At ROAM, we strongly believe that our platforms cannot be successful if we don’t create value for our users. That is why we keep focusing our efforts on providing them with the best service, experience, and of course, state-of-the-art technology. Hence the latest initiative of our leading career website in East Africa BrighterMonday: launching the first chatbot for the African job market, allowing job seekers to find a job simply by chatting with our automated personal assistant.
But first, let’s take a step back and explain what ROAM platforms are about: they assist people during crucial events in their lives; whether it is buying a car, a house, or finding their next job. Going through these events is never easy, particularly in Africa where users lack transparency, choice and/or resources. When it comes to job markets, job seekers have to deal with intense competition, scammers and limited internet access.
These issues, among many others, are what BrighterMonday (based in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) tries to tackle daily. In particular, BrighterMonday has been constantly improving its accessibility and communication, by creating an app that informs job seekers of the latest openings through notifications and email alerts. Launching a bot is the next step in helping job seekers spot new career opportunities.
So clearly, many wins on the user side! Similarly, this chatbot has also provided very promising results on our side: high conversion rates and more efficient customer service. Since its launch in March, the bot has been engaging in hundreds of conversations a day and has proven to be a powerful tool to increase sessions and leads. The success rate in conversion skyrocketed from 62% at the start to 85% in July.
These figures are very exciting and our efforts will not stop there! Chatbots will be launched across all our businesses & countries and improved with the help of the Facebook Strategic Platforms Partnership team. We aim at being the innovative leader in African classifieds to better serve our users and fulfil our goal: Connecting Africans to Opportunities.