This archive report was first published on 12 June 2020.
Kenya's high smartphone penetration and internet usage have made it an ideal market for chatbot technology. With a 91% penetration of mobile subscriptions, compared to Africa's 80%, the country's enterprises are looking to leverage chatbots to enhance customer service and engagement.
According to Juniper Research, the total number of chatbots accessed rose above the 4.2 billion mark in 2019, generating a retail spend of $2.8 billion. The Far East and China dominate the chatbot market, accounting for 88% of the total retail spend from chatbot transactions.
Noah Amoke, Sales Executive for Kenya and Uganda at Infobip Africa, notes that the appetite for chatbots among enterprises in Kenya is driven by the need to engage with customers on their preferred platforms and channels. 'This means that companies are opening more channels to communicate with their customers, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, web chat or email, and they want to offer a 24/7 consistent and standardised experience across all these channels. This can be done via a chatbot,' he says.
Amoke highlights the increasing maturity of chatbot technology, which is a driving factor for adoption. 'The current chatbots that are on the market have some limitations, especially in terms of understanding natural language. However, as more sophisticated chatbots become available, that offer with Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities, we expect to see much higher uptake,' he notes.
Customisable chatbots that support NLP are a huge requirement in a multilingual country like Kenya, where different dialects and languages are spoken depending on the region. Chatbots can deal with multiple queries at a time, and call centres that deploy chatbots need less physical infrastructure, such as office space, meaning that they need to employ fewer agents and can spend less on salaries, hence lowering the cost of operations.
Amoke also notes that chatbots offer flexibility, as they can be deployed over multiple communication channels, such as WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook Messenger, web chat or email, and the quality and consistency of the response – the entire experience – remains unchanged across the various channels.
Kenya's high smartphone penetration and internet usage have made it an ideal market for chatbot technology. With a 91% penetration of mobile subscriptions, compared to Africa's 80%, the country's enterprises are looking to leverage chatbots to enhance customer service and engagement.
As an example of chatbot technology, Ramabot is a simple to use, dynamic conversation bot that allows one to turn a website more engaging. Building a bot with the Ramabot interface is a matter of a few minutes, and it offers features such as data authentication through OTP, getting leads through SMS 24/7, appointment management, displaying products, multi-language compatibility, and getting data delivered to a CRM directly.
