatted with a business, with Millennials leading this trend. Transact in Chat – 77% of those surveyed are open to make purchases via a Chat app and 1/3 have already communicated with a bank via Chat. Millennial and Gen Z want banks to offer Chat – The majority of survey respondents said they would use a chat app for banking if it was offered. Contact us today to learn more about how your business can benefit immediately from the power of Chat.

See why chat is the channel of choice for baking today.

Learn what you need to know about chat and security today. Chat apps are wildly popular among consumers with over five billion chat accounts in active use today. Banks and other financial services organizations have recognized the importance of chat and have begun to offer chat based messaging services to deliver new, digital communications and transaction features to their customers. Learn about the key use cases and security considerations for the most popular chat channels like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple Business Chat, and Google Business Messages. Key highlights of this paper include: Insights into the world’s leading messaging channels Learn the key features across each messaging channel that best fits your financial service use cases Understand potential security risks and vulnerabilities to consider during each phase of use, from implementation to widespread adoption and use Learn best practices for deploying successful messaging chat channels in your financial services vertical

Delivering innovative customer experiences has become a key differentiator for businesses looking to enhance value and drive innovation in their consumer experience. Chat is becoming the new advantage businesses are taking to transform their digital transformation journey. In this on-demand webinar Omer Minkara, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Aberdeen, and Jeppe Dorff, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Clickatell, discuss the role Chat is playing to accelerate your growth, increase revenue and provide a step-by-step program as a starting point to inject Chat into your digital transformation plan. Learn how to avoid the pitfalls of a non-customer-centric digital transformation strategy. Understand the full ROI for businesses that properly utilize chat for commerce activities. Maximize the value of chat to deliver best-in-class customer experiences. Listen to this on-demand webinar today and contact us to start leveraging chat in your business.

Let customers bank with you in the way they love: via chat.

Learn how to take advantage of the rapidly evolving chat banking opportunities. A global shift is underway, and our eBook outlines how banks should use this powerful medium for engaging and transacting with mobile-first customers. Download the eBook now to learn more about: How chat commerce is disrupting the way in which people transact digitally The opportunities ahead for banks and financial institutions Best practices in the realm of chat banking As a global leader in chat banking, Clickatell offers solutions that banks and businesses require to successfully interact, engage, and transact with their customers. We’ve got everything you need to successfully implement winning commerce strategies across your customers’ favourite chat apps.

