Exclusive Interaction - Harsha Solanki, MD, India, Infobip

Harsha Solanki, MD, India, Infobip talks to us about onboarding retail segment MSMEs on her platform in this discussion.

I see that you are working with several technology companies in the retail sector. Do you have a plan to onboard more MSMEs in the IT segment? If yes, how do you plan to make it user-friendly and cost-effective for them? 

Harsha - We have worked with big names across sectors, including Uber, Burger King, Wurth etc. We are always looking to diversify our client base and engaging with a wider audience through our products and services. We are positioned in such a way that allows us to function with the vigor of a startup while leveraging our years of experience in the field interacting and growing with a multitude of clients. Building on our growth journey, we are equipped – experientially as well as technologically – to integrate with clients across the spectrum, and IT enterprises are no exceptions.

IT and digital services have seen a phenomenal surge in adoption amid the pandemic as customers are increasingly relying on digital tools. In its recent report, Nasscom states that India’s IT industry added a whopping USD 4 billion during the pandemic. To capitalize on this growth, MSMEs in the IT segment must reimagine their outreach programs to connect better with existing customers and increase customer acquisition and retention. This is crucial because the pandemic caused MSMEs across the world, and not just India, to go the digital way to continue operating. This was the only channel available to them to overcome the lockdown-imposed restrictions and reach out to their customers with their services. At the same time, customers have also begun inhabiting the digital space more. Following the viral outbreak, the digital domain became the only channel of communication between customers and brands. In fact, in our 2020 survey, we found that customers are increasingly preferring to communicate with brands digitally, given that the engagement is not depersonalised and doesn't lack a human connection.

This shift in customer sensibilities is understandable. The pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health of all. Quarantined away from family and friends, the regular opportunities of socializing, which we took for granted in the pre-pandemic times, became scarce after March 2020. This loss of human connection caused customers to have zero patience for marketing campaigns that reduced them to mere statistics on a pie chart. As part of the aforementioned survey, we found that nearly half (47%) of the customers ignored insincere campaigns while 21% of them across all age groups switched brands during the lockdowns. The lesson is clear: if businesses are to engage their customers and deliver good experiences, they need to understand their customers with empathy and deliver the right message at the right time over the right channel.

Similarly, IT enterprises must also alter their outreach programs to meet the needs of their customers – a large majority of whom are small businesses. As a result, they must cater to their desired needs in one way or another. The pandemic impacted small businesses in more ways than one. In the first place, MSMEs were unable to travel outside their brick-and-mortar premises. This meant that they had to plan their business operations and communication plans around lockdowns. Secondly, with digital communications being the only option as of now, businesses must choose what they want to say, when, and more importantly, how. This is where our solutions enter the picture. Infobip's full stack of end-to-end offerings is durable, immediate, and scalable, leveraging the hybrid cloud model based on locally stored data to create a virtually limitless pool of resources. Such scalability allows us to serve the needs of our clients regardless of their size and the industry they function in, enabling them to reach their goals at speed and scale. 

What has been the success rate of the technology companies in the retail segment? 

Harsha - The retail industry of the future will be guided by tech trends. With advances in augmented reality and machine learning, the experience of the end user is undergoing a major shift. These moves have benefited firms immensely especially in post-pandemic times where conversion rates for AR users rose by 90%. Furthermore, with personal interaction tools offering a more personalized experience to consumers, digital shopping portals have unlocked greater levels of success.

McKinsey says that technology is a strategic imperative for retailers if they are to stay relevant and profitable. The retail experience of the future will be propelled by physical technology and advanced analytics to meet changing consumer expectations, whilst allowing retailers to reset the operating model and economics. By 2030, the consulting firm sees technology (both through channel shift and automation) increasingly enhancing business-critical tasks in the retail sector. To prepare for this, retailers will need to rethink all tasks and roles, and make data-driven decisions about the order in which they roll out new technologies across regions that vary in their dependence on retail employment.

According to CSI Market Research, the technology sector’s gross profit grew by 11.14 % in the 2nd quarter of 2021 while Revenue increased by 10.84 %. This led to a remarkable improvement in the technology sector's gross margin to 94.85 %. 

How successful are your customers in increasing their sales? 

Harsha - We have received positive feedback in terms of customer growth, client onboarding, portal visits, and turnover rates from clients across industries. With our dedicated end-to-end services, we were able to help Angel Broking to onboard 39% on its platform via WhatsApp, of which 70% are new to stock trading. BankBazaar reported a 130% higher click-through rate using RCS, a new, more interactive, and engaging way of reaching out to customers. Further, using Infobip’s WhatsApp Business API chatbot, Unilever was able to register 14 times higher sales for the first campaign of its fabric softer brand, Comfort. There are multiple such cases where customers have enhanced their engagement with their customers, which has resulted in greater revenue share for them.

How cost-effective are your solutions? 

Harsha - Infobip’s solutions are robust, reliable and extremely cost-effective. The solutions we offer and the concomitant pricing are tailor-made to the clients’ requirements. Pricing also varies by country regulations and location of traffic, among other things. So far, reviews have been mostly favorable. In short, our solutions are extremely customer-friendly and deliver high cost benefits. 

How easy is it to use your solutions? Do you provide tech support to your customers?

Harsha - From enabling omnichannel reach to driving customer engagement, retention, and care, we offer end-to-end solutions to our clients through SaaS-based tech platforms. Our AI-enabled solutions can be deployed seamlessly with no additional hardware required and are extremely easy to use. Infobip’s range of products allows clients to have a holistic view of their portfolio while affording them full control of their activities through an intuitive and powerful UI. For the end customer, sign-up processes and communications during onboarding are augmented through automated form completion, secure authentication, optimization of agent resources, etc. We continue to receive favourable reception from clients in terms of satisfaction delivered and the ease of usage of the platforms, user-friendly documentation, hassle-free onboarding, and clarity and accuracy of communication. The practicality, seamlessness and personalisation offered by our solution suite further make Infobip the preferred brand communication partner in the eyes of our clients. We offer round-the-clock support on all function-related matters to our clients and are currently working on extending localized support across regions. Our customers have reported near 100% delivery rates on all communications. Moving forward, we will continue to improve our service stack to empower our clients to engage their customers with the right messages over the right communication platforms at the right time.

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