Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Blue Label Telecoms to change its name as restructuring gathers pace

      11 July 2025

      Get your ID delivered like pizza – home affairs’ latest digital shake-up

      11 July 2025

      EFF vows to stop Starlink from launching in South Africa

      11 July 2025

      Apple plans product blitz to reignite growth

      11 July 2025

      Nissan doubles down on South Africa despite plant uncertainty

      11 July 2025
    • World

      Grok 4 arrives with bold claims and fresh controversy

      10 July 2025

      Bitcoin pushes higher into record territory

      10 July 2025

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025

      Grammarly acquires e-mail start-up Superhuman

      1 July 2025

      Apple considers ditching its own AI in Siri overhaul

      1 July 2025
    • In-depth

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | MVNX on the opportunities in South Africa’s booming MVNO market

      11 July 2025

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025

      TCS+ | First Distribution on the latest and greatest cloud technologies

      27 June 2025
    • Opinion

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Company News » Helm hits a billion messages with DStv Assist

    Helm hits a billion messages with DStv Assist

    Promoted | This chat-based self-service solution transforms the DStv customer experience.
    By Helm12 December 2022
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    Helm, Africa’s leading customer experience innovation experts, has done it again with DStv Assist, a bot-based solution that has changed the self-service game.

    Since its launch, the chatbot has sent and received over 1.4 billion messages, and currently helps around 1.2 million DStv customers solve their own account queries every month.

    While some businesses are happy with call centres, service centres or auto-response e-mail addresses, DStv wanted to give its customers a top-tier self-service option to go with its top-tier service offering. So, it approached Helm (previously known as Praekelt Consulting) to help it radically simplify its self-service game.

    We’ve used our technology to radically simplify self-service for over a million people every month

    MultiChoice Group, one of Africa’s most valuable brands, launched its WhatsApp assistant in 2019, allowing customers to perform everyday functions on South Africa’s most popular social app. The intelligent assistant can clear decoder errors, manage accounts and solve problems that previously required a phone call or physical presence in-store. Given the Covid-19 pandemic and geographical location challenges, the latter is not an option for most customers.

    Helm CEO Dawood Patel believes that the key to this kind of customer service is to understand the everyday realities of the human on the other side of the screen.

    “A queue is a reality we’ve all had to face from time to time,” says Patel. “While some companies remain focused on making queues shorter, our aim is to eliminate them altogether.

    “With DStv’s understanding of their customers and our understanding of user behaviour, we’ve used our technology to radically simplify self-service for over a million people every month.”

    Helm Engine

    DStv’s WhatsApp Self-Service Chatbot was built using Helm Engine, an AI-powered conversational platform that is smart enough to understand and reply to users thanks to natural language understanding. “Having gathered data and learnt language nuances from millions of unique users, DStv Assist can now complete tasks in a matter of seconds,” says Patel.

    Natural language understanding is a form of artificial intelligence that uses software to understand the intent behind what users are saying and allows bots, for example, to respond to them in the right way.

    It’s this kind of technology that has enabled DStv customers to upgrade, pay accounts, check balances, manage holiday viewing, rent BoxOffice movies and reconnect their services via WhatsApp – without the need for human intervention. By making WhatsApp its platform of choice, they have shown an inherent understanding of their users by meeting them where they already are.

    Saret Marais, executive head of group digital enablement at MultiChoice, is excited about how the bot has evolved and been adopted by customers. “It’s amazing to see more and more of our customers using DStv Assist as their preferred channel. What we have achieved here builds on DStv’s already-strong self-service offering, and this is only the beginning.”

    In the not-too-distant future, the bot will be able to proactively learn the behaviour of each unique user, such as the times of the year they tend to change packages.

    How has the DStv WhatsApp bot performed?

    • 1.2 million users per month (average)
    • 8.4 million unique users since launch
    • 480 million messages received since launch, 937 million sent
    • DStv’s best-performing self-service channel

    Not only has the tool strengthened DStv’s overall customer experience, customer relations and customer retention, it has also kept the company at the forefront of digital innovation in the global entertainment market.

    For more information on Helm and the services it offers, please visit www.helm.africa.

    About Helm
    Formerly Praekelt Consulting, Helm has spent the last 20 years creating best-across-class products and services that have solved complex customer experience challenges. Helm designs intelligent solutions that have helped Africa’s biggest brands turn messy customer realities into simple experiences they can’t live without. Its tiered product offering combines the tools, tech and expertise to meet business needs of any size. To date, Helm has helped its clients connect, converse with and convert over 500 million users across multiple markets, channels and languages. Clients include DStv, MTN, Absa and Makro.

    • This promoted content was paid for by the party concerned


    Dawood Patel DStv Helm MultiChoice Praekelt Consulting Saret Marais
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleSouth Africa gets new analogue TV switch-off date
    Next Article The insider threat: best practices for detection, monitoring and prevention

    Related Posts

    MultiChoice is working on a wholesale overhaul of DStv

    10 July 2025

    Icasa publishes new draft regulations for digital TV

    8 July 2025

    MultiChoice hit with multimillion-rand fine for privacy ‘breaches’

    8 July 2025
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Company News

    $125-trillion traded: Binance redefines global finance in just eight years

    11 July 2025

    NEC XON welcomes HPE acquisition of Juniper Networks

    11 July 2025

    LTE Cat 1 vs Cat 1 bis – what’s the difference?

    11 July 2025
    Opinion

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.