Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Airtel Africa, a leading telco group with more than 150 million subscribers across 14 African countries, has partnered with WebEngage to drive its digital customer base management.

Airtel is the second largest telecom service provider in Africa, with more than 60 million data users among a total of 150 million customers. Driven by a vision of bridging the digital divide and driving financial inclusion across Africa, Airtel provides mobile money, entertainment, and digital services to all its users.

The integrations will enable Airtel to monitor user service activities and in a highly personalised manner while retaining customers and improving engagement. This partnership will expand to Airtel Money, Smart Cash in Nigeria, and Airtel TV, creating seamless and personalised digital experiences across Web, App, in App, Meta, Google, and traditional channels such as SMS and email.

Airtel Africa’s Group Senior Vice President: Digital & Product, Priya Thakoor, said, “With a massive rollout completed within three-month timeframe, WebEngage’s CDP is now observing more than 600 user actions across all 14 markets and consistently building an actionable digital profile list. More than 30 highly personalised customer journeys are live, engaging more than one million subscribers and resulting in over 30% conversions.

Priya Thakoor (left) and Hetarth Patel.

"Our objective is to improve CLTV for every customer with highly targeted offerings across channels that meet their individual needs. We have built a foundation of digital customer base management with WebEngage for My Airtel app, driving customer engagement and deeper product penetration into mobile money and adjacent digital services. It must be stated that in all this we ensure complete customer privacy.”

Hetarth Patel, Vice President — Growth Markets (MEA, Americas, APAC), WebEngage, said, “We are elated about this partnership with Airtel Africa to transform their customer value management. With our advanced customer data platform, cutting-edge analytics, generative AI, and personalised capabilities, we will help them achieve 1:1 customer engagement on owned, paid media, and digital channels. There are numerous use cases we have planned to increase app usage, retain users on digital properties, and improve CLTV. Our on-ground customer success teams based in Nairobi and Dubai will work hand-in-hand with Airtel OpCos and Group to accelerate this execution.”

The partnership reflects a broader digital transformation in the telecom sector. Telcos are metamorphosing into TechCos by partnering with innovative solution providers like WebEngage. Telecom companies’ deep understanding of customers’ non-linear journeys and benchmarking of superior customer experiences across channels, including traditional, digital, paid media, owned and third party, are certainly helping them excel at digital transformation.

WebEngage boasts unparalleled distinction in the MarTech (a portmanteau of marketing and technology) SaaS domain globally, with over 800 clients across retail, education, finance, food & beverages, media & publications, and healthcare, among other sectors. Its partnership with companies has yielded remarkable outcomes in customer experiences, operational revenue, and digital transformation. With Airtel Africa, WebEngage envisions a profound impact financially and socially.