CASSAVA Smartech Zimbabwe’s mobile money platform EcoCash is leading the way in maintaining social distancing for its customers and employees through the use of self-care platforms. With the world changing rapidly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, EcoCash has made it its mission to stay up-to-date with the latest customer self-service behaviour trends, which are changing fast. The changes can be seen in the way people think, plan and work. One of the key consumer behaviours that have emerged amid the COVID-19 crisis is that though people are staying physically apart, they are still connected with each other virtually. They are discovering new connections and maintaining the old ones via various video meeting applications such as Zoom, Google Meeting and Teams, among others. One critical consumer behaviour arising out of the new normal is that consumers are increasingly preferring to be more self-reliant. Cassava Smartech Zimbabwe chief executive officer Eddie Chibi said the group tapped from COVID-19 lockdown experiences to enhance EcoCash’s self-service portals to provide customers with instant access to information, allow personalisation and save valuable time and organisational resources. “As a customer-focused company, we are always looking for new ways to improve our products and offer better customer experience. To achieve these goals, we have to keep on challenging ourselves regarding how we work, so that we continue to improve and find ways to make things easier, simpler and more convenient for our customers,” he said. Chibi said Cassava’s intention is for the whole of Zimbabwe to go digital and ensure that customers do more online. “They can pay their bills, pay for goods and services and do so much more using digital platforms. In fact, the change in consumer behaviour is necessary, given the global situation we find ourselves in today,” he said, adding that customer safety should remain a priority. In the past few months, Cassava witnessed an increase in the adoption and acceptance of its digital channels. This has seen the group making available multiple digital touchpoints such as chatbots, web and USSD self-care, and other social media-based helplines for customers convenience and efficiency. Customers can now easily register on EcoCash by simply dialing *151# without going to any physical shop. EcoCash said in light of global trends, the company was planning to increase the use and adoption of self-care platforms for the majority of its products. Several studies have revealed that self-service portals improve general customer experience. The acceleration of self-care platform usage comes at a time EcoCash is in a drive to register as many subscribers as possible on its mobile money platform. EcoCash chief executive officer Natalie Jabangwe said the company remained committed to achieving financial inclusion for every Zimbabwean. “At EcoCash, our objective remains to improve financial access for the unbanked and banked in our drive to achieve 100% financial inclusion in this market,” she said. EcoCa