Client profile:

Client is one of the major flagship channels of a leading TV Network, having its reach in more than 120 countries and access to more than 500 million viewers globally. With more than 16 years of its launch, it has been a driving factor in the growth of satellite and cable industry in India. It has created strong brand equity and is the largest media franchise in India and across the globe, serving South Asian Diaspora.

Today the channel has a multi-genre offering and is living up to its image of being a socially conscious channel. Apart from delivering primetime drama series, television movies, theatrical films, specials and day time dramas to its audience, the channel also carries the proud tag of being the pioneer of the reality shows.

Case overview:

The channel featured a dance reality show which consisted of 13 participants, shortlisted through live auditions and preliminary rounds conducted across the city, and judged by a panel of experts in the domain of choreography. Thereon, qualification of a participant to the next level required maximum number of votes from the viewers. Hence, there was a need to develop a voting platform which would capture the voting responses of the viewers encompassing all demographics.

Earlier voting platform:

Until now, SMS voting (on Premium Short Code) was a popular medium. However, realizing the following drawbacks, people are looking for innovative ways that can be adopted to deal with the voting process.

Drawbacks:

• As the SMS is chargeable (Rs.3/SMS), people resist to vote.
• Demands literacy on the part of the voter.
• Due to low SMS volume, it wasn’t likely to have region-wise dissection of incoming responses.

Objective/Challenge:

• To increase the voting participation by making the process more friendly and free of cost.
• To have maximum audience engagement, encompassing all demographics.

Proposed Solution:     

To meet the above objective, VivaConnect provided the following services:

• Zero-cost Missed Call voting platform:

In order to vote, the viewer just had to give a missed call on a Unique Number assigned to the participant. The missed call automatically got disconnected after 2 rings and the viewer received an acknowledgement message soon after the registration of the vote on the panel. A viewer was allowed to vote for a particular contestant only once per episode. However, he could vote for multiple contestants in the same week.

Highlights of the process:

• The viewer saved the cost previously incurred in sending SMS.
• Enabled the viewer to vote even at zero pre-paid balance.
• The technology emerged as a transparent voting mechanism, valuing viewer’s point of view. 

Outcome:

• Increased Viewer Engagement by 12 times as compared to Premium SMS (approximate vote count received: 3.8 crores).
• Encouraged responses as the solution was handset independent - one could vote through mobile and landline.
• Created a database of active Opt-in mobile users in real-time.
• Analytic reports facilitated real-time tracking of numbers with details of their region of origin.
• Enabled the channel to have audience as the true adjudicator in deciding the providence of the show/end results.

With a view to facilitate timely and reliable communications, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recently introduced new regulations on Mobile Banking Services.

As per the reforms, banks and its customers will be entitled to use SMS, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD) for transaction purposes apart from WAP and SIM Application ToolKit (STK). The response time for delivery of messages will be <= 10 seconds for SMS, IVR and <= 2 seconds for USSD.

The service providers have also been directed to complete the banking communications about cash deposit, cash withdrawal, mobile transfer, balance enquiry in not more than two stages. They have to use separate telecom resources for routing ‘transactional’ messages only.

The delivery confirmation about such messages will be sent to both - the customer and the bank. However, in case the message is not delivered due to network or handset related issues, a USSD communication will have to be sent to the customer informing completion of the transaction.

Apart from the said, the authority has also laid down the following parameters for mobile-based transactions:

• Quality of services: The success rate of transactional message delivery has been fixed at 99.5% while the updation of this information in the system has to be 100%.
• Privacy and Security: It is mandatory for all the access providers to ensure security and confidentiality of m-banking communications. Detailed records of all the banking transaction message has to be preserved for minimum time duration of 6 months for audit purposes. The same will be monitored by TRAI for quality checks at regular intervals.

With these reforms coming into effect, the customer and banks are assured of availing basic Mobile Banking services in much faster and safe manner.

Organization profile:

The client is India’s one of the leading online travel companies which provides information, pricing, availability, and booking facility for domestic and international air travel, railway reservation, hotel bookings, holiday packages, buses, and car rentals. It is a one-stop-shop for all travel-related services and is also provides booking facility for all the exotic national and international decisions It also offers a host of travel services designed to make business and leisure travel easier.

Business Situation:

The company’s website was meant to be a one-stop-shop solution to its web visitors for travel-related services and products. Hence, the company spent approximately 94% of its marketing budget on persuading the customer to call on the Toll Free Number as published on the website.

