Vodafone Idea (Vi), the third-largest telecom operator in the country, keeps on introducing industry-first innovations and technologies. Now, the company has announced that its customers can recharge their numbers directly through WhatsApp. This will allow users to conveniently recharge their numbers without opening different applications for the same. For enabling users to recharge with this convenience, the telco is leveraging its virtual agent VIC. Vi users will be able to subscribe to any prepaid pack in just two clicks via WhatsApp. It is worth noting that none of the other operators offers such convenience to their users at the moment.
Vi Postpaid and Prepaid Customers Can Now Make Payments Via WhatsApp
According to a release from Vi, the company has gone ahead with such a move to make its customer’s life easier, faster, and simpler. Both postpaid and prepaid customers of the telco will be able to make payments and subscribe directly through WhatsApp. Vi said this personalised payments service would work across “all payment gateways”. It is worth noting that last year, Vi became the first operator in the country to launch a service chatbot for its users on WhatsApp. The chatbot was named VIC. VIC is an AI-powered virtual assistant that helps users of the telco to get fast responses and now will also allow them to pay and subscribe to the new plans. Whenever the users want to make payments via VIC, they will receive a link for the gateway via an SMS. Further, users can also send an SMS to 96542-97000 (VIC) number for getting the link. All these features and conveniences have still been unable to put Vi in a strong position in India. The operator is losing money and subscribers every quarter that goes by. However, with the introduction of tariff hikes, its average revenue per user (ARPU) might grow and improve revenues for the company.
