4PBot 0.1 is here!
We’re excited to announce that since last Wednesday, 4PBot 0.1 was released to our internal testers. This post is a summary of what 4Pbot is all about, and our early findings from version 0.1. You can find out more about 4Pbot here:
What is 4PBot?
4PBot is a chatbot we are building with support from DFS Lab. The bot aims to address financial inclusion for Filipinos on the national welfare program, known as 4Ps.
With over 4 million clients, 4Ps supports households across every province with cash grants for up to 3 children in school. The money goes towards anything from rice, to school supplies.
While 4Ps is a poster child for CCT programs around the world, we have found a number of areas where we believe clients might be better served. From surveys and interviews, we have determined 2 possible problems we hope to tackle:
- Payday delays are often unpredictable, and different clients have different perceptions as to when a payment is on time or delayed. This affects the budgeting and planning decisions of households.
- Clients are hesitant to report issues they have with the program, such as enrolment not being updated for their child. They are often embarrased if they don’t understand, or fear that they will lose their grant because they raised their voice.
What does it do?
Version 0.1 of 4Pbot tackles the first problem by crowdsourcing the payment dates for each province from a large network of clients on Facebook. By using some simple statistics, we can start to build an understanding of when delays are, and predict future payment dates.
We are addressing the second problem by providing clients a safe place to report their problems with 4Ps, which we promise to keep confidential and anonymous.
We will do 2 things with these reports. Firstly, we will aggregate and mine for information that can then be passed onto the Filipino government. In this way, we hope to be able to come a trusted 3rd party in providing insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the program.
Secondly, we are building out a knowledge base to connect the 4Ps clients who are having problems with those who have been through these challenges before. Using this knowledge base, clients can lift each other up, providing support and advice across the network.
Early Feedback
We have had a small number of testers, who have already revealed some key areas to address before releasing 4Pbot to a wider audience.
Out of our 10 testers:
- 3 didn’t get past the menu.
- 1 wasn’t able to use a feature because they didn’t know their zip code, and subsequently gave up.
- 1 person thought the cover photo was too mysterious
- 1 person thought the conversation was a little jumpy.
These failures are great news, and present plenty of opportunities to learn! It also makes me quite happy we didn’t release this to our entire network just yet.
Until next time.
Learn more about 4Pbot: https://4pbot.com
Check out Vessels Tech’s other projects: https://vesselstech.com