Digital transformation is impacting how both credit unions and banks operate. However, each respond to this business and technology shift in different ways and speeds, with banks leading the way. This gives credit unions an opportunity to learn and adapt from banks and what they have implemented, as well as see what is most appropriate for their business models and customers. Bank Branches to Digital Banking Bank branches have been evolving rapidly to meet the needs of their business and consumer clients while maintaining or improving profit margins. Despite customer dissatisfaction, according to a report in NPR , many banks have been closing branches and focusing on digital banking instead. The move toward digital transformation makes sense for most banks because they know younger customers rarely require physical locations. They would rather interact with financial institutions through smartphone apps and online accounts. Also, impacts from Covid-19 these past 12 months have shifted people’s reliance on branches. How Credit Unions Approach Digital Transformation The digital transformation process has presented challenges for many credit unions, which often have limited staff sizes and smaller IT budgets than banks. With less money to spend on digital transformation, credit unions tend to lag behind banks in investing in new apps and other digital communication channels. In addition, credit unions have seen less urgency from their customers to adopt digital banking practices until recently. This has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, the lower urgency means credit unions can take their time adopting newer technologies. On the other hand, they risk becoming outdated before realizing they have lost members, particularly younger members whom are more prone to switch brands, to banks that can meet their preferences. 3 Ways Credit Unions Can Level Up Their Digital Transformation Smaller staff sizes and limited IT budgets don’t have to prevent credit unions from embracing digital transformation. It just means they need to sift through the myriad of options to formulate a strategy and execute with technology approaches that will move the needle most for their customers and their business. Below are 3 cost-effective ways credit unions can take advantage of digital transformation: 1. Use Chat Commerce to Improve Customer Acquisition and Engagement Chat commerce offers better ways to acquire and engage customers—one that isn’t just loved and appreciated by customers, but also cost-effective for credit union themselves and easy to deploy. Chat commerce represents a critical opportunity for credit unions to: Improve the customer experience by providing direct access to information and services without visiting a physical branch or calling a customer service line. Give customers a way to save time and receive the services they need according to their schedules. Save on customer service costs by enabling chat and/or chatbots to offload many of the customer service tasks typically handled by in-person phone calls. When credit unions offer chat commerce through text and popular apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, Google Business Messenger and others, they can improve member experiences and help their non-profit organizations reach higher levels of success. A Clickatell survey of consumers shows that 54% of consumers already use chat apps to communicate with businesses. In the banking industry, 33% of members say they use chat apps to access services from their banks. More important: 71% of people who haven’t used chat apps to communicate with businesses say they are willing to do so. But that’s just half of the story. Brands that keep the customer-first when deploying their digital transformation strategy experience a number of key year-over-year advantages including: 75% increase in annual revenue growth 27% more likely to report decrease in service costs 85% increase in cross-sell and up-sell revenue 2. A Simplified and Secure Process for Banking Accounts Making it easier for new customers to maintain digital accounts without compromising security can give your credit union a straightforward way to grow your membership. That said, it's essential to place a high emphasis on security. Potential customers and current members alike worry about data breaches and "man-in-the-middle" attacks. Choosing chat commerce options known for exceptional encryption and security will give peace of mind to many people and encourage hesitant users. For instance, WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption makes it one of the most secure options for people who want to open digital accounts with credit unions and other financial institutions. When it comes to communicating sensitive information via a chat app, WhatsApp stands out as an excellent option. 3. Adding a Personal Touch to the Digital Experience Giving your customers the ability to transact over chat lets you add a very personal touch. When your bank is a contact in a customer’s address book, engaging with them is no longer a disjointed business transaction. It becomes an ongoing conversation. If someone wants to open a new account, the chat can lead them through each step. If someone wants to check their credit card balance, they can ask the chat app to find the information for them. With chat commerce, there is no tradeoff between personalization and easy access to information and the purchase of new products, thanks to chat’s direct conversational nature. What’s more, it’s not just a better experience for the customer—it’s a serious money-maker for your credit union. Conducting business in chat yields up to 4 times more sales conversion than traditional buying channels Pull in a Proven Partner Given the many moving parts, it’s imperative to bring in experts with a clear understanding of banking use cases—and the functionality to deliver. You’ll need a partner who has experience creating rich chat customer experiences and an understanding of the requirements of and capabilities provided by the different chat channels available. Clickatell is the early leader in delivering chat commerce for financial institutions, including using chat for financial transactions and the purchase of digital goods. Clickatell is also an authorized provider for WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging app. Furthermore, Clickatell is already working with various large fintechs that have historically served the credit union SME bank segment. Our products enable: Multichannel messaging across SMS, social media, and chat apps. Creation and management of automated conversational use cases using business flows and chatbots. Human-in-the-loop interactions via chat channels with customers that cannot be handled by automation. The distribution, sale, and management of digital goods and services. We’ve designed and built highly effective chat experiences for some of the world’s most forward-thinking global financial institutions. Our team of experts has deep chat experience and a streamlined rollout and onboarding process. What’s more, our value-realization framework helps large and small brands ease into this digital transformation with a phased approach and change-management practices. Sound exciting? It is. Please reach out to Clickatell and let’s discuss how we can make chat commerce a key part of your digital transformation strategy. Learn More Chat Commerce and Credit Unions Clickatell’s eBook Chat Banking Is Here: Is Your Bank Ready? can give you deeper insight into how chat commerce helps financial institutions and their members. You can download the free eBook here .

