Yo! Payments offers a rich API that enables seamless integration with websites, IVR services, SMS services, and any other medium through which businesses interact with their customers. Yo! Payments also offer an “internal transfer” service that enables account holders to cheaply transfer funds amongst each other.

Yo! Payments’ mission is to interconnect all mobile money providers and financial institutions WORLDWIDE, and provide Yo! Payments account holders with a unified method of receiving payments from any customer subscribed to any mobile money service provider or financial institution. What this means is that we intend to enable a Yo! Payments account holders to receive payments from their customers using MTN Mobile Money of MTN Uganda, M-PESA of Safaricom Kenya, or M-PESA of Tanzania, as well as send funds to mobile money subscribers of any network.

Yo! Payments opens the door for all types of businesses to benefit from the highly successful mobile money phenomenon. Start receiving mobile money payments for your services TODAY!

There are 3 simple steps to becoming a Yo! Payments account holder, as below:

• Go to the Yo! Payments Website
• Accept the Service Terms
• Sign Up for an account.

Having completed the signup process, you are ready to transact with your Yo! Payments account! Note that by default, after completing the signup process, a Personal Account shall be created for your use automatically. You may upgrade your account to a Business Account by uploading scanned copies of the following documents to your account using the “Upload Document” feature in your account. Below is the list of documents required:

• Scanned Copy of your Business’ Certificate of Incorporation or Equivalent Legal Document
• Scanned Copy of a Proof-of-Address Document, in your Business’ name. For example, you may upload a recent utility bill (Electricity or Water) or your Trading License, if it indicates the location of your premises
• Scanned Copy of Company Form 7 Clearly showing a list of Directors and their Addresses.
• Signed letter on your company’s headed paper from the Managing Director authorizing use of the service (email payments@yo.co.ug for the draft)
• Ifyou require access to the API, a signed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) (email payments@yo.co.ug for the draft)
• BriefDescription of the Products and Services you intend to offer using the Business Account. For this, you may upload a PDF document with the information.

When done, send an email to the address payments@yo.co.ug. The subject of your email should be “Upgrade to Business Account”. Upgrade from a Personal Account to a Business Account takes no more than one business day.

All mobile value-added services have the same distinguishing qualities. First and foremost, they are not basic service offerings but are additional options that expand a user’s communication capabilities. From a technical standpoint, they may work in conjunction with core services or function as an added feature that does not diminish the standard services. When a value-added service is provided as an accessory to core offerings, they typically charge a premium price.

For over ten years, we have worked with hundreds of organizations in and outside Uganda to extend our stable, dependable, and scalable SMS, USSD, and IVR aggregation services to power country-wide and localized for-profit and social campaigns.

Today, we look at the benefits of VAS which include SMS, USSD, and IVR services for your business.

Short Message Service
Benefits of SMS

• Increase customer retention
• Develop greater brand loyalty
• Provide immediate communication
• Attract new customers
• Increase overall sales
• Provide a profitable ROI

Unstructured supplementary service data (USSD)
Benefits of USSD

• Surveys; USSD can be used in collecting customer feedback.
• Voting; in this case, it can be applied during polls for voting in real-time.
• Financial Services; e.g. Mobile banking.
• Utility Services; Here it can be used for bill query and payment purposes.

• Product Promotion: Business retailers can use USSD to communicate special offers on products and can send discount
• Vouchers for the next payment or purchase.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Benefits of IVR

• Intelligent Call Routing; If optimized for your customer journey, it can lower abandon rates, reduce queue times for calls and provide tailored IVR call back options for times of particularly high call volume.
• Improve Morale by Freeing Consultants from Mundane Task; An IVR can route routine calls and common questions, allowing callers to use IVR self-service and freeing up agents to handle more complex calls or questions via multiple channels.
• Support for Busy Times and Disaster Recovery; IVR contact center technology gives organizations options for their callers to self-serve and leaves messages.

• Measuring Customer Satisfaction; If Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores are important to your organization, an IVR survey after each interaction will help to provide accurate satisfaction scores.
• Improving the Customer Journey; IVRs provide clear messages that reflect the organization’s brand, providing an effective self-service tool.

