#MobExAwards highlights: Dash zooms in on 3 key areas to keep up with customer demands

Asia continues to be the leading growth region for mobile payments, and Singapore’s usage is expected to increase from 46% to 54% in 2020 (GlobalData, 2020). In Singapore, there is a perfect storm brewing led by the evolving technology (smartphone advancements and more connectivity between different players in the payments ecosystem); rising consumer demand with increasingly mobile and international lifestyles where users are accustomed to the ease of cashless payments for varied transactions; and the impact of regulatory support on the market landscape - such as Singapore’s progressive “Smart Nation” initiative.

With all of these changes, Dash which was launched in 2014 as a first mover to revolutionise mobile commerce with mobile money services, has now become the go-to mobile wallet for the everyday moments serving varied walks of life.

This year the brand took home the silver award for Best Use of Mobile – ePayment Gateway at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Mobex 2020 awards.

Challenge

To navigate the tough mobile eWallet competitive environment, Dash needed to fight for its right to remain on a customer’s phone, and also innovate and challenge new competitors with more resources and global scale.

With the explosion of digital payment options for consumers, from wallets to contactless systems (and the ensuing confusion/fragmentation), the brand saw the difficulty in having to stand out and offer customers a compelling reason to believe.

 As the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the Dash team also observed a change in behaviours and needs for both local and foreign users, providing new opportunities to drive adoption and meet new use cases as the country adjusted to a new normal.

Strategy

Recognising the changing customer needs and socioeconomic factors in Singapore and the region, Dash has been strengthening its core offering and made enhancement to its digital payment platform to connect with its customers’ digital lifestyle with the aim of remaining as an intrinsic part of its customers’ daily lifestyle. As Dash expanded its target audience to serve the under-served market, its vision remained unchanged: to offer a mobile-first experience that is useful, convenient and financially inclusive. With customer-centricity being its main strategic approach, Dash identified new offerings that best serve its customers, adding value to their lives.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an increase in demand and change in the nature of services desired. Remittance is key as access to funds are crucial for many families. Three guiding pillars of focus were identified to keep up with customer demands as well as to enhance the onboarding of new customers in need of mobile solution.

• Continuous product development: Significant efforts were made to improve the app’s user experience on a regular basis to ensure increased reliability and utility for our customers by reviewing and analysing the customer journey to elevate users’ day-to-day experiences within the app.
• Enhance value with new lifestyle and financial services: Dash identified meaningful ways to engage and delight its customers by incentivising the use and relevance of Dash in customers daily activities. Dash also aims to venture into financial services adjacent to mobile payments to attract a new class of customers whilst providing a breadth of options for our wide-ranging users.
• Increase relevance and wider acceptance: Taking into account the broad range of interests Dash serve, the brand sought to increase its network of payment touchpoints and worked on expanding use cases in which customers can utilise Dash for convenient payments. As the mobile wallet ecosystem in Asia grew more fragmented, Dash provided solutions to offer customers a seamless payment experience. With the addition of new corridors for our remittance service, it enables Singapore’s foreign residents to stay connected and send money home to their loved ones.

Execution
Three main strategies were executed in alignment with its strategy to best serve its customers.

Continuous product development

To remain relevant in its ability to support its customers’ lifestyle, Dash introduced a new UI in 2019 that simplifies payment process and provided easy access to popular use cases In order to enhance its user experience, a one-tap payment button and main features were highlighted on the home screen. Seasonal and milestone campaigns were also created with gamified experiences to further enhance customer engagement.

The eKYC (eKnow Your Customer) process for overseas remittances was introduced to serve its non-Singaporean base customers, removing the hassle of queuing at physical stores and making the onboarding process a convenient one.

Enhance value with new lifestyle and financial services

Dash also expanded its suite of offerings to include new lifestyle and financial services to cater to its evolving, digital-first customers by enhanced partnership with various service providers. For instance, a partnership with Giftany allowed users to browse and purchase digital gifts from a catalogue of gift cards, and by integrating with HungryGoWhere, users can make reservations, enjoy dining deals and track reservation history through Dash.

To address the traveller segment, Dash integrated with VIA, Asia’s first cross-border payment alliance, allowing customers the ease and familiarity of using Dash to make payments overseas. Dash also offer travel insurance directly through the app, with partners such as Tiq Travel Insurance by Etiqa and GREAT Getaway Cover by Great Eastern.

In line with its commitment to pursuing financial inclusion through innovation and constantly delivering added value to our mobile-first customers, Dash ventured into providing a compelling mobile financial offering for young people keen to start their savings journey.

Increase relevance and wider acceptance

Dash has been steadily growing its merchant base to accept QR code payments across a range of consumer touchpoints that are a major part of our day-to-day. Users were able to ‘Dash and Makan’ at popular hawker centres and coffee shops across Singapore – turning a traditionally cash-first experience into one that can be completed through scanning a QR code; and also ‘Dash and Ride’, by using Dash to pay for public transport.

For its foreign customer base, Dash continues to grow its remittance service with over 5,000 cash top-up points across the island, reaching seven remittance corridors – serving the Philippines, Indonesia, India, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Myanmar to bring greater convenience to its users. To enhance its customer service by providing a peace of mind for its users amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Dash introduced a free insurance coverage 30-Day Dash Protect for customers who remit at least S$100 - a first in the remittance market in July 2019.

On top of insurance, Dash also made concerted efforts with awareness campaigns to reach out, educate and encourage more about mobile remittance possibilities. This included providing cash top-up stations at temporary floating hotels set up for foreign workers as well as fee waivers for first-time remittance users, healthcare workers and more to relieve their burden.

Results

The Dash Brand Refresh and New Offerings campaign was well-received, surpassing one million registered users with over 60,000 merchant points today, enabling more customers to make payments with ease across the island.  With the introduction of the new UI and expanded features, Dash monthly transactions continue to rise steadily with a close to 10% increase in customer satisfaction levels. In addition, in the week following the launch of the new UI, Dash recorded a 27% increase in the average transaction value per user.

A 130% increase in number of transactions was seen as a testament to Dash’s ability to stay relevant and integrate meaningfully in our users’ daily lives, with 100,000 rides being captured within the first two weeks after Dash started its acceptance on public buses and trains across Singapore.

Ever since the eKYC process was implemented on Dash, it has facilitated over 20,000 new customers without the need for face-to-face applications at remittance houses and registering for our remittance service digitally. With customer satisfaction at its core, Dash’s expanded features, new initiatives and improvements have increased its app store ratings rise to 4.7 stars this year on the GooglePlay store, and 4.4 stars this year on the iOS store – an achievement tremendously exceeding expectations.