News Blog

Example 1: Trade in furniture and home accessories.

Service hotline congested at the furniture discounter
In Germany, according to Statista, around 400 euros per capita are spent each year on furniture and home accessories; in 2017, the total market volume amounted to an impressive 42.3 billion euros. In particular, the large furniture discounters and take-away markets are competing fiercely for each individual customer. And a 24/7 availability of the customer service  is expected with fast, uncomplicated and binding information on any request. When the furniture discounter's new weekly brochure with fresh offers arrives on the German kitchen tables, the telephone lines in some of the hundreds of stores throughout Germany overheat: "Is the wall unit from the current advertising still there?" or "How long are you open today?" are just two of the typical questions. 
In our example, the project team consisting of CreaLog experts and customer service managers found out that around 30 percent of the callers had easy-to-answer standard questions. However, these don't necessarily have to be answered by a real person. A modern VoiceBot can do this better, cheaper and remains completely relaxed all the time. The competent employees in customer service are relieved of the burden of answering standard questions, which always remain the same, and meanwhile take care of tricky cases such as arranging assembly dates or handling complaints. Even complex information can be successfully automated today, as we will see later on.

VoiceBot at the furniture discounter: Availability of goods and delivery status
A CreaLog VoiceBot has been in use at the furniture discounter since October 2017. At the beginning, the main focus was on information on the availability of goods in the individual locations: After entering his postcode and the desired article number, the customer receives the appropriate information for the nearest furniture store. If the product is no longer available there, the customer can extend his search to another store or request an alternative product. In order to be able to make current and reliable statements here, the VoiceBot was connected to the merchandise management system of the large furniture discounter.

Sounds simple - and it is too!
The brand new VoiceBot module now also covers the entire range of the delivery status and thus offers a further piece of comprehensive information for many situations: Is it a complete fitted kitchen delivered by a forwarding agent or just a decorative item delivered by the parcel service?

When the furniture discounter provides delivery information, customers who call their market are directly forwarded to the VoiceBot. Here the caller identifies himself via the customer number and a PIN printed on the sales contract. If the identification is successful, the actual information process about the current status of the delivery starts immediately. If the customer doesn't have the customer number and PIN at hand, the call continues with one of the human customer service consultants, who will help with advice and action. First evaluations prove that an impressive number of concerns are finally solved by the VoiceBot on it's own - and the acceptance by the callers is constantly increasing.