Enhancing Airtel Money user experience using favorites and self-transaction reversal
Applicant name: Airtel and Comviva
Innovation Name: Airtel Money favorites and self-transaction reversal
Innovation Type: Feature
Website: https://www.airtel.mw/airtelmoney/howItWork
Mission: Enhancing Airtel Money user experience using favorites and self-transaction reversal
Innovation Description: For unbanked in Africa, mobile money services i.e. Airtel Money have become key financial instrument. As most users have feature-phones, 90% transactions done via USSD
Problem: USSD has few restrictions leading to bad user experience. Eg, while transfer money user has to type recipient’s full mobile no User often do typo-error, transferring money to wrong number. To reverse wrong transaction, user has to call customer care & follow long tiring reversal process
Solution: Airtel Money in Aug2018 launched Favorites & Self Transaction Reversal (STR). Customer can save some nos as favorites. While transferring money they choose from favorite list instead of typing mobile no preventing transfer to wrong no.
STR: In case of wrong transfer, customer can initiate a transaction reversal on own from mobile-phone, instead of calling customer care. If recipient agrees to reversal request, money is reversed
Results: Favorites used by 3Mn Airtel Money users reducing wrong transfers. STR enhanced user experience, reduced calls to call-centers.
Status of Innovation: In-market
Innovation Active Since: 08/152019
Applicant Type: Private Company
Headquarter City: Gurugram
Headquarter Country: India
Year Founded: 1999
Main Category
Main Category Choice: End-user Experience
Why do you think you should win this category?:
Favorites: Launched Aug2018 in 10 Airtel Money opcos
-Enhance user-exp: User can register frequently transacted mobile no. as favorites. While transferring money, user select from favorite list instead of typing recipient’s mob no
-Eliminates typo-error & reduces wrong transfers
-Faster: Selecting from favorite list instead typing reduce transaction time by 5sec.
-Easy: Customer access ‘My Account’ & save/delete favorite no. To grow usage, Airtel after transactions give option to save recipient as favorite
-Successful: Favorites used by 3Mn of 14Mn AM (21%) users
Self Transaction Reversal(STR): Launched Aug2018 in 9 AM opcos
-Enhance user-exp: In case of wrong transfer, user can initiate transaction reversal on own from mob phone AM Menu instead of calling customer care(long, tiring process). Recipient receives reversal request which he can accept/decline
-Faster: Customer care takes long time for reversal. STR does instant reversal
-Good uptake across opcos: In Gabon 26% reversals are STR. 11% reduction in calls to customer care.
Secondary Category
Secondary Category Choice: B2B Solution
Why do you think you should win this category?
Airtel Money (AM) is widely used by 14 Mn Africans in 14 countries. 90% transactions are via AM USSD menu. But USSD also has limitations (cannot read address book), hence, people have to type recipient’s mob number (no) while transferring money. Typo errors are frequent leading to wrong transfers. To reverse user calls Customer Care increasing CC traffic & cost for operator. 40% calls to CC are reversals
Comviva’s mobiquity platform which powers AM, provided favorites & Self Transaction Reversal(STR) as solution. Favorites allowed users to choose from favorite list while transacting instead of typing mob no, eliminating typo error, reducing transfer to wrong no & enhancing user experience. 3Mn AM users (21% of 14Mn users) used favorites in just 9 months. STR reduced calls to CC. Eg. In AM Gabon, 26% reversals are now done by STR. There is 11% reduction in reversal calls to CC. All this has optimized CC cost for Airtel. Thus Comviva helped Airtel to enhance remittance user experience, reduce wrong transfers & optimize CC cost.
Team Members
Full Name: Mohit Bhargava
Role: Product Marketing
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohit-bhargava-20188322/
Full Name: Prabhu Ram.S
Role: Project head
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prabhurams/
Full Name: Sahana R R
Role: Developer
Full Name: Ritvik Sinha
Role: Product Manager
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritviksinha/
Supporting Links
Details on Airtel Money Favorites and Self Transaction Reversal service: https://www.comviva.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Airtel-Money-favorites-and-self-transaction-reversal.pdf
Entry Representative
Full Name: Mohit Bhargava
Role: Product Marketing
