How iBilik, the largest platform for co-living in Malaysia, gains consumer confidence via SleekFlow

Room rental management can be a daunting task, no matter if you’re someone looking for a comfortable home or an owner in search of responsible tenants. iBilik, with a portal for users to browse through listings for room rental and a tenancy management system integrated with smart IoT devices, aims to bridge the gap between homeowners and tenants by taking the burden off their shoulders and simplifying the whole process. To realise their business goal, iBilik has to ensure that trust is built for customer communications to go smoothly. 

Challenges of a platform business

iBilik has always relied heavily on online communication, be it with customers or internally between team members. Dealing with around 800,000 unique website visitors monthly, the team needed an easy-to-use communication tool that is integrated with their web portal, so that each of them can access simultaneously anytime, anywhere. 

Since being responsive is an essential requirement for great customer service, iBilik also had to push themselves to work efficiently all the time as they attend to a large number of landlords on their portal. 

Besides, with Meta’s strict policies to protect users against spam messages, iBilik had to suffer the risk of losing their WhatsApp number. The lack of a visible business name on their WhatsApp profile also disallowed users to identify their brand and derailed their campaign results.

“In a scenario where you send a message blast to 100 users, and 10 contacts block your WhatsApp account, you lose all the potential deals you might have gotten from that WhatsApp Business account. And that’s a huge business risk,” Keith, Chief Revenue Officer of iBilik shared.

Before discovering SleekFlow, iBilik tried using solutions from other providers, but the result was not satisfactory. The first provider they found did not have a mobile app for their agents to access customer conversations while travelling around. Following that, they attempted another solution that only had chatbot support when they encountered issues. It was a rather frustrating experience.

SleekFlow’s WhatsApp solution for a platform business

iBilik now uses SleekFlow to integrate WhatsApp Business API into their official portal, streamlining a frictionless customer experience for both target audiences, landlords and tenants.

Official WABA account to gain user trust

When it comes to tenancy management, trustworthiness is a compulsory element. After completing the green tick verification for their WABA accounts, iBilik has found themselves free from the tenants doubting the authenticity of their WhatsApp Business accounts. This has helped them gain consumer confidence as tenants feel safer when they make payments while communicating with the agents on WhatsApp. 

The application process for WhatsApp Business verification is tedious, but SleekFlow has helped us throughout. Now, we have a green tick on our WhatsApp Business account.

Keith

Chief Revenue Officer of iBilik

WhatsApp QR code to collect contacts and expand the customer database

To encourage more user-initiated conversations on WhatsApp, iBilik has also generated a WhatsApp QR code on SleekFlow where users can scan and start chatting with their business. For example, they managed to collect 2,000 contacts from an event to expand the database for their contacts. With these contacts starting the WhatsApp conversation, they can then send highly targeted broadcast messages without the extra step of collecting opt-ins. They can also accommodate their marketing budget better as WhatsApp charges lesser for these user-initiated conversations as compared to business-initiated conversations.

Automated chatbot to direct users to local agents

Since iBilik is located across Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, and Philippines, they receive enquiries from various countries. As a website visitor of iBilik drops them a WhatsApp message, the automated chatbot that they created on SleekFlow will ensure that these potential leads obtain an immediate response and get routed to their local agent for assistance. Other than improving customer satisfaction, the automatic chat assignment also increases agent productivity and gives them more time to deal with more complicated tasks.

Team inbox on a user-friendly mobile app

iBilik has an on-site sales team who visits the customers at their property. While the remote team engages incoming leads online, the on-site sales team will also need to coordinate as they meet the customers in person. 

Instead of the web version of a team inbox that they used previously, iBilik has found the mobile app for SleekFlow’s omnichannel all-in-one inbox effective for internal and external communication. Other than the fast-loading and intuitive interface, they can easily loop their teammates in and collaborate on customer conversations when necessary. “The chats load very quickly once I opened the app. I can easily paste a screenshot in the chatbox, or attach multiple photos or a video in the SleekFlow Inbox,” Keith said. 

Furthermore, the names of the agents displayed in the chatbox have also helped iBilik improve customer satisfaction. Clients return with good reviews remembering the names of agents who have assisted them well. “People want personalised interactions. Nobody wants to reply to a business name not knowing who they are speaking with.”

Today, my entire sales force, all my agents, are using the same platform where I am able to monitor the results in general.

Keith

CRO of iBilik

98% open rate for broadcast messages used to generate leads and sign-ups

iBilik now owns 3 verified WABA numbers. 70% of their WhatsApp broadcast messages are sent to promote their high-end rental management ecosystem to the landlords, while the remaining 30% is utilised for searching potential tenants for homeowners. 

As WhatsApp acquires significant popularity with an open rate as high as 98%, it is recognised as an effective communication platform for Malaysian businesses. After collecting opt-ins from their contacts, iBilik has managed to ensure that their promotional messages are blasted only to those who are interested in their product. They’ve found it interesting how leads that are not responsive to their WhatsApp broadcast messages can return 5 months later as conversion. 

“Using verified WhatsApp Business accounts gives me peace of mind knowing that I will not be blocked as I send out broadcast messages to different groups of people. I can now craft my messages for people from different communities to generate results for highly targeted campaigns.”

Don’t think, choose SleekFlow. It’s a user-friendly tool for marketing and team collaboration.

Keith

CRO of iBilik

About iBilik

iBilik is a rental platform in Malaysia, integrated with an end-to-end IoT-enabled Rental Management System which allows tenants, landlords, and co-Living operators to achieve a satisfactory tenancy experience and communicate with each party seamlessly. They provide a free advertising forum and social platforms such as Facebook Page or Instagram for owners or agents to publish their rental listings. With a recent win of the Consumers' Choice Award 2022 from Majlis Tindakan Pengguna Negara (MTPN), iBilik is determined to deliver excellence and quality services for their users.