Financial Data Collection Through Interactive Mobile Phone Podcasts
To understand the barriers and opportunities for delivering financial products and services to low-income and rural populations in India, Awaaz.De extended its rigorously evaluated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform to the Ahmedabad-based cooperative bank Saath Savings and Credit Cooperative Society. Saath’s model is member-based and savings driven. To ensure regular savings, Saath’s field officers make regular follow-ups with all the members. After understanding Saath’s behavior change of their customers from low savings to increased savings, Awaaz.De created a stream of mobile podcast episodes focused on financial literacy which was broadcast to over 19,000 Saath customers.
These mobile podcast episodes included one to three touch-tone response questions to gather data on customer behavior towards different financial products. After the pilot study, customers were sent interactive, story-based financial literacy podcasts via phone calls over a seven-month period in 2016-2017. 16,949 unique data points were collected from 5,673 individuals.
The resulting qualitative and quantitative data analysis aims to help stakeholders in formulating informed interventions and help businesses, governmental organizations and non-profits understand the various barriers to adoption of financial services at last mile. The data collection looked at:
- Understanding existing financial behavior, motivations, and priorities;
- Monitoring perceptions of existing financial services by subscribers and non-subscribers;
- Likelihood of adoption of additional products and services (such as mobile money);
- Identifying barriers to new product adoption.
