Global cloud communication company Infobip has deployed its AI-driven chatbot building platform (Answers) over WhatsApp for Twiga Foods Kenya.  

Twiga Foods was established in 2014 to reduce fragmentation in the produce market.

The agri-tech start-up runs a mobile-based Business-to-Business (B2B) food supply platform that supplies fresh fruits and vegetables sourced from farmers in rural Kenya to small- and medium-sized vendors, outlets and kiosks countrywide.

The company has built a deep understanding of how to innovate in the African retail market, by embracing independent retailers and giving them greater access to high quality foods, produce and home goods by leveraging the latest technology and the ubiquity of mobile phones combined with modern distribution and logistics.

Drive meaningful engagement

Over the past 8 years Twiga Foods has been using field marketing agents, who engaged directly to sign up vendors across Kenya. .

Even though the field marketing strategy worked for the company over the years, Twiga realised it needed a more efficient and cost-effective way to activate vendors.

According to Stellah Njeru Product Manager, Social Commerce at Twiga Foods Kenya, the company needed a hassle-free onboarding process of vendors who fulfill the minimum Know Your Customer (KYC) requirement onto its platform.

“We needed to seamlessly scale the onboarding of small and medium sized vendors within the region through a preferred communications channel,” says Njeru.

Njeru said that the Answers chatbot solution provided by Infobip has helped the company drive meaningful, personalised and scalable engagement with existing and new vendors across the country.

“We have significantly improved the onboarding process, through self-registration; 40% of vendors across the country are fully registered and KYCd via Twiggy on WhatsApp within less than 3 mins," she said.

For the development team at Twiga, Infobip’s Answers chatbot building solution works perfectly; it saved them numerous hours as it's easy to build on, supports integrations with their internal backend services and most importantly can be securely deployed to multiple social channels as they scale.

 Customer Retention

With the company now being available and able to support customers 24/7 through WhatsApp, Twiga Foods customer satisfaction rating & customer retention has improved.

“We are transforming African retail with an alternative system that eliminates inefficiencies and generates the same results as the modernisation of retail in more developed markets,” Emma Mugo at Infobip says,

“Chatbot solutions are fundamentally altering the way many businesses operate since AI-driven bots can engage with customers more effectively and efficiently while also giving an organisation a greater understanding of its clients."