The power of Rakuten Viber for banks: boosting customer engagement

In a world where customers are constantly bombarded with choices and marketing messages, how can banks hope to stand out and keep their clients engaged? Rakuten Viber may have the answer.

Rakuten Viber is a calling and instant messaging app with over 1 billion Android downloads. What sets it apart from other messaging apps is its rich set of features. In addition to the ability to make calls, send messages, share photos and videos, there has been a continuous effort since Rakuten Viber’s launch in 2010 to add innovative features and functionality to improve user experience. Now, in 2022 the app includes games, stickers, chatbots, AR lenses, as well as Rakuten Viber Out, the ability to make voice calls to landlines and mobile phones.

What’s more, Rakuten Viber is also a great platform for businesses to reach out to their customers. And that’s where banks can benefit from using Rakuten Viber.

How Rakuten Viber can benefit banks and their clients

Many banks are already using Rakuten Viber to communicate with audiences in a variety of ways, including sending account updates, providing customer service, and promoting new products and services. Rakuten Viber also makes it possible to create chatbots that can answer questions and provide support. By leveraging the power of Rakuten Viber, banks can boost customer engagement significantly. Here are just a few examples when to use Rakuten Viber Business solutions for banks:

• Send transactional business messages to inform customers about each transaction
• Follow up with timely reminders about important account updates or changes
• Keep audiences updated on new products and services
• Share engaging and informative content such as infographics, videos, and links to detailed information via CTA-buttons
• Send targeted interest-based messages
• Provide support and answer questions

Engagement, convenience, and relevance are key to driving loyalty. By using Rakuten Viber, banks can stay in touch with their clients and keep them updated with timely and relevant messages.

Learn more about Rakuten Viber Business Solutions

Banks and Rakuten Viber: the perfect partnership for customer engagement and safety

Security has always been a top priority at Rakuten Viber, and we are committed to maintaining the privacy and security of all communications. For user conversations Rakuten Viber uses end-to-end encryption, and this means that only the sender and receiver can read the messages sent through Rakuten Viber, and no one else, not even Rakuten Viber, can access them. And for business messages sent through a brand’s platform, encryption in transit provides an exceptionally high level of security, so businesses can rest assured their messages are safe from hackers.

In recent years, banks have been looking for new ways to engage customers while controlling bank account safety. Rakuten Viber provides a solution for both of these issues. In addition to transactional messages, many banks also use conversational messages that allow two-way communication. By offering people the ability to chat with customer service representatives in real time, banks can provide a more personal level of service. And Rakuten Viber's state-of-the-art security and encryption in transit ensure that all communication between client and representative is secure. This gives customers peace of mind knowing that their personal information is safe.

And it doesn’t need to be just standard text-only messages. Rakuten Viber’s rich media capabilities allow banks to send engaging content, such as video and images, which can help increase audience interest and help with brand building—all without compromising on security and privacy.

To increase their visibility and attract new clients, banks can also leverage Rakuten Viber advertising solutions: native ads, branded stickers and lenses. Native, non-intrusive Rakuten Viber Ads with different targeting capabilities can help run marketing campaigns and gain popularity among wider audiences. Branded Lenses can help stay relevant for a Gen Z audience (especially, when the bank has this audience as one of their targeted segments), and Rakuten Viber Stickers are another creative tools to leverage visibility and engage with the brand’s existing and potential customers by using viral and interactive solutions which can be also linked to their chatbot. 

Case studies: banks that nailed customer engagement with the help of Rakuten Viber Business solutions

Banks are always looking for new ways to connect with their audiences and boost loyalty. Rakuten Viber provides a great opportunity for banks to do just that. With a number of features, such as chatbots, branded stickers, and even games, banks use Rakuten Viber to boost engagement by sending out notifications about special offers, account updates, and new products and services. Customers who are subscribed to a bank's Rakuten Viber chatbot can also receive necessary support 24/7 and have access to FAQs and other automated services. 

The benefits of using Rakuten Viber for banks include not only increased loyalty, but also a reduction in support costs. A number of banks are already using Rakuten Viber Business solutions, and the results are very promising. 

Raiffeisen Bank, for example, has been using Rakuten Viber to improve customer engagement with Rakuten Viber stickers and Rakuten Viber chatbot. The bank created a free sticker pack which led to a bot subscription and a banking chatbot with native Serbian language to provide high quality customer support. The sticker campaign was a huge success with 850K exposed Serbian users, 209K+ sticker packs downloaded, and 120K+ chatbots subscribers recruited.

