Big on activation, mobile wallet players hold camps to educate masses

Post-demonetisation, mobile wallet service providers have come into their own. A number of players are seizing this as an opportunity to increase their engagement levels with potential users, particularly in rural areas that appear to be grappling in the dark as the government nudges people to go cashless. The rules of engaging potential mobile wallet users in villages and Tier-II and Tier-III towns is in stark contrast to big print adverts and digital communiqués targeted at urban users.

For the mobile wallet industry, the mantra to winning over rural folks lies in being closer to them and engaging them on their own terms. A majority of the players are big on activations and holding huge camps educating and familiarising people in villages to various use cases of a mobile wallet.

For example, Mobikwik is holding a large number of customer camps in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. It mainly targets villages which are on the outskirts of these key states. On an average, it holds three to four camps in a day in different villages in a state.

Upasana Taku, co-founder and director, MobiKwik, says, “Customer camps are sort of a mini rally where 100 to 500 people are in attendance. Our representatives distribute pamphlets providing details about the product and then go on to demonstrate various use cases of our mobile wallet.”

Such camps help in hand-holding potential users and in clarifying their doubts as to how can they download the app, transfer money and pay their utility bills etc. Even as MobiKwik and others hold customer camps,  it’s important for players to be careful about picking up cases which are relevant to villagers in real time, points out Taku. For example, MobiKwik representatives demonstrate how the wallet can be used to make cashless payments for milk, grocery and be used for making payments at government-run fair price shops etc.

Most importantly, the app for rural consumers has to be simple and menu-driven, devoid of any elitist features as is the case with their feature-laden version targeted at urban folks. Companies need to focus and highlight the ease of use to people at large.

Bharti Airtel pushes across its mobile wallet offering Airtel Money among rural users by assuring them that the product runs on a USSD platform which works independent of internet connectivity. The wallet runs on feature phones etc.

According to Shashi Arora, chief executive officer and managing director, Airtel Payments Bank, which also covers mobile wallet services, the company organises shamiyana (pandal group gatherings) in villages and demonstrates how the wallet can be used for mobile phone recharge and transferring money.

The mobile wallet services are available in 12 regional languages. To increase penetration and drive deeper engagement, Airtel Money is tying up with kirana stores and chemists. The company is banking on the larger ecosystem of local retailers to boost confidence of users in their wallet.

For Vodafone M-Pesa, rigorous training and handholding is key to building equity and trust on the brand.

“We are working closely with village panchayats on a daily basis and engaging villagers through live demonstrations, interactive sessions, mobile vans, facilitating on-spot registration and money transfer,” points out Suresh Sethi, business head, M-Pesa, Vodafone India.

Paytm, for one, has put together various teams of agents who are tasked with conducting sessions and workshops across schools, colleges and village panchayats educating people about the benefits of using Paytm services. The mobile wallet service provider has in fact launched the “Each One, Teach One” initiative that is aimed at encouraging everybody to teach their friends, family, neighbourhood shops and service providers how to use Paytm. It has also launched a toll-free number (1800 1800 1234) to enable non-smartphone and non-internet users particularly in villages to pay or receive money using Paytm.

“Moreover, we have set bolder targets in merchant acquisition to ensure rural consumers find more merchants in their neighbourhood accepting Paytm than ever before,” says Kiran Vasireddy, senior vice-president, Paytm.

Pankaj Krishna, chief executive officer, Chrome Data Analytics, which tracks mobile wallet industry, says that with the demonetisation drive, mobile wallet companies have got a great opportunity to capture untapped markets and give an up-swing to their revenues.

“Mobile wallets should target the young male, and graduates in rural India as they are more technology-savvy and can be engaged easily. Another set of people that can be targeted within rural India are men in the age group of 30-50 years who are not yet active users but can be converted with the right engagement programmes. Going further, young homemakers should also be targeted and educated upon mobile wallet services,” says Krishna.