Ikeja: Transforming ISP Customer Feedback with AI-Powered WhatsApp Research

Client: Ikeja
Industry: Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Location: South Africa
Website: ikeja.co.za

The Challenge

As a growing ISP serving South African townships, ikeja faced critical barriers to gathering authentic customer feedback:

Traditional Methods Failed to Reach Customers:

• Telephonic outreach limited to business hours when customers were unavailable
• Low response rates from email surveys in communities with limited email access
• High costs of manual phone-based follow-ups
• No way to capture nuanced customer sentiment at scale

Data Quality Issues:

• Rushed conversations yielded surface-level insights
• Unable to probe deeper into specific pain points
• Missed opportunities to understand customer experience across their service lifecycle
• No efficient way to identify trends across hundreds of customer interactions

The Solution: WhatsApp AI Interviewer

Yazi deployed an automated AI interviewer via WhatsApp that triggered 7 days post-installation:

How It Worked:

• Automated trigger: 7 days after Wave installation, customers received a WhatsApp message asking for feedback
• AI-adaptive questioning: The AI interviewer dynamically probed based on individual responses
• 24/7 availability: Customers responded at their convenience, not just business hours
• Rich multimedia capture: Voice notes, text, and images provided depth impossible via phone

Sample Questions Covered:

• Overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend
• Internet speed perceptions and reliability
• Connection range/coverage issues
• Comparison to previous providers
• Specific use cases (work, education, streaming)

Results & Impact

Unprecedented Response Quality

Rich, Contextual Insights:

• 2,000+ detailed customer interviews collected over 6 months (Mar-Aug 2025)
• Customers provided voice notes up to 200 words explaining their experiences in detail

Customer Availability Unlocked

"The beauty of it... it just works at the time that the customer is available and at their leisure. Versus, if you're employing someone to do that internally, it's usually during office hours and people aren't really available."
— Matt, COO at Ikeja

Key Metrics:

• 45% response rate on WhatsApp vs. 6% typical email survey rate
• 60% of responses included voice notes with nuanced context
• Conversations averaged 16 minutes — depth impossible via phone interviews

Strategic Business Impact

Product Development:

• Identified specific WiFi range issues led to hardware recommendations
• Weather resilience became key competitive differentiator
• Multi-device connectivity validated as major selling point

Marketing Intelligence:

• Discovered 33% of customers learned through word-of-mouth vs. 32% through sales agents
• Found 47% upgraded for speed while 27% for reliability — informed messaging strategy
• Captured authentic customer language for testimonials

Customer Success:

• Installation delays flagged allowed process improvements
• Customer service gaps identified for training interventions
• Proactive outreach possible for weather-affected areas

Why This Methodology Worked

WhatsApp as the Interface:

• 98% WhatsApp penetration in South African townships
• Familiar, low-friction experience for customers
• No app downloads or email requirements

AI Interviewer Advantages:

• Probed deeper based on individual responses
• Available 24/7 across customer schedules
• Scaled to 351 conversations without human resource costs
• Captured authentic voice in customers' own words

Post-Installation Timing:

• 7-day delay allowed customers to fully experience the service
• Recent enough for vivid recall
• Captured both initial impressions and emerging issues