PrivatBank wanted to use Rakuten Viber for marketing, to increase audience reach, and to promote banking products and special offers. PrivatBank sent special offers and promotions via Rakuten Viber’s promotional messages and took advantage of Rakuten Viber's 98% smartphone market penetration in the region to inform existing customers about their new banking products, attract the attention of potential customers, and increase audience reach, while reducing their marketing costs. The bank launched several campaigns: loan and credit, job recruitment and a chatbot release announcement. To improve customer experience and boost their conversion rates, PrivatBank took advantage of the different Rakuten Viber Business Messages features: images, formatted messages and longer message sizes (up to 1000 characters). They saw a 10% increase in banking service usage and in sales meetings booked on Rakuten Viber.

Ukrsibbank used Rakuten Viber Business Messages to boost customer engagement and improve client adoption and knowledge of their mobile app. To promote the app, the bank combined images, CTA buttons, and standard text to drive new users, while increasing existing user engagement and campaign performance. Rakuten Viber provided them a 2x higher conversion rate versus traditional SMS, while, thanks to the Rakuten Viber campaign, app downloads rose by 50% and app usage increased by 30%.

Overall, many banks have found that Rakuten Viber is an effective way to improve customer engagement, as well as to provide quick and easy answers to questions, resolve customer complaints, and send special offers and promotions via official Rakuten Viber business accounts.

Learn more about how to open a Rakuten Viber business account.

Personalization at scale

The customer data platform is the backbone of the banking sector. Banks use it for audience segmentation, targeted marketing, and personalized service; it provides a 360-degree view of customers and helps banks target their marketing and advertising efforts more effectively. Banks that have a CDP can integrate it with Rakuten Viber to connect with their audiences on a more personal level without compromising on user privacy. By understanding customers’ needs and preferences, banks can send targeted messages and offers through Rakuten Viber that are relevant only to them. This helps create a more trusting relationship between the bank and its clients.

Get the most out of Rakuten Viber with these tips for customer engagement:

1. Use Rakuten Viber’s conversational messages, a part of Rakuten Viber Business messaging solutions, for two-way communication. Customers can message their bank directly through Rakuten Viber, which builds trust and rapport.
2. Promotional business messages are best for marketing purposes. Banks can send offers, updates, and reminders through Rakuten Viber, and customers can take action on those messages. These messages can be personalized and sent to specific groups of users based on demographics and interests.
3. Rakuten Viber’s transactional messages allow not just for account and balance updates, but also for timely notifications about transactions, such as payments and transfers, or important changes, such as a change in interest rates. It all helps build trust in the bank.
4. Also, banks can use Rakuten Viber chatbots to offer tips and advice on financial matters and educate customers about financial topics, products, and services. By sending thoughtful and informative messages via chatbots, banks can help their clients become more financially savvy and improve their financial wellbeing, as well as position the bank as a source of financial expertise and thus reinforce customer loyalty.

Finally, banks can use Rakuten Viber for holiday season mobile marketing, to hold competitions and giveaways or run other creative seasonal marketing campaigns. This can help increase loyalty and encourage customers to use their bank more often.

The use of Rakuten Viber Chatbots

Banks are under constant pressure to improve service while reducing costs. Rakuten Chatbots can help them do both. Rakuten Chatbots can provide 24/7 customer service, which is a major benefit for any business. They can also help reduce customer service costs by automating simple tasks and freeing up staff to handle more complex issues. In addition, chatbots can help banks improve their sales and marketing efforts. They can be used to provide personalized recommendations and product information. And, they can even help upsell and cross-sell products and services.

Rakuten Viber Chatbots are a great option for banks because they offer all of these benefits and more. They can help improve customer service and sales, while also reducing costs. That’s a winning combination for any business. Learn more about Rakuten Viber Chatbots API and how to get started.

Connecting with customers on a new level – the advantages of Rakuten Viber for banks

Overall, Rakuten Viber is a powerful communication tool for financial institutions. It offers a variety of features that can be used to improve service, increase efficiency, and attract new clients. Some of the signature strengths of Rakuten Viber that make it ideal for the banking industry include:

Personalized connection: Rakuten Viber allows banks to connect with their customers on a one-on-one basis. This enables banks to provide personalized service and increase loyalty and satisfaction.

A rich set of features: Rakuten Viber offers a wide range of features that can be used to improve communication in the banking industry. These features include file, photo, and video sharing, CTA buttons and more.

A robust and secure platform: Rakuten Viber is a highly reliable and robust platform designed to handle large volumes of traffic and can be used by banks to handle queries and complaints effectively, and at a large scale, while protecting client privacy and security.

Contact our team to learn more about using Rakuten Viber to provide a more convenient and personal experience for customers, decrease support costs, improve one-to-one marketing, and keep customers coming back.