More than one billion businesses around the world use technology solutions to engage and reach customers.
This simplifies their daily activities and thus enhances business productivity.
As the world is shifting into a post-COVID-19 era, it is required by businesses are not left out of this digital transformation by building their solution to grow their customer base.
However, some small businesses still find it a daunting task coping with the application of technology to run their ventures smoothly.
With a majority of them complaining about the complexities around coding and technical skills, small businesses often find it difficult to leverage digital technologies to maximize profits.
The creation of solutions doesn’t have to involve coding nor technical skills. As a business owner, you can design & control the solution yourself, while cutting tech costs by up to 90% ( Save on the cost of hiring a tech team to build and manage your infrastructure)
One platform that is offering this expertise in Kenya is Saada.
Established in March 2019 in Accra Ghana by the duos of Gerishon Mwaniki and Eugene Musebe from different African countries, Saada which is a Software as a Service platfrom is anchoring its pan-African approach to solving SMEs problems.
The company was later incorporated in Kenya in September 2019 as a Private Limited Company Inc.
We caught up with Gerishon, one of the Co-founders, who took us through an overview of how Saada is increasing digital sales and data collection for retail businesses in Kenya by enabling digital flow for businesses on the continent.
Saada is a conversational sales solution platform that empowers businesses to automate operations such as sales and customer service for a fast and convenient purchasing experience while increasing digital sales and data collection.
With an over 70% penetration of internet & tech infrastructure in most African countries, Saada’s objective is to ensure that SMEs do not lag behind due to cost of building and maintaining tech solutions to grow their operations.
According to Gerishon, the platform achieves this by offering SMEs a plug & Play solution for USSD, Programmable SMS, WhatsApp & IVR.
“This tool requires no technical skills to use hence most SME owners can create their USSD, SMS,WhatsApp solutions without hiring a developer.”, he explained
Gerishon added that Saada also maintains the infrastructures after building, hence relieving SMEs the task of maintenance.
The startup envisions a world where customers can conveniently access businesses.
The Saada solution has two components
Flow-Builder Micro-service
This is an easy-to-use form that enables people to build systematic flows for their USSD, SMS, IVR, or WhatsApp solution with the help of tooltips.
Integration Micro-service
This has a wide selection of off-the-shelf third-party integrations such as Mobile money, visa, and billing services which can be integrated into existing flows of USSD, SMS, or WhatsApp with a click of a button.
How Saada works
Due to the high cost of building and maintaining a tech infrastructure, Saada enables SMEs to plug & play solutions for their businesses without requiring any technical skills.
“At Saada, we strive to help SMEs optimize their customer-facing operations through conversational interfaces at minimum cost without requiring to hire technical expertise.”
The process is comprised of 5 steps|:
Create account
Saada sets up an account for the client. An e-mail is sent to the client with the login details which can be used to access the account through the dashboard.˜
Create flows
The client logs into their account to access the dashboard. They are prompted to create their USSD/Whatsapp flows by filling different screens which act as simple forms.
Integrate solutions
The client can choose any auxiliary service such as mobile-money, card payment or import their own data from their existing applications.
Test simulator
The client can test and simulate the created flows, to understand live performance and troubleshoot issues before going live. They can edit the flows created in case of errors
Go live
Once the customer is satisfied with their flow on the simulator, Saada plugs them to their desired channel service provider. The application is ready for use by the customer
Saada’s services
The startup’s newly integrated product is Flo by Saada and it was designed to give a full complement of the platform’s service to help businesses and organizations automate their mundane tasks.
Flo by Saada is powering innovative customer engagement and sales solutions
Flow builder services
This is a systematic form with easy tooltips that guide customers to easily input questions and choices for USSD, WhatsApp & Programmable SMS flow. It takes less than 10 mins and requires no coding or technical expertise.
Integration microservices
This tool provides an of shelf selection of auxiliary service integrations such as mobile money, card payments, and bill processing options that businesses can integrate into their solutions in a click of a button.
USSD/Whatsapp/programmable SMS integration
Flo by Saada system generates an easy to export web-hook that can be ported to the service provider of your choice for either USSD, WhatsApp or programmable SMS.
Tracklogs
Flo enables businesses to view customer logs and track any failed logs from either their USSD, WhatsApp or Programmable SMS channels.
This way your business is able to get in touch with the potential customer that tried to reach your business through either channel.
Saada also offer featured solutions which include data collection, ticketing and insurance acquisition
Benefits of Saada
Built for all
Saada does not require any technical expertise to operate, hence offering most businesses a chance to leverage technology to grow their customer base
Build to last
Saada tool enables businesses to integrate all auxiliary services that they may need for both the present and the future by just clicking on services to integrate.
This gives SMEs leverage as they can choose services for other countries and venture in such markets with a solid tool to run customer operations.
Low cost
Saada eliminates the need to hire expensive technical expertise which is a bottleneck for most SMEs trying to incorporate tech in their businesses. The tool is a plug & play and needs no tech skills to build flows.
Build and Go
Saada manages all tech infrastructures built on our tool, it troubleshoots downtime and ensures no bugs compromise business operations.
A business needs not worry about recurring tech costs for servers as Saada handles that too.
Insights
Whenever necessary, Saada offers businesses insights on their operations including integrations to consider for new markets, best channels for different customer segments and insights on business traffic through its tool.
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