Yo! Journey
Over the years, Yo! Uganda has established itself as an innovative and reliable technology solutions company. Several businesses, organizations, and individuals trust our services immoderately enough to rely on our solutions to realize increased efficiency, reduce costs, accelerate growth and increase profitability.

All mobile value added services have the same distinguishing qualities. First and foremost, they are not basic service offerings, but are additional options that expand a user’s communication capabilities. From a technical standpoint, they may work in conjunction with core services, or they may simply function as an added feature that does not diminish the standard services. When a value added service is provided as an accessory to core offerings, they typically charge a premium price.

For over ten years, we have worked with hundreds of organizations in and outside Uganda to extend our stable, dependable and scalable SMS, USSD and IVR aggregation services to power country-wide and localized for-profit and social campaigns.

Today, we look at the benefits of SMS, USSD and IVR services for your business.

Short Message Service
Benefits of SMS

• Increase customer retention
• Develop greater brand loyalty
• Provide immediate communication
• Attract new customers
• Increase overall sales
• Provide a profitable ROI

Unstructured supplementary service data (USSD)
Benefits of USSD

• Surveys; USSD can be used in collecting customer feedback.
• Voting; in this case it can be applied during polls for voting in real-time.
• Financial Services; e.g. Mobile banking.
• Utility Services; Here it can be used for bill query and payment purposes.
• Product Promotion; Business retailers can use USSD to communicate special offers on products and can send discount
• vouchers for next payment or purchases.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Benefits of IVR

• Intelligent Call Routing; If optimized for your customer journey, it can lower abandon rates, reduce queue times for calls and provide tailored IVR call back options for times of particularly high call volume.
• Improve Morale by Freeing Consultants from Mundane Task; An IVR can route routine calls and common questions, allowing callers to use IVR self-service and freeing up agents to handle more complex calls or questions via multiple channels
• Support for Busy Times and Disaster Recovery; IVR contact center technology gives organizations options for their callers to self-serve and leave messages.
• Measuring Customer Satisfaction; If Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores are important to your organization, an IVR survey after each interaction will help to provide accurate satisfaction scores.
• Improving the Customer Journey; IVRs provide clear messages that reflect the organization’s brand, providing an effective self-service tool.

For more than 10 years, hundreds of organizations in and outside Uganda have relied on our stable, dependable and scalable USSD services to power country-wide and localized for-profit and social campaigns.

What is USSD?
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), sometimes referred to as “quick codes” or “feature codes”, is a communications protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the mobile network operator’s computers. USSD can be used for WAP browsing, prepaid callback service, mobile-money services, location-based content services, menu-based information services, and as part of configuring the phone on the network.

Many liken USSD to Short Message Service (SMS), but the two are very different. SMS’s can be stored on a phone and are not interactive, while USSD is interactive and cannot be stored. USSD, in simple terms, is a transaction while SMS is a message. USSD works in real-time, while SMS is merely a text message that is delivered to a mobile phone.

Benefits of USSD
1. Reduces operating costs when it works as a self-service application for your customers.
2. It works with just about every mobile phone.
3. Intuitive menu with real-time interactivity.
4. Two-way communication is up to seven times faster than SMS.
5. Does not require an internet connection or data to work.
6. Enhanced customer satisfaction when you give them the ability to serve themselves.
7. Works globally.
8. Very economical.

All in all, USSD works on just about any mobile phone, whether it’s a cheap, or expensive smartphone. It’s free for your clients to use, and cost-effective for businesses. It does not require data to work, and all it needs to operate is a connection to the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network.

From the above, it is clear that USSD solutions like Yo! Uganda provide several benefits to Telcos and businesses. These include creating two-way communication with customers, offering them more efficient services and methods of gaining information, maximizing customer reach, and enabling the effective targeting of customers. These elements positively enhance customer experience and service levels which significantly reduce customer churn and increase profitability. We expect to see this technology transform and evolve in the coming years, especially where emerging markets are concerned.