SMS campaign increases response

Ithala Development Finance Corporation, the official development finance agency of KwaZulu-Natal, has found that using SMS services to its customers has increased its responses and it is expanding the communication method to other services it offers.

Ithala has 51 branches and one agency, serving mainly customers in the LSM2 - LSM6 brackets. With most of its customers having little or no previous experience of managing loans and credit, its roles include education and regular communication, especially with those who have home loans. It needed a cost-effective, easy way to communicate monthly balances and payment information.

SMS: the ideal way to communicate

Working with Vox Orion, it identified SMS as the ideal way to communicate with its customer base. Email was not a viable option because so few people had access to it and sending letters or making calls was both cumbersome and expensive.

"The SMS Uniserver solution is very easy to manage," says Ithala Financial Services systems engineer Nathi Nkala. "We have a simple process to extract the information we need from the financial system, convert it to the correct format and send it out via the SMS server.

"SMS is an ideal way to invite building contractors to tender briefings, as well as to communicate with other individuals and business clients," he concludes.