YesHello (DIGITAL AUTOMATE SDN BHD) is a SaaS platform that gives small businesses total customer visibility—from first contact, to sales, to support. Making customer engagements more precise, contextual, and purposeful. They are powering the communication engine at Volvo Malaysia, Jaguar, Land Rover, BYD, TeaLive, SIRIM Bhd, Beam Mobility Scooter, Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA), Asia e-University and many more.
Smart Investor spoke to Carliff Rizal Carleel, Founder & CEO of YesHello to learn more about them.
Smart Investor: Can you provide an overview of YesHello.chat and its mission in the industry?
Carliff Rizal Carleel: We help modern Small Businesses that are overwhelmed communicating with customers online, install a systematic way to offer Predictably Great Customer Engagement. We help them create Visibility and Precision for Remote Teams by implementing a clear strategy that makes it simple for team members to respond to customers faster.
Technology can be frustrating and we remove that (As Regular group chats are slowing down small businesses). By working with us, teams GET SUPPORT & TOOLS to manage their internal and external communication in a TRANSPARENT & ORGANISED way.
SI: What specific problem does YesHello.chat aim to solve or address?
CRC: Three main problems. 1. Multiple Conversations, Multiple People, on Multiple Channels. 2. Teams Lacking Full Context when replying to customers. 3. Working alone. As more and more teams are going remote, team members feel more isolated and alone than ever before.
SI: How does your platform differentiate itself from other customer engagement solutions?
CRC: Most other platforms focus on either just email, or just social media, or just WhatsApp. We understand that modern customer engagement needs to address all channels. Most other platforms focus on the communication between the business and the customer.
But we understand that it’s the internal communication between team members in a transparent and collaborative way that will transform a team from ordinary to extraordinary.
SI: Can you share some success stories or case studies of companies that have benefited from using YesHello.chat?
CRC: We helped Peche Empire (a cosmetics company) double their revenues from 200k to 400k in 6 weeks. We helped Carnival Internet (Broadband provider from Bangladesh) increase the number of clients they can support from 400,000 users to 800,000 users without increasing the number of support team members.
We helped Volvo Bukit Bintang increase sales by 30% ever since they started including YesHello for their sales process.
SI: How does YesHello.chat utilise technology to enhance customer interactions and experiences?
CRC: YesHello is a cloud software platform for small business that captures all customer interactions across WhatsApp, and all social media (email, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, WeChat, Telegram, Viber, Line, SMS, Twitter, website live chat, and phone)—contextualises all customer interactions to help teams close more sales.
Integrating all channels into one seamless dashboard is no small feat. We are able to create a single customer story containing every message, email, web chat and internal discussion creating a platform for messaging across the entire customer life cycle.
SI: What are the key features or functionalities that make YesHello.chat stand out in the market?
CRC: 1. Utilising Promotional Messaging, we are able to target specific interests with Broadcasts, enroll new contacts in drip campaigns and trigger event-based promotions via API.
2. Conversational Sales is the future. Upgrade from personal messengers to business accounts, increase sales visibility, auto-qualify leads & sync with your CRM.
3. Conversational Support. Use automated messaging to identify customer issues, then route to team members according to skill, function, language, shift & more.
4. Automate Transactional Notifications. Trigger abandoned cart messages, payment confirmations, order updates and more from platforms like Shopify and other marketplaces..
SI: How much funds are you seeking to raise through this fundraising exercise in collaboration with Beyond4 Fund 1?
CRC: We are seeking to raise RM1 million
SI: How do you plan to use the funds raised through fundraising for business expansion?
CRC: We will be utilising the funds mainly for our marketing push to get our brand known in the market and to acquire customers. Our goal is to get from our current Annual Recurring Revenue of RM350,000 to RM2,000,000 by first quarter 2024.
And to do this we only need to increase our customer base from 75 small businesses to 300 businesses. The funds raised will also allow us to hire key support staff and growth specialists to support our growth.
SI: What are your target markets and customer segments for YesHello.chat?
CRC: YesHello best serves SMEs that prioritise customer relationships (Edu, Wellness, Auto, Professional Services). For SMEs that need to focus on their business and not focus on handling tech. For SMEs that want a proven system in place and not have to experiment with something that might or might not work.
For SMEs that requires an affordable solution so they don’t need to pay for software they might not even use. With YesHello, SMEs can grow, and we grow with them.
SI: Can you provide insights into the growth and traction that YesHello.chat has achieved so far?
CRC: YesHello started during the lockdown in 2020. Ever since we started, our total revenues have reached over RM1 million.
SI: What strategies do you have in place to acquire and retain customers in a competitive landscape?
CRC: We use our own solution. And because we have the tools to take advantage of social channels, we mainly focus on digital ads that are directly connected to the YesHello platform for seamless transition from ads to engagement to conversion and customer success. Also because of this, our retention rate is at 98%. Most SMEs that come on board and use our solution are so positively impacted that they never consider to stop using us.
Our total belief in what we can do to help SMEs, coupled with our extreme focus on customer success is the reason why our clients love us. This is proven by their testimonials and the fact they would never go to another platform.
