Helm and DSTV team at New Gen Awards 2023
In an evening filled with glitz, glamour, and nervous excitement, Helm – Africa's leading customer experience innovation experts – and their partners DStv emerged as winners on Thursday night at the 2023 New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards. The prestigious event, which attracted over 400 submissions this year, celebrated outstanding campaigns that have revolutionised brand-building in innovative ways.
Receiving recognition on the night was DStv Assist, an intelligent assistant that has been a game-changer for over 1.2 million DStv customers every month since its inception in 2019. The success story of DStv Assist, developed in collaboration with Helm, has been nothing short of extraordinary, with the bot sending and receiving over 1.6 billion messages with a 77% customer satisfaction score.
DStv Assist's achievements at the 2023 NewGen Awards include:
- Best Use of Technical Innovation: DStv Assist was honoured with this prestigious award, acknowledging its strides in technical innovation.
- Best Use of AI in Marketing Campaign: This award category celebrated the use of artificial intelligence, and DStv Assist was recognised for its groundbreaking AI-driven marketing campaign.
Arno van Huyssteen, Helm's client product partner, expressed his enthusiasm for the awards, saying: "Our initial brief from MultiChoice was simple, but challenging – how can we move away from traditional customer service approaches and help more people in less time. One thing about Helm is that we love a challenge, so we snapped up the opportunity to help DStv radically transform their self-service offering.”
Working in close partnership with DStv, Helm harnessed its expertise in user behaviour and cutting-edge technology to create an Intelligent Assistant that could efficiently handle customer queries and issues that previously required human intervention. Utilising Helm Engine™, an AI-powered conversational platform, the team developed a solution that could understand and respond to users' needs, enabling customers to manage their accounts and resolve decoder errors seamlessly.
Noni Tshabalala, group digital enablement, senior manager of product at Multichoice, says, “The award is a testament to our team's dedication to creating the best personalised experiences. Our customers are able to have an enriched self-service experience and engage with us about our value-added services and products through our DStv Assist platform.”
DStv Assist's success story is indeed a testament to the power of innovation and collaboration. Its performance speaks volumes:
- 1.6 billion messages sent and received via WhatsApp.
- 4.7 million unique users, representing 50% of DStv's entire customer base.
- An average of 1.2 million unique users per month.
- A remarkable 7.4% increase in traffic year-on-year.
- An impressive 77% average customer satisfaction score.
This solution is accessible to anyone with WhatsApp, offering limited functionality, while existing subscribers can enjoy a added functionality and a dynamic menu tailored to their subscription and added products.
The New Generation Awards will sit proudly on Helm’s mantlepiece, next to a growing collection of accolades (many of which were won in partnership with DStv), including multiple gold, silver and bronze MMA Smarties Awards for their work on various clients, including LUMA Legal, the Covid-19 WhatsApp Bot, Smartstart Education Assistant, and Supersonic (MTN).