When a customer initiated its purchase by calling on the Toll Free Number, it was observed that:

• 70% of callers were kept on hold, 68% of which preferred to stay online if they received relevant information and others disconnected the call and never called again if there was no action taken by the company’s representative.
• Callers had to wait for a long time before being answered
•  At times, calls were disconnected  eventually leading to a bad customer experience
• Company incurred high infrastructure cost (PRI rental)

This consequently resulted into website abandonment, defeating the very purpose of having a “website”. Hence, in order to justify its marketing expenditure, the company was in need of a solution which would drive web traffic, solve customer queries in real-time, simplify the “Query resolution” process and contribute to customer satisfaction level without taxing the financial resources.

Challenge: To maximize the efficiency of online channel with negligible additional investment.

Solution:

As a solution, VivaConnect proposed its ClickTalk solution whereby a “Speak to an Expert” widget was placed on their website. A web visitor had to click on the icon to get his query solved in real-time. After clicking on it, he was asked to input the number on which he intended to receive the call. Once the authentication process was completed, the system triggered two calls - first, to the customer care representative and second to the customer.

Once the customer answered the call, the call patched and the conversation was initiated.

Outcome:

• The company experienced 20% higher conversions from ClickTalk users compared to Toll-free callers.
• Customers were satisfied as the queries were solved in real-time with minimum number of steps.
• The entire experience improved customer perception towards the brand as the callers were more comfortable talking to a live person than a machine.
• The company observed a massive increase in the number of web visitors per day.
• The fact that the customer “received” the call from the company representative, gave them a feeling that queries are “being answered”.

To get this solution for your business call us on 022.67856734.

Mobile applications perhaps being the fastest growing segment, they have been able to cater utility, management, security and entertainment needs of the masses in real-time. Moreover, through its “anytime-anywhere access” factor, businesses and its employees are able to enjoy the convenience of carrying business operations irrespective of the location.

The same is evident in a latest initiative undertaken by Krishidhan Seeds-a leading agricultural biotech company in India that specializes in handling end to end marketing of high-quality seeds. The company recently equipped its marketing and on-the-field sales force with 3G enabled Android tablets to send weather forecast data, updates on pest and diseases, commodity market prices and other critical information to the farmers and agricultural communities.

Prior to this initiative, the incoming queries were taken care of through a phone call. As it did not provide any information related to the quality of the crop, the mechanism was ineffective in solving the purpose. By equipping its employees with technology-rich tablets, the company is now able to resolve the agriculture related issues and eliminate the communication gap.

The sales team makes effective use of 3G Services by taking photographs, video footage and voice data while on the field and sharing the same with the R&D department located miles away. In response to this intelligence, the department provides instant solutions to the farmers, enabling them to manage their agricultural produce, increasing the yield. Also, on the company’s end, the employees are able to achieve work-life balance and create the information flow anytime-anywhere, avoiding the dependency on the desktops. As an overall impact, the initiative has been powerful enough to cover as many as 1000 farmers per 3G enabled device which accounts to 3 lakh farmers are benefitted altogether.

To summarize, mobile applications are easing out things in every field of daily lives. One can observe PAN India connectivity and augmented application areas not only in urban areas but also in rural areas combined with improved services in wireless communication.

Article adapted from:

http://www.informationweek.in/Mobile/12-03-16/Agri-biotech_firm_utilizes_3G_enabled_tablets_to_benefit_farming_community.aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=160312

Until now, due to high mobile-internet penetration, marketers preferred mobile marketing to reach its target audience. However, with a rise in the concept of “missed calls”, the same is now emerged as an innovative form of mobile marketing.

Initially missed calls were considered as a gesture of those running low on mobile balance and intended to receive a response in the form of an SMS or callback. Gradually, its usage expanded as a medium of communication. Today, as the missed call culture is gaining impetus in a country like India to an extent that it is on the verge of replacing Short Message Services (SMS) in the process of voting, registration, feedback collection, etc.

Being an audience involvement tool, one can now receive information about a product, service or any other domain by just giving a missed call. As an accepted fact that the customer is not charged for it, the response rate is high. The company just has to publish the Missed Call Number  on the marketing or promotional materials as a part of the campaign.

