CORPORATE CUSTOMER INTERACTION SERVICE VIA SMS PROVIDED BY VARIOUS MOBILE OPERATORS

Concept, tasks, description

In the process of development, our customer has faced an exponential growth of the customer base over the past 2 years, which required the implementation of new approaches for informing and communicating with the company's customers. It was necessary to inform the company's customers about important changes and actions required of them. In this situation, the customer's classic call center was unable to solve this problem.

As a result of the analysis, it was decided to use SMS as a classic and available for the public technology. The corporate service being developed should minimize the cost of informing customers by sending SMS through various SMS service providers. Another key requirement was to create a convenient tool to manage mass SMS mailings along with a mandatory integration with the main information system of the customer.

The system was supposed to allow users to easily create mailing, to provide it an easy to understand interface was designed and implemented. The following features had to be implemented:

  • Making the template of the customer's CRM mailings;
  • Creating lists for information SMS mailings using more than 20 sampling criteria;
  • Introducing a mailing schedule.

It was also necessary to create tools to analyze the effectiveness of SMS mailings as well as the response of different customer groups to these mailings. This information was to be available only to the financial and analytical units of the company and had to be integrated into the customer's BI system.

It was necessary to provide horizontal and vertical scaling of the system. The system had to comply with the regulatory requirements of the Personal Data Act.

It was decided to use the web interface to implement the project, which would allow the customer to access the functionality from different devices.

What's been done
  • The core of the system has been developed, which includes the SMS information management interface, available to different units of the company.
  • The system of integration with several Internet-gates/telecom operators has been implemented under different protocols, depending on the requirements and capabilities of the provider (starting with http and finishing with smpp).
  • A convenient interface has been created to manage and create information SMS mailings with the help of a template and flexible settings clear any average PC user.
  • A bilateral asynchronous exchange of information with external SMS mailing services has been implemented.
  • We have made a subsystem that enables information processing based on data sampling from other customer’s information systems.
  • The customer's analytical department was enabled to receive information from SMS mailing data with the possibility of its uploading to the BI system.
  • The system to analyze the effectiveness of SMS mailings and their connection with further actions of the company's customers has been implemented.
  • In addition, we have developed a module to inform the company's employees about various important events, both of informational and disturbing nature.
  • To accelerate the system implementation, our company has developed a training program for employees, including video presentations for each element of the system with a detailed explanation of every process and a description of actions for each task performing.
  • After the implementation of the project, our company provided 24/7 consulting support.
Results
  • The system allowed the company to interact quickly with more than 1.9 million customers without the use of more expensive communication tools.
  • Using SMS technology has allowed us to identify an active pool of customers and reconsider the approach to them, as well as to concentrate the company's efforts on working with these customers.
  • The use of mass communication with customers has contributed to a significant expansion of the loyalty system, which, according to preliminary estimates, has increased revenues from the company's operating activities up to 15% during the periods of various special offers for customers.
  • Informing customers about the necessary actions to take has reduced the risks and costs of both the company as a whole and the company's customers, which has led to a noticeable reduction in the number of complaints and the general level of discontent.
  • As a result of the customer information process automation, costs have been reduced and the call center efficiency has increased by about 20%.
  • We were able to create a system with a low entry threshold for ordinary users, which allowed to reduce the time for training company’s customers to use this system.
Technologies

Python, Django, PostgreSQL, Rabbit, JavaScript, Ext JS, HTTP/HTTPS, SMPP, Go, Kannel , Big Data, Tornado, Bootstrap.

Project benchmarks
  • Unit-test coverage: 97%
  • Duration: 15 days
  • Project team: 4 developers
  • Hours spent by developers: 600
  • Number of users: 5.1K+
  • Complexity: 7 out of 10