This isn't a futuristic vision. It's happening right now, and it's changing everything we thought we knew about customer retention.
The R511m question
South Africa's loyalty market is projected to hit R511.2m by 2029, growing at a rate of 14.7% annually. But here's what keeps CMOs up at night: customer retention in the banking sector dropped from 78% in 2022 to 76% in 2023, despite massive investments in traditional loyalty programs.
Something's not connecting.
While marketers focused on points, tiers, and cashback percentages, business owners were dealing with actual problems: market access challenges, cash flow gaps, growth constraints. What retains customers isn't transactional perks – it's partnerships that genuinely understand their business challenges and deliver solutions that help them grow. The convenience matters, but only when it's in service of solving real problems.
When MTN met WhatsApp: A retention case study
In 2019, MTN South Africa partnered with Clickatell to become the first telco globally to launch chat commerce on WhatsApp. The strategy was deceptively simple: meet customers where they already are, with the tools they already use.
The partnership works because it recognized a reality: informal businesses were already using WhatsApp to communicate with customers. Home-based entrepreneurs selling shoes, clothing, and homeware through WhatsApp groups – they were all having business conversations on WhatsApp because that's where their customers were. MTN's insight was to help these businesses do more through the channel they'd already chosen. With 1.5 billion people using WhatsApp in 180 countries, the partnership didn't create a new behavior – it amplified what was already working, helping businesses reach more customers and grow their revenue through a marketing channel that was already part of their daily operations.
But here's what makes this partnership brilliant: it solved for a specific customer segment. Many informal businesses use WhatsApp groups to sell shoes, clothes, and household items to their immediate community. These entrepreneurs often aren't banked and don't have credit cards – which means traditional marketing platforms like Google Search Ads aren't accessible to them. For this segment, WhatsApp is their marketing channel and MTN is their bank. The partnership met them exactly where they were.
The retention impact? Companies focusing on improving self-service experiences through partnerships like this see significant gains in customer base growth. MTN's strategy specifically targeted the fact that "mobile operators are under increasing pressure to deliver excellent customer service over the digital channels their customers prefer."
The critical mistake: Copying the solution instead of understanding the problem
Here's where most corporates get partnerships wrong: they see MTN's WhatsApp success and think "we should do WhatsApp too." But the magic isn't in the channel – it's in understanding which customers you're solving for.
WhatsApp works brilliantly for informal, unbanked businesses selling directly to their community. But what about the more sophisticated SMEs? The established businesses with bank accounts, trading history, and growth ambitions beyond their immediate network? They don't need WhatsApp groups – they need conversion channel advertising that actually works and doesn't cost millions or take up hours of their day. They need to show up when potential customers search for their services.
The question isn't "should we partner with WhatsApp?" The question is "what does our specific customer segment need to grow, and who can help us deliver that?"
The partnership advantage: Why Going solo is leaving money on the table
Research shows that 69.5% of African banks now offer training and workshops to bridge the digital literacy gap, while 62.5% provide dedicated SME customer support. But the ones winning? They're the ones helping SMEs grow their business – whether through marketing support, funding access, or operational tools that move the needle.
Consider the numbers:
- SMEs represent 91% of formalized businesses in South Africa
- They contribute 34% to GDP
- Yet there's an estimated R30 billion funding gap
Smart partnerships are closing this gap. When Flutterwave partnered with PayPal and MTN, they helped African SMEs access international markets and accept payments via mobile money wallets. The result isn't just customer acquisition – it's customer retention through expanded capability.
Traditional retention strategy looked like this: Better product + Cheaper service = Loyal customers
The partnership retention strategy looks like this: Your core service + Partner's value + Shared customer growth = Customers who can't imagine leaving
The cold truth about loyalty programs without partnerships
South African consumers increasingly favor immediate rewards over long-term loyalty benefits. Programs like Checkers Xtra Savings' instant discounts prove this trend. But here's the trap: racing to offer bigger discounts is a race to the bottom of your margin.
Partnerships offer a different equation. When FNB introduced free Slow Lounge visits, customers stopped obsessing over banking fees. They were focused on the value they received – productive work time, airport comfort, a tangible benefit they could actually use – not just the immediate rand-and-cents saving on transactions.
The retention rate in professional services is around 75%, while media companies achieve 84%. The difference? Media companies excel at creating ecosystems of connected experiences. Your bank account shouldn't feel like an isolated island – it should feel like the hub of your financial growth, connected to the services you already use.
The partnership enables "application-aware networks and network-aware applications," which is tech-speak for: your customer doesn't have to think about whether their infrastructure will work. It just does.
Making this real for your business
If you're sitting in a marketing department thinking "this is great for telcos and big retailers, but what about us?" – here's your homework:
Ask yourself: What would have to be true for your customer to never even consider a competitor?
The answer probably involves a service you don't provide. That's your partnership opportunity.
For Adbot, working with SMEs running Google Ads, imagine a partnership with a bank that can see the direct revenue impact flowing into their client's accounts. When a bakery spends R5,000 on Google Ads through Adbot and generates R25,000 in new orders that month, the bank sees those deposits. They understand the ROI isn't theoretical – it's literally showing up in the transaction history.
Suddenly, the conversation shifts from "how much does this cost?" to "this service is adding R20,000 to my account every month." The customer isn't looking for discounts or free trials. They're asking how to scale up because they've found something that actually grows their business.
A 2020 study found that 80% of a firm's future profits will derive from just 20% of existing customers. But here's what that study didn't say: those 20% aren't staying because you're slightly better than competitors. They're staying because switching would mean losing the ecosystem that's actively growing their business.
So here's the question for banks watching their SME retention rates slide: which partner will you add that demonstrates measurable revenue growth in your clients' accounts? Because the right partnership doesn't dilute your brand – it proves your value in the language businesses understand best: deposits, not promises.
The question isn't whether partnerships strengthen customer retention. The question is: which partnerships will you build before your competitors do?
