“Mahomet made the people believe that he would call an hill to him, and from the top of it, offer his prayers, for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet, will go to the hill.” [Emphasis in original] This excerpt, from Francis Bacon’s The Essays, provides a fine illustration of the need for flexibility if one is to reach their goals. “My way or the highway”is a bad dictum for life as it is for business.
A while back, businesses began to realize the importance of having a presence on social media. Many of these businesses had websites. I can imagine that there were those laggards who asked, “I have a website why do I need a Facebook page?”. I can imagine that there were those laggards who said, “if people want to learn more about our business, they should go to our website.” Soon, though, everyone realizes that you must be flexible. If your customers are on social media and they would like to engage with you on social media, then you had better get on social media! Businesses realized that, rather than wait for their customers or prospective customers to come to their website, they should go to their customers where the customers are spending their time.
Another trend is in its beginning stages. Some banks in Africa are realizing that their customers spend a lot of time on WhatsApp and have decided to take banking to their customers where they are. Of course, there will be those laggards who will say, we already have a mobile app, our customers should use it. This article is not intended for the laggards but for the innovators. It is for those who obsess over wowing their customers. People like this readily see the importance of bringing banking to their customers on WhatsApp. They may not see all the technological opportunities and risks but, as technologists, we can help them see some angles they would otherwise not see. For instance, it would be ill-advised for Ghanaian banks to restrict themselves to USSD style WhatsApp banking where they ask their customers to type 1 for this or 2 for that and so on. What they ought to do is embrace advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) that can help them build WhatsApp banking that their customers love - WhatsApp banking where their customers can just type or speak whatever they want and see it happen.
This magazine will provide a series of articles that will help banks and financial institutions appreciate the importance of doing WhatsApp banking with AI and NLP as well as the things they need to be mindful of as they embark on this journey. If you are a banker and will like us to deliver to you a complimentary copy of our upcoming magazine focused on WhatsApp banking, kindly fill the form below. If you will like to work with us on a WhatsApp banking solution for your business, kindly email business@nokwary.com.