The ability of a company to communicate with its consumers is critical to its existence. From client onboarding to customer retention, a company’s ability to communicate clearly, effectively, and quickly can be the difference between growth and death.
Ironically, communication promotes corporate growth and, when done well, guarantees that there are more people to interact with, hence increasing the communication load.
People interact in a variety of ways and have different styles of communication that they prefer. As a result, it is incumbent upon a company to ascertain each customer’s preferences and communicate with them accordingly.
It’s a difficult chore, but one business is attempting to make it simpler.
Sendchamp is a software startup on a mission to assist businesses to enhance customer connections by lowering the complexities required. After seeing how difficult the customer management process was in the organizations where they worked, Goodness Kayode (CEO) and Damilola Olotu (CTO) started the company.
When Kayode was hired by a fintech business to design an onboarding communication process, he began to see the flaws in client management platforms. Because each platform only provided one way of contact, he had to integrate products like Mailchimp, GetGist, and HelpCrunch, which meant more money spent on customer communication.
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While these platforms may help organizations engage with clients more efficiently, they also had considerable drawbacks, one of which was their lack of adaptability.
According to Kayode, a business communicates in three stages: the first is to bring consumers on board, the second is to support and maintain them, and the third is to support and retain them.
Because of their lack of adaptability, these platforms can only accomplish one of the three, forcing firms to utilize various platforms at different times, which is a costly procedure. Some systems, for example, simply provide emailing capabilities, while others excel in live chats.
Sendchamp, on the other hand, intends to merge all of these services into one unified message delivery platform or multichannel communication tool that allows users to send messages by SMS, WhatsApp, email, and voice.
It also provides a customer relations management (CRM) platform solution that enables both technical and non-technical personnel to successfully manage client connections.
These solutions already exist
The Sendchamp solutions may appear fresh to those unfamiliar with the consumer relations and communication landscape, but they are not.
While unified message delivery services like Sendchamp exist, Kayode said to Techpoint Africa that they are out of reach for African enterprises.
“We have a worldwide solution supplier that is willing to help, but how are we going to pay them?” It’s difficult to use these current platforms because of card restrictions and hefty exchange rates.”
Aside from the financial concerns, some of them are only available to technological business owners, excluding individuals without technical backgrounds.
“We’re developing a simple multichannel communication platform that allows companies to onboard, engage, retain, and support consumers from a single location.” “In marketing and sales, we’re also focusing on non-technical people,” Kayode said.
After consulting for a number of firms, he has come to the conclusion that customers like flexibility when engaging with a company.
“Customers don’t want to be limited; they want the freedom to communicate with businesses through a variety of platforms, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, or even SMS. For example, sending an email to someone in the agent banking industry may not result in interactions, but reaching out to them via SMS is more likely to result in answers since that’s what they’re accustomed to.”
Sendchamp raised $100,000 in an angel round in December 2021, which is interesting. It has enabled businesses to contact 300,000 clients and sent three million messages using its platform so far.
While the site is now only available in Nigeria, Kayode claims that people from Kenya have expressed interest in utilizing it. Despite the lack of local integration in Kenya and other African countries, companies may still utilize Sendchamp, but with restricted capabilities.
Taking care of privacy concerns
“You have to reach out to consumers to generate money as a business; it’s the ABC of every business,” Kayode added.
He used the example of Computer Village in Lagos, where businessmen and ladies shouted to passers-by in an attempt to express what they sell and the services they provide.
Using the same example, he explained that communication isn’t limited to convincing a client to purchase; it’s just as important to keep a customer as it is to attract one.
“Communication is the reason why a consumer would remember that you exist.”
How does Sendchamp handle privacy when there is so much communication to be done?
“Right now, we’re using Enterprise Grid technology to keep a data breach at bay.” It encrypts data sent between customers and enterprises.”
Slack, an American communication business developed Enterprise Grid. It has security and governance features that aid secure communication within an organization.
Kayode noted that in addition to security measures like Enterprise Grid, there are conditions of use that ensure that no data is sold or connected to any dataset.
In 2020, the global unified communications market was valued at $78.33 billion, and by 2028, it is predicted to be worth $344.84 billion. Kayode believes that every firm in Africa will utilize Sendchamp to improve client connections, thus Sendchamp aims to be a large part of that market.