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Business Platform

Pegadaian

Improving on-time payments with utility messages on WhatsApp

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97
%

Of customers prefer messages on WhatsApp to SMS*

92
%

On-time payment rate from messages on WhatsApp*

90
%

Read rate for messages on WhatsApp*

Their Story

 

Convenience and customer care

Pegadaian is an Indonesian state-owned pawnbroker that operates as a subsidiary of Bank Rakyat Indonesia, the country’s oldest bank. Pegadaian operates thousands of branches throughout the Indonesian archipelago.

Their Goal

 

___

Improving loan performance

Pegadaian previously relied on manual customer outreach (SMS, phone calls and postal mail) to send important messages to customers, including payment reminders, transaction notifications (such as excess payment notices and gold price increases), account maintenance notices, product information and more.

But measuring the effectiveness of these forms of customer outreach was challenging, and Pegadaian’s non-performing loan rate was too high. Postal mail in particular led to more delays, and wasn’t seen by the company as being effective at resolving payment issues.

A woman using her phone.

“Before sending utility messages on WhatsApp, we had to send our customers reminders and other messages via SMS, phone calls and postal mail. This new approach not only improves on-time payments and loan performance, customers tell us they prefer it to SMS.”

Taufan El Savir
Head of the Priority Services Department, The Gade Coffee and Gold PT Pegadaian

Their Solution

 
 

____

Utility messages on WhatsApp

Seeking an automated solution to save time and resources, Pegadaian partnered with Qiscus, an omnichannel conversation platform, to send automated utility messages and reminders to customers via WhatsApp Business Platform.

With this new solution, active Pegadaian customers receive relevant messages on WhatsApp instead of through the usual channels, such as postal mail and SMS. After clicking a link in the message, the customers are redirected to an automated messaging experience implemented by Qiscus outside of WhatsApp, where they can learn more information and conduct financial transactions if selected. Customers can then rate their satisfaction with the service experience upon completion.

By shifting important customer notifications to lightweight utility messages on WhatsApp, the company reported high customer satisfaction scores and reduced payment delays, and was able to get more visibility into read rates.

 
An example of the menu users see on Pegadaian's WhatsApp channel.

Their Success

High engagement from loan customers

Pegadaian tracked the performance of this new approach from January 2023 through July 10, 2024 and reported:

A person holding their phone.
  • 97% of customers prefer messages on WhatsApp to SMS*
  • 92% on-time payment rate from messages on WhatsApp*
  • 90% read rate for messages on WhatsApp*

Results are self-reported and not identifiably repeatable. Generally expected individual results will differ.

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