ChatFin: Expedited license renewal process with a Whatsapp Chatbot

Challenge

Every day, thousands of South Africans are faced with the tedious task of renewing their vehicle licenses. Traditionally, motorists had two options to obtain new license disks: Either spend hours in queues at regional licensing departments or have it done at the Post Office.

ChatFin, a solution, application and investment provider in the financial services industry, identified a gap in the market to offer a digital intermediary service for vehicle owners. The idea was to automate parts of the process and enable customers to complete the renewal on their preferred channel.

Solution

Implementing a chatbot on WhatsApp Business Platform as the primary channel was a logical choice for a service of this nature, being used by 1.6 billion people in over 180 countries in the world. Their channel verification with its green checkmark also helps customers recognize the verified dialogue quickly. This assures that the end customer is communicating with the correct business or organization over WhatsApp, avoiding any possible fraud situations.

To start with, ChatFin needed to find the right WhatsApp Business Solution provider to pilot what they had in mind, and Infobip met all their criteria.

Using our WhatsApp Business solution enabled ChatFin to build personalized communication strategies that formed part of the automation process they were developing. The result of implementing Infobip’s solution was a chatbot in the form of the ChatBack application.

All car owners in South Africa can today, at any time, renew their vehicle license over WhatsApp. The convenient renewal process takes less than two minutes, saving vehicle owners ample time without waiting in long queues.

Signing up for the service is easy. Users can start the process in Whatsapp by visiting https://start.chatback.co.za/chatback or going to the ChatBack website. Another option is to add ChatBack (+27 66 202 6685) to their contacts and to text and send “renew” over WhatsApp to get started.

Once the user has finished answering the chatbot’s questions, ChatFin proceeds to process the renewal application through the relevant authorities. Clients have an option to choose between paperless delivery or delivery to their door. Paperless delivery entails sending a PDF version of the license via WhatsApp.

Upon choosing the delivery option, clients are provided with a quote and a link to make an online payment.

Making payment gives ChatFin permission to proceed with the renewal and provides ChatBack with authorization to finish the process on the client’s behalf.

Result

The launch of the ChatBack solution heralded a new era of convenience for South African vehicle owners.

Shortly after the service’s launch in 2019, ChatBack saw a surge in usage where they once received 44,000 messages in one day during a peak period. The rise of the COVID-pandemic also was a significant growth-driver for the business, with vehicle owners minimizing physical contact and exposure to the virus thanks to this service.

As of February 2022, ChatFin engaged with 118,000 customers through 3 million messages since introducing its WhatsApp service – processing 3,000 transactions and messages per day. The convenience of this service is clear in the fact that 41% of their customers renewed more than one vehicle through ChatBack.