SI: How does YesHello.chat ensure data privacy and security for its users and their customers?
CRC: YesHello takes security and privacy seriously. That is why we have created the safest possible processes available to ensure that our service is stable and that there are no security gaps. The integrity of your data is ensured. YesHello meets industry standards to protect you and your data.
1. Cloud Security. YesHello is a cloud-based solution, Amazon Web Services (AWS). All stored and transferred data is encrypted. All data is safely stored and backed up on servers that follow the latest SSAE reporting standards. Systems are DDoS protected and hardened with firewalls.
2. SSL Encryption. YesHello’ data is encrypted both when it is sent to and from our servers, as well as when it is at rest. To protect your content in transit, YesHello uses 256-bit SSL/TLS encryption. At rest, YesHello content is protected using 256-bit AES encryption.
3. Network Security. YesHello regularly updates its network architecture and data flows between systems. Firewall rules and access restrictions are reviewed for suitability on a regular basis. We constantly provide system improvements to prevent vulnerabilities.
4. Backup & Recovery. Our infrastructure is designed to provide stability and to minimize service interruption due to hardware failure, natural disaster, or other catastrophes. To help ensure availability in the event of a disaster, we replicate data across multiple data centres. Our system automatically backups the database daily.
5. Access Control. Administrative sharing controls let you decide who in your organization has access to the platform. Add multiple users with different roles to allow access without having to share your private login details. Under no circumstances is sensitive data shared with anyone outside of YesHello and the client.
SI: Can you share any partnerships or integrations that have contributed to the success of YesHello.chat?
CRC: Yes, we have partnered with TM, Yellow Pages, Sunway iLabs, WOMENTUM.
SI: How do you envision the future of customer engagement and the role that YesHello.chat will play in it?
CRC: We believe that Selling By Chat is the Future. YesHello makes selling by chat easier for small businesses by capturing all customer chats across WhatsApp, and all social media into one place. Teams now have real-time visibility into all sales conversations to help each other close deals faster. We make Selling By Chat More Collaborative, Contextual, and Precise.
YesHello records and tracks customer-facing interactions across WhatsApp, all social media channels, website live chat, phone, and email to bring you transparent activity data. YesHello’s cloud platform ties conversations to outcomes logged in your CRM to capture what sets top performers apart. This total Visibility and Precision for SMEs is what will be the norm for all businesses doing business online.
SI: What challenges do you anticipate in scaling your business and expanding into new markets?
CRC: There are many big players in this space and I foresee other companies raising large sums and outspending other competitors as the main challenge in the future.
SI: How do you measure the effectiveness and impact of customer engagement using YesHello.chat?
CRC: We believe having full context, from lead source, full customer history, past purchases, all conversations, and previous issues—empowers teams to make decisions based on the full-story instead of guess-work. This is the key to building long term meaningful customer connections.
Drive change with confidence. Know from day one why your initiative is succeeding or failing, and course correct in real-time to meet revenue goals. Create a culture of coaching. Coaching only drives revenue if managers provide it consistently across their teams. Keep managers accountable to providing valuable feedback with whisper support.
Unparalleled pipeline visibility. Integrate your entire tech stack so data goes from siloed to streamlined, ensuring that all customer interactions are unified and up-to-date.
SI: What are the key metrics or KPIs that you track to assess the performance of your platform?
CRC: Speed to first reply is one big metric we most often measure. This is key as customers always prioritise speed.
SI: How does YesHello.chat incorporate customer feedback and suggestions into its product development?
CRC: Our team communicates with our customers on a regular basis via messaging channels, Zoom and phone calls. All their input and feedback is noted down and is considered when we are developing new features for our platform. All this is transparent on our product roadmap.
SI: What are your long-term goals and vision for the growth of YesHello.chat?
CRC: By 2027 YesHello will expand to the majority of SEA and Europe with a customer base of 30,000 SMEs using our platform generating over $200Mil in Annual Recurring Revenues.
SI: How do you approach customer support and ensure a seamless experience for your users?
CRC: We use our own solution. And because of this, our retention rate is at 98%. Most SMEs that come on board and use our solution are so positively impacted that they never consider to stop using us. Our total belief in what we can do to help SMEs, coupled with our extreme focus on customer success is the reason why our clients love us.
This is proven by their testimonials and the fact they would never go to another platform.
SI: Lastly, what message would you like to convey to potential investors who are considering supporting the expansion of YesHello.chat?
CRC: Nothing meaningful came from being timid. We all know Selling by Chat is the future! YesHello makes selling by chat (SBC) more Collaborative, Contextual, and Precise. YesHello is a sales engagement/enablement/management platform for small business teams (who mainly close + sales via chat). YesHello helps sales close more deals by shining the light on everyone’s conversations with customers. It records all conversations from first contact, to sales, to support, creating total visibility so leaders can drive sales effectiveness across the entire organisation.
Soon all SMEs will be utilising this. Now is the time to get onboard and support a local Malaysia startup, and you can say you were there when it all started! You can say that you saw it when no one else did. And that you were courageous enough to take the leap, when others were afraid.
