How USSD Can Benefit Your Business
It’s a far-reaching technology that puts your business into the collective palm of your target market.
It’s a data-free, internet-free form of communication that let’s you market to, and service customers in real-time. It’s USSD, or unstructured supplementary service data, and it’s a way to bring your business to the masses, in a highly effective, and cost-saving way.
Let’s define the technology here, and some advantages to building your own USSD applications.
What is USSD technology
USSD applications are a form of mobile communication that works in real-time between users, or clients, and the owner of said application.
We’ve all, at one point or other, engaged with USSD applications, and a good example would be when requesting top-ups, balances or packages from a mobile service provider. That numbered menu you interact with, the one that asks you how much data you need, or how many SMSs you want, is powered by a USSD application.
Why use USSD applications?
There are many reasons for using USSD applications in your business operations. Simplicity in use is one of them. The real-time communication we mentioned is another. To name just two as examples. But, perhaps the most significant is the market permeation and reach that’s possible with this straight-forward technology.
USSD-based applications have the power to place a business directly in the hands and pockets of its target market, by way of the very mobile devices that these customers never leave home without. This reach, coupled with the fact that USSD applications don’t need data or internet, means that communication with those customers is entirely always-on.
Businesses can market to them, let them know of competitions, surveys and sales, resolve issues and receive feedback, and do so immediately. And if the business has a financial offering, features in mobile banking can be offered, like account management, balances, one-time passwords (OTPs), and pins – all in a seamless and uninterruptible communication between app, and a user’s mobile phone.
What are the advantages of using mobile services for your business?
If that always-on, far-reaching, omnipresence isn’t enough of an advantage, here are some other benefits that come with developing USSD applications for a business:
- Communication that’s up to seven times faster than SMS
- No need for software, SIM card, data or internet
- Works on all phones, and on all networks
- Free for clients and highly cost effective for businesses
- Can be coded and customised to meet specific business requirements, and the needs of a target market
So, it’s about fast, and inexpensive two-way communication between a business and its customers. It’s about convenient and unrestricted client service, and remote marketing. And it’s about always being where customers are, no matter the device they use, network plan they’re on or Living Standards Measure they fit into.
It’s easy to see that USSD applications still command a
high relevancy and benefit for business, even in the time
of the smartphone application revolution.
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