AI Assistant on WhatsApp: How FASTA Reduced Traditional Channel Dependency by 20% and Improved Customer Experience
FASTA bet on AI-powered FAQs to launch a new WhatsApp channel and give its customers an efficient and conversational self-service support solution that's available 24/7.
FASTA is an online consumer finance business that offers South Africans a range of services and products that provide consumers with access to financial resources, through an efficient, online, self-service application.
Cape Town, South Africa 🇿🇦
11-50
Financial Services
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Meet Justin Taylor, Head of Commercial at FASTA.
FASTA is an innovative financial services provider based in Cape Town, South Africa. Specializing in short-term loans, FASTA offers a fully automated, self-service online experience that gives customers complete control over their credit applications, eliminating the need for call center interactions or branch visits. FASTA redefines the lending experience by prioritizing transparency, flexibility, and speed, making it more accessible and convenient for all South Africans.
Creating awareness about animal cruelty and improving engagement with prospective donors to improve leads
Creating Accessible, Scalable, and Effective Customer Support
FASTA’s primary clients are individuals seeking quick and reliable financial assistance for short-term cash flow needs. To align their customer service operations with their product offerings and improve the traditional support environment, FASTA faced several challenges:
- Delayed Response Times: Limited resources led to slower response times.
- Inconsistent Service Quality: Maintaining high-quality service was challenging with varying response times.
- Customer Frustration: Traditional methods often cause delays and inefficiencies.
FASTA is committed to delivering swift solutions to its customers. They sought new ways to align their customer service operations and improve their more traditional support environment to deliver on this commitment. Traditional customer service operations are centered on fielding phone calls, emails, and online portal inquiries from its customers, paired with limited human resources. FASTA needed to enhance its customer support to be:
- More responsive
- More accessible
- Scalable
- Available 24/7, 365 days a year
To improve customer service accessibility and efficiency, FASTA integrated Landbot’s AI Assistant on WhatsApp. This solution provided:
- Real-Time Data Integration: Direct integration with databases to provide accurate data to customers.
- Tailored Customer Experience: Categorization and channeling of inquiries to appropriate services.
- Enhanced Self-Service: Customers can obtain balance information, and settlement quotes, make instant payments, and ask account-related questions.
Landbot's AI Assistant for Customer Support on WhatsApp
FASTA wanted to make customer service easier and more accessible for its customers but wanted to use a platform that consumers are already familiar with and use frequently — WhatsApp.
FASTA then integrated with Landbot’s AI assistant on WhatsApp to provide an efficient and responsive self-service customer support solution. Following an authentication and verification process to make sure they were speaking to the right customer, this service would allow customers with an active account history to:
- Obtain the latest balance of their account
- Obtain a settlement quote
- Make secure instant payments towards their account.
- Engage with FASTA to ask questions about their account or FASTA’s product offering
Landbot’s AI assistant proved very useful in providing support to customers who asked questions relating to their accounts. FASTA enabled a WhatsApp link on their customer account portal where a customer could click through and then continue a conversation directly via WhatsApp.
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FASTA used Landbot’s AI Assistant to create an interaction flow through which they were able to perform a real-time integration with its host systems to securely provide account information to the customer, understand and categorize the type of support customers are looking for, and link them to the most appropriate kind of service intervention for that particular request.
The predominant use of AI is to identify what customers are looking for in terms of product information and answer questions such as how to reset their account password, provide critical documentation, or make payment towards their account.
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The additional use of Landbot’s AI Assistant on WhatsApp was centered around collections of overdue loan payments from customers. From time to time, a customer may experience some type of financial distress that renders them unable to pay for their loan in due time. Before FASTA’s agents would contact customers using traditional mediums (phone, email, text message), but this wasn’t the ideal solution as in many instances the customer is not able to take a phone call, as they might be unavailable to answer.
Justin Taylor | Head of Commercial at FASTA
However, on WhatsApp, customers enjoy a degree of anonymity and privacy, and they can still converse with someone about the issue they’re facing.
After initially testing Landbot’s AI solution for customer service, FASTA deployed it in their collections environment, too. Customers are now able to secure a payment arrangement as well as make instant payments through FASTA’s WhatsApp process.
Step 4 - Campaign assets submission, review & approval
The additional use of Landbot’s AI Assistant on WhatsApp was centered around collections of overdue loan payments from customers. From time to time, a customer may experience some type of financial distress that renders them unable to pay for their loan in due time. Before FASTA’s agents would contact customers using traditional mediums (phone, email, text message), but this wasn’t the ideal solution as in many instances the customer is not able to take a phone call, as they might be unavailable to answer.
Justin Taylor | Head of Commercial at FASTA
However, on WhatsApp, customers enjoy a degree of anonymity and privacy, and they can still converse with someone about the issue they’re facing.
After initially testing Landbot’s AI solution for customer service, FASTA deployed it in their collections environment, too. Customers are now able to secure a payment arrangement as well as make instant payments through FASTA’s WhatsApp process.
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Head of Commercial at FASTA
Marketing Manager | Conversational Design
Landbot’s AI Assistant on WhatsApp has boosted FASTA’s customer support team’s efficiency
Landbot’s AI Assistant for WhatsApp has improved FASTA’s response rates, allowed for better scalability, and reduced reliance on contact center agents. With certain customer queries being handled by the AI Assistant on WhatsApp, FASTA’s support agents can focus on more complex and important requests.
The implementation of Landbot’s AI solution has helped FASTA significantly reduce support request resolution times to a matter of minutes instead of hours. It has also led to a 20% reduction in reliance on traditional customer support channels such as phone and email.
The AI Assistant has equally proved very effective in creating a new channel for FASTA’s loan collection process. In a few months, this new channel has seen a 4,000% increase in customers opting to pay their accounts through this WhatsApp offering.
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When it comes to applying AI to FASTA’s support operations, Justin says: “It is a very effective solution. It all comes down to the way we use it.”
Landbot’s AI Assistant on WhatsApp has significantly improved FASTA’s customer support team’s efficiency and effectiveness, as well as the loan collections process. All the while meeting customer expectations by using a channel they’re already familiar with and without compromising support quality.
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650$
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