To incessantly state that mobile money has caught (and held) the imagination of the global payments space is unnecessary. Let’s just jump right in-GSMA’s 2015 State of the Industry Report: Mobile Money revealed that 271 mobile money services were available in 93 countries, as of December 2015. For the same period, 411 million registered mobile money accounts existed globally. To drive home the point further, the report stated that mobile money has done more to extend the reach of financial services in the last decade than traditional “bricks and mortar” banking has in the last century. Duly noted.
This phenomenal success wasn’t achieved overnight, obviously. Quite the contrary in fact-mobile money went through an interesting evolution before it even found a place under the payments sun, so to speak. Here’s how-in the early days, the biggest challenge before mobile money operators was getting their customers enthused about the product. Of course, getting them onboard was altogether a different ballgame. Since then, the ecosystem itself has undergone several permutations and combinations. Even now, the industry is going through a state of flux-what with the fast growing adoption of digital payments and the rising importance of “contextuality” and better user experience.
Equally fluid, then, are the challenges facing mobile money operators. Today, every operator who wants to stay in the game is focusing on minimizing customer churn and ensuring frequent and optimal service usage. So, this, in a nutshell, is where customer experience management (CXM) comes to the rescue.
Traditionally, ensuring consistency and ease of interaction are the first rules of any operator’s CXM handbook. It becomes trickier with services like mobile money-which have, hitherto, never been subject to the rules (or world) of CXM.
Which brings me to the crux of this blog-a multi-pronged CXM strategy for mobile money would do wonders for customer retention and service uptake. Easier said than done, of course, especially since there are no forerunners (none that hit home, at least) in this space. The need of the hour, therefore, is a tool or solution that would help operators leverage their mobile money services to the fullest-not to mention, fill the existing white space!
Permit me to add my two cents. In this case, a CXM tool or solution ought to be a one-stop shop for all things mobile money. It should ideally perform multiple functions that include (but obviously aren’t limited to) educating customers about the service, offering rewards “frills” to customers that stay put, enhancing engagement levels, growing the existing mobile money ecosystem, et all.
It doesn’t end there, of course. Analytics ought to function at the heart of the solution, which, needless to say, would help mobile money operators move several steps closer to what their customers really want.
In short, there is very little doubt that CXM (if leveraged properly) is poised to replicate its success in this space. But, what ought the first steps to achieving this be?
Watch this space for more.