Some of the use cases are as given below:

• Voting: Reality shows are progressively using the “missed call” to invite the participation of its viewers. A Toll Free Number is featured when the show is aired and also throughout the day during peak hours.When a viewer gives a missed it is registered as a vote and ultimately determines the final result.
• Give feedback: Missed calls can also be used to take feedback from customers, employees or prospects by running a polling campaign whereby they can reply to a YES/NO question, expressing their opinion.
• Registrations: One can register to a particular messaging service (news alerts, weather forecasts, stock tips, jokes etc.) by just giving a missed call.
• Activate/deactivate a service: Instead of making a customer go through a tedious process for activation/deactivation of service, the same can be managed by way of missed calls.
• Lead generation: By featuring the Toll Free number in the marketing collaterals and promotional campaigns, the company can develop a database of verified leads; as only interested prospects would reply to such initiatives by giving a missed call.
• Verification: One can give a missed call to verify his/her bookings and registrations. The incoming missed call functions as a verifiable request for the company and serves as a proof that the person has given his approval for receiving further messages..

Advantages of missed calls:

• The customer is not charged for the missed call.
• The service is user-friendly as it is based on dialing and not typing.
• It is easy to know the status of missed call instantly as against SMS whose delivery report may take some time to display.
• Missed calls services can be used by mobile users and also landline owners.
• It is quick as compared to SMS.
• Being an interactive medium, it is capable of bringing phenomenal results.

As missed call services possess high factor of audience involvement, they are increasingly being used as the basis of entrepreneurial ventures. Considering the pace at which missed calls are preferred by the various enterprises especially the entertainment sector, its scope of application in terms of branding and business opportunities is huge.

A dream becomes a goal when action is taken towards its achievement. -Bo Bennett

Today, we find esteem pleasure to announce that our company has been rated amongst the “Top 100 Small Businesses of the Year 2011“, marking a significant achievement.

Featured in the inaugural edition of ‘Small Medium Entrepreneur’ magazine, we have been recognized as one of the leading companies in India.

We would hereby like to congratulate and acknowledge the efforts and contributions of all the members - employees, customers, suppliers, partners and all others who have contributed directly or indirectly, making it a success.

Keeping up the good work, we look forward to achieve greater heights in Enterprise Communications in the years to come.

Company Profile:
The company primarily engages in refining, storing, marketing, and distributing petroleum products primarily in India. It also involves in the exploration and production of hydrocarbons. It caters to the fuel needs of various industrial customers comprising industries from the public and private sectors; and government establishments, such as defense, railways, state trading corporations, and state electricity boards.

Business Situation:
Already being a dominant brand in the industry for a long time, the company wanted to introduce its product-related offers to its existing rural and urban client base, by way of a promotion or a branding initiative. As per the offer, the customer would get a replacement in the product in exchange of an old one in use.

SMS and e-mail solutions were undoubtedly favorable options as they had mass reach. Since, the target audience comprised of the rural masses as well required consideration of literacy and language barriers as well. On the other hand, television as a medium failed on availability aspect while in case of radio, ignorance about timing of message broadcast and high costs posed limitations on usage. Hence, the need of the hour was to have a solution that would overcome these constraints and at the same time serve the purpose of communicating the message effectively.

Challenge:     
Undertaking a promotional campaign to reach the masses, overcome the language barrier and keeping the cost minimum.

Solution:
Looking into the constraints, VivaConnect proposed a viable solution- VoiceEngage which enabled them to reach its customers through voice based calls in their own language. Their communications were not just made meaningful but interactive too. Apart from this the solution included:

• Conceptualization of the campaign
• Scrubbing the database against Do Not Call Registry
• Language customization
• Message broadcast through voice calls
• Feedback capture through DTMF inputs
• Delivery Confirmation Reports

It enabled the company to:

• Send message on voice call of 30 sec
• Deliver meaningful interactions
• Maximize its reach
• Build rapport with customers
• Provide “just-like-me” feel to its customers
• Save on STD cost with One Price for All India

Outcome:
Through VoiceEngage, customers received messages in their regional languages thereby eliminating the communication gap and their responses were captured via DTMF inputs. Consequently, the company observed an overall response rate between 5-10% which was way more than what they expected. The emotional appeal of the messages resulted into customer engagement and relationship building. As a result, customer satisfaction and loyalty followed naturally. Moreover, apart from preserving its brand value, it was able to educate its customers about its product offers driving the ultimate sales as desired.