Oct 21, 2024
Client
A fast-growing eCommerce store specialising in consumer electronics, receiving hundreds of customer inquiries daily. The client aimed to enhance customer support efficiency and improve response times while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction.
Challenge
The eCommerce store faced significant hurdles in managing customer service effectively:
High Volume of Inquiries: Daily inquiries overwhelmed the customer support team, leading to delayed responses and frustrated customers.
Repetitive FAQs: The majority of inquiries were repetitive questions about order tracking, returns, and product availability, taking up valuable team time.
Inefficient Routing: Manually sorting inquiries and directing them to the appropriate teams caused delays and miscommunication.
Scaling Issues: As the business grew, the support team struggled to keep up without increasing operational costs.
Approach
Inquiry Categorisation: Using natural language processing (NLP) to categorise customer inquiries into predefined topics such as order tracking, returns, and technical support.
Automated Routing: Directing inquiries to the correct team or department based on the category.
AI-Generated Responses: Creating automated replies for FAQs to provide instant answers to common questions.
Real-Time Escalation: Setting up escalation protocols to ensure complex issues were prioritised and routed to senior support staff promptly.
Solution
AI-Powered Categorisation: Automatically identified and categorised inquiries into predefined categories for faster processing.
Automated FAQ Responses: Addressed 60-70% of inquiries instantly with pre-written, AI-generated responses.
Smart Routing: Directed inquiries to the appropriate team or individual based on the type of request.
Performance Dashboards: Included metrics and insights for tracking the efficiency of customer support operations.
Impact
Reduced Response Times
Before: Average response time for customer inquiries was 8 hours.
After: Automated responses for FAQs reduced response time to less than 1 minute, while more complex inquiries were routed to the right team within 15 minutes.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
Before: Customer satisfaction scores averaged 78% due to delays and inconsistent support.
After: Satisfaction scores rose to 92%, with customers frequently praising the quick and accurate responses.
Improved Team Productivity
Before: Support staff spent 70% of their time answering repetitive questions.
After: Automation freed up 40% of staff time, allowing them to focus on resolving high-priority issues and improving overall service quality.
Scaled Operations
Before: The team struggled to handle increasing inquiries without adding staff.
After: The automation system enabled the store to handle a 50% increase in inquiries without expanding the support team.