Knowing Which Channel to Use The demand exists. Consumers want to bank via chat. In fact, 70% of U.S. consumers are likely to use a chat app for banking if offered, and 62% agree it would be convenient to bank via the same chat apps they use with friends and family, recent research indicates. But security concerns rank high with chat, with 64% of consumers recently surveyed for Clickatell’s Consumer Trends Report saying they’re “not sure” about security and confidentiality of chat apps. Indeed, millions of messages are exchanged on chat apps today, but few users know how their message content, encryption security and identity are handled in them. The gold standard is for messaging platforms to offer automatic or optional end-to-end encryption, which means that only users who communicate read the exchanged messages. Messaging platforms with end-to-end encryption are rapidly rising in popularity, as is encryption across all web traffic. At the start of 2020, 87% of web traffic was encrypted compared to 53% in 2016, states Mary Meeker’s 2019 Internet Trends Report . But not all messaging platforms are yet at this gold standard level, and banks and consumers need to consider that as they deploy chat to deepen and enhance the consumer experience. To dig deeper into this topic, we analyzed six popular mobile messaging apps and services and evaluated their security and privacy risks with a focus on A2P (business application to end-user) messaging for financial services. In short, we found that every channel or application carries a unique risk profile, that some channels are a better fit for particular uses, and that both companies and consumers will contribute to security in chat banking. Apps, Uses, Security Risks You can read a full review of the research here , but here’s a summary of the apps assessed: WhatsApp Messenger. WhatsApp is one of the most secure, free apps available. With end-to-end encryption support and the claim that it cannot access the private key, WhatsApp scored 73/100 in the 2016/17 Amnesty International report . Owned by Facebook, WhatsApp has more than 2 billion users and is most used across Latin America, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Since 2016, WhatsApp has enabled and implemented end-to-end encryption. Security flaws may appear, but cybercriminals couldn’t decrypt conversations even if they breached WhatsApp. WhatsApp Business API requires the business to integrate with their Business Solution Provider (BSP) and other third-party business tools, relying on the security features of the Enterprise solution. Apple Business Chat. This is also known as iMessage and has an estimated 1.3 billion users. It dominates in North America and Europe. It enables users and businesses to message via the native message’s app on supported iPhone, iPad and MacOS devices. Apple messages are end-to-end encrypted between two devices, but the Business Chat API requires a business to integrate with their Chat Service Provider (CSP) and other third-party business tools, relying on the security features of the Enterprise solution. SMS. Growing and already used by more than 5 billion people, SMS enables the transmission of messages of up to 160 characters among users on a mobile network. SMS is natively supported on all phones, and the user’s phone number acts as their identify. Banks and financial institutions use SMS messages to provide services and engage with customers globally. SMS is most popular for outbound uses, such as appointment reminders, shipping notifications, flight confirmations, fraud alerts, or marketing campaigns. It is the least secure messaging channel on our list, and consumers must be wary of fraudsters trying to entice them into downloading malware or viruses onto their phone or to reveal personal information like passwords and credit card numbers. Facebook Messenger. Facebook’s popular chat application has 1.3 billion monthly active users. The absence of end-to-end encryption is arguably the biggest risk on this channel. Facebook Messenger does allow “Secret Conversations” between two users that are end-to-end encrypted, but it is not enabled by default and must be specifically selected by the user. RCS Messaging (Rich Communication Services). This promises to be the next step in the evolution of SMS. RCS Business Messaging (RBM) is the application-to-person version of RCS. It upgrades the business SMS messaging experience with support for rich messages like video and images, verified branding, interactive suggested actions, and analytics. RBM is only available on select Android devices across RCS-supported carrier networks. Because RCS is a carrier-based service subject to government regulations and interception, it cannot be end-to-end encrypted. However, it is still more secure than SMS. Google Business Messages. This is a mobile channel that combines entry points on Google Maps, search, and brand websites to create rich, asynchronous messaging experiences. Businesses can drive engagement on chat via their existing Google search results. Google Business Messages requires a Google ID for user identity. End to end encryption is not available. However, messages sent between users and business agents are encrypted between a user’s device and Google servers, and between Google’s servers and business messages agents. Chat Use Cases Banks, financial services and other businesses want to meet customers on their preferred channels and enable personalized experiences on these chat and message channels. However, consumers should not have to compromise when it comes to data security and privacy. Financial institutions must keep sensitive user information secure. The very success of chat banking depends on compelling use cases—such as fraud alerts, payment reminders—that bring about engagement, rich and personalized customer experiences without compromising privacy and security. In the Clickatell Consumer Trends Report , the top three banking services consumers wanted via chat were customer support, check and account balances and bill pay. As our research shows, depending on security levels and other features, different channels are better for certain uses, such as: RCS and SMS for time critical notifications. Research claims a 98% open rate for SMS messages. WhatsApp, Google Business Messages, and Apple Business Chat for good customer care, account management and banking “lobby” experiences, such as scheduling appointments. Facebook Messenger for immersive user engagement and conversations, like answering customer questions that don’t require sensitive personal information. Conclusion Chat capabilities and choices are expanding as is consumer desire to use them to do business, including banking. Banks and other financial institutions need to make security a high priority, understand the risks of each platform and assess what they’re best suited for. Consumers, too, will play a role in chat security by deploying best practices such as, enabling available account security options in the app.

Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) is a popular digital engagement channel used by millions of people in Africa every day. The technology has been around for decades and revolutionized how people bank in Africa and have access to other essential services affordably on their mobile to make their life easier. Clickatell is a leader in mobile messaging and offers a cost-effective and scalable USSD enterprise solution to engage and transact with your mobile-always customers. The solution consists of three primary components to help you grow revenue, cut costs with intuitive self-service options, and provide a better digital engagement experience on USSD. A comprehensive solution designed to engage with your customers on USSD USSD channel access – To connect with your customers on USSD. Chat Flow – We build intuitive customer self-service menus to offer digital experiences on USSD. Transact API’s – We combine our USSD channel, intuitive self-service menus with API’s that let you offer the most relevant digital goods and services for your customers. USSD use cases We are helping leading brands in banking, financial services, and Fintech to offer use cases that increase customer interactions and transactions. Self-service 24/7 access to product and support services (FAQs) FAQ’s and product help options Access to information services such as news and customer surveys Account Management Check balances Manage accounts Customer Onboarding Customer acquisition and sign-ups for services Digital campaigns Transaction Management Bill payments Prepaid airtime, data, and electricity Payments and transfers Remittance Why is USSD still widely used in Africa? Simple and easy to use. Affordable – no internet connection or costly data is needed to access the service. Widely accessible on almost every phone - 99%. Works on feature phones and does not require a smartphone. USSD is unique to other messaging channels and is contributing to financial inclusion in Africa. Customers do not require a smartphone to engage and transact and can access your digital products and services on their feature phones. Essential banking activities such as checking bank balances, transferring money, or buying airtime or electricity can be done conveniently without going to your branch or calling your call center. Get started with Clickatell’s USSD Enterprise Solution Clickatell offers a comprehensive and cost-effective USSD solution to help you connect, interact, and transact with your customers. Our scalable, adaptable, and reliable USSD solution has 99.9% uptime to keep your customers connected. Learn more about how we can help you engage with your customers and grow revenue on USSD.