Summary

Savings and loan cooperative Caja Popular Mexicana worked with Latin American telecommunications partner Auronix to reach their credit line and collections goals in a more efficient, less expensive way. Using RCS Business Messaging campaigns, Caja Popular Mexicana doubled the number of customers who opened a line of credit compared to those contacted via SMS and saved 90 percent on collections, compared to efforts carried out by call center and field agents.

The Challenge

Caja Popular Mexicana wanted to increase their portfolio to five billion pesos while maintaining the same level of staffing. To do this using traditional methods, they’d need to hire 60 additional call center agents and 300 field agents. So, Caja Popular Mexicana turned to mobile messaging to increase their reach and collections.

The credit union had used SMS campaigns in the past, but found the channel to have limited effectiveness due to its simplicity and lack of rich features. With SMS campaigns outsourced to a vendor and not managed in a self-service platform, campaign data and insights weren’t available in real time, and the lag prevented Caja Popular Mexicana from leveraging this information to engage better with their members.

The Approach

In March 2020, Caja Popular Mexicana began working with Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider Auronix who informed them of RCS Business Messaging. They wanted to use these messages to reach members in a more visually-appealing way while keeping costs low.

The RCS Business Messaging campaign they sent out featured a carousel with options inviting members to review their credit information and receive a code to settle their debt at a convenience store location. In most cases, RCS Business Messaging campaigns did not count against users’ data plans, and Caja Popular Mexicana would receive read receipts for the messages, so they could follow up with each responding member.

The Results

For collections, the response rate doubled when using RCS Business Messaging, compared to SMS, and the conversion rate—the number of members who requested a line of credit—jumped from 3.5 percent to 7.2 percent, which doubled the credit union’s return on investment (ROI). Collection costs were reduced by 90 percent when compared to the cost of call center and field agents, and a new RCS Business Messaging chatbot designed for members to check credit and balance information now fields about 500 inquiries a day, further reducing call center traffic. Francisco Juventino Vega Guerrero, Chief Analytics and Collection Strategy, Caja Popular Mexicana says: “Switching to RCS Business Messaging doubled our ROI while vastly reducing costs. And our clients engage with the chatbot daily. It’s a true win for both sides.”