The travel industry is a testament to adaptability in an era of constant technological evolution. It’s no stranger to change, and one of the most significant shifts in recent years is the transition to alternative payment methods, such as digital payments.
Seeing an opportunity to serve the locals better, Jambojet sought Cellulant to integrate their ticketing and payment system to meet the local customers’ transaction methods.
This case study shows you how this integration solved Jambojet’s ticketing and payment integration problem and eased customers’ booking process.
Background
Jambojet is a Kenyan low-cost local airline with daily flights to over 10 destinations across East Africa, including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kilimanjaro, Diani, Malindi, Goma, and Kigali. Launched in 2014, the airline has grown to be the largest low-cost airline in East Africa, carrying nearly 1 million passengers annually. The airline’s quality customer service has been a major factor in the company’s expansion.
Recognizing the need for swift bookings and seamless payment processing for locals, Jambojet partnered with Cellulant, a Pan-African Payment processing company. They intended to integrate and streamline ticketing and payment processing to enhance customer experience and improve operational efficiency.
Founded in 2003, Cellulant provides a single digital payments platform that runs an ecosystem of consumers, retailers, merchants, banks, mobile network operators, and governments. Cellulant is a leading Pan African payments technology company that provides locally relevant and alternative payment methods for global, regional and local merchants. The platform provides a single API payments platform – Tingg– that enables businesses to collect payments online and offline while allowing anyone to pay from their mobile money, local and international cards or directly from their bank. Cellulant is currently used by 2000 businesses across 35 countries and hosts 350+ Bank, MNO Wallet, and card Integrations.
The Challenge
When Jambojet started in 2014 and gave its attention to customer needs and preferences, it had two key questions – – challenges to figure out.
First, they asked, “What form of payment will the locals use.” They had an answer to this because they knew that local customers (kenyans by the) used mobile money daily – Mpesa, Airtel Money, Telkom Cash – to transact. However, they needed a payment gateway that merged this preferred payment method with their operations. and trusted by the locals.
Second, how would they integrate this payment system to reconcile and issue tickets smoothly? Doing over 65,000 transactions manually would be time-consuming, resource-intensive, and generally unstable for their operations. Jambojet CEO & MD said, “They would need a floor of people who would be confirming, confirming, and then releasing the ticket.” So, they sought “how to integrate ticketing and their payment system” to easily reconcile their transactions and booking in realtime.
The solution
Jambojet partnered with Cellulant, the most trusted Pan-African payment company, to help collect digital payments and integrate them seamlessly into their system.
The partnership with Cellulant, which provides a one-stop payments platform, was a game changer in Jambojet’s payment and ticket processing. Through Cellulant’s integration, passengers were able to pay for air tickets from their phones, thus making it cheaper and easier to book flights. The airline was able to sell tickets via Tingg by Cellulant, a payment gateway that accepts many payment methods including mobile.
For customers, booking became instant, and from anywhere in the world. Celluant was able to integrate within Jambojet’s system, and “within seconds, a passenger makes the payment from their mobile, receives the payment details, and gets the ticket instantly,” remarked the CEO/MD, Mr. Karanja Ndegwa. At the same time, the integration allows all this information to be relayed to the Jambojet system with payment settlement and confirmation, enabling seamless reconciliation of payments with the issuance of tickets.
The seamless integration into all digital payment platforms, regardless of what bank or mobile network the customer uses or the region/location of the customer, was also a big deal for Jambojet.
The whole process of integrating the two systems took only two months, and the results were enormous. But there have been changes over the years to improve and make it better for customer experience and improved operations of the airline. It makes it easier for Jambojet in its operations and for the customer in booking and it has been a big thing for the airline.
The Impact
Through the partnership, the airline solved the airline’s customer service, ticketing, and payment solution challenges.
By partnering with Cellulant, the payment system and ticketing became smooth and seamless. As per Jambojet’s CEO, Mr. Karanja, for a customer, you feel “ I don’t have to take so long to book a ticket” because the process would be less than three minutes, and the booking is done.
Thanks to the partnership, not only has Jambojet been able to provide a smooth and seamless payment booking process to the customer, it has also been able to meet consumer needs by:
- Availing seamless payment options.
- Providing a smooth and enjoyable flight experience
- Providing affordable flights to locals.
- Offering loyalty programs and rewards to its passengers, including through the partnership with Cellulant.
Conclusion
By integrating Cellulant’s payment platform into its system, Jambojet streamlined its payment and ticketing, made it fast, and improved its operations and customer experience. This partnership worked well in Jambojet’s intention to give customers a great user experience and streamline their operations while encouraging domestic air travel.
Interested in how you can leverage Cellulant payment gateway for your business payments? Cellulant serves businesses of all sizes and across industries to help them integrate digital payments and stay ahead of the game. Talk to us.
