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Why Payment Reminders Work Better With Voice and Messaging

Oct 20, 2026 posted by Ming

Payment reminders work better with voice and messaging together because customers don’t all answer the same channel, and a reminder that arrives on the wrong one is easy to ignore.

Kredivo, a fintech offering instant credit for e-commerce and offline purchases in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia and Vietnam, built its follow-up around that fact. AI calls and real-time SMS and WhatsApp messages carry the conversation, and human agents take over when needed. Kredivo reports an 80% cost saving compared with agent cost and 200% higher conversion vs SMS-only.

What Wasn’t Working

Kredivo’s case study lists the problems with its earlier approach:

  • managing human agents was costly
  • reach was low because agents can only make so many calls
  • agent call and follow-up strategies couldn’t cover its varied business scenarios
  • customer responses weren’t collected and analysed well enough to improve results

The third point shows why Kredivo needed a different approach. A buy-now-pay-later customer who missed one instalment, a long-standing customer who is 30 days late and a new customer who has never repaid need different conversations, through different channels, at different times. A human team can design those strategies. Carrying them out across a large customer base, every day, is where it breaks down.

How the Multichannel Follow-Up Works

AI Rudder started with a customised script and interaction strategy for the AI calls, so the AI voice agent’s conversation fits Kredivo’s products and the situation of each customer group.

Around each call, AI Rudder added multichannel follow-up with response tracking. Messaging (real-time SMS and online WhatsApp communication) plus transfer to a human agent supports the call, and what customers say and do across channels is recorded and can be used to improve the strategy.

A customer who doesn’t pick up gets a message, and one who agrees to pay on the call can receive the details in writing. A customer who needs a person is transferred.

Kredivo’s result is 200% higher conversion vs SMS-only. A text reminder is cheap, but it is easy to ignore; a conversation asks the customer for a commitment. Combining both kept the cost advantage of automation and added the response rate of a real conversation.

What Kredivo Reports

From Kredivo’s approved case study:

  • 80% cost saving compared with agent cost
  • 200% higher conversion vs SMS-only
  • Optimized multichannel follow-up
  • Improved customer response tracking

Where the AI Chat Agent Fits

AI Rudder’s AI chat agent handles the text side of these conversations on web and app channels and on messaging channels such as WhatsApp, with transfer to a person when needed. Used with the AI voice agent, it means a missed collections call can be followed by a WhatsApp message that knows where the conversation stands. AI Rudder is a WhatsApp Business Solutions Partner.

Questions Lenders Ask About Multichannel Collections

Should we replace SMS reminders with AI calls? Kredivo kept messaging and added AI calls on top. Its result, 200% higher conversion vs SMS-only, compares the combined approach with SMS alone.

Can customers still reach a person? Yes. Human agent transfer is part of Kredivo’s follow-up strategy.

Can the follow-up run on WhatsApp? Yes. AI Rudder’s AI chat agent handles conversations on messaging channels such as WhatsApp, and AI Rudder is a WhatsApp Business Solutions Partner.

Does this work across markets? Kredivo operates in Indonesia and Vietnam. AI Rudder has offices in both countries, and its agents are live in 22 markets.

Next Step

List your follow-up channels today and where customers drop off between them. Get a Demo and we’ll show you how AI calls and messaging would work together on your portfolio.


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