About the Companies
At a Glance
With a stunning six week turnaround, the team of Medien Hub Bremen-Nordwest, MSP Medien Systempartner, and SC Soft-Concept redefined the rules of the game for their customer service with Parloa’s AI Voicebot. 30% of all standard complaints are now processed at lightening speed and fully automatically by the Parloa AI Voicebot, which means enormous relief for the agents. On top of that, 70% of callers are now identified immediately, for more efficiency in customer service – and happy customers!
"Parloa is extremely exciting for us because the focus is on voice, and we were able to integrate it seamlessly into our existing IT infrastructure, enabling us to go live after just six weeks of the project."
The Challenge
Regional media companies such as the Nordwest-Zeitung from Oldenburg and the WESER-KURIER from Bremen are primarily growing through digital subscriptions. Despite this, the majority of the 200,000 subscribers receive the traditional print edition of their daily newspaper delivered to their homes hot off the press in the early hours of the morning – a process that includes complex logistics.
Delays in delivery are caused by general staff shortages or short-term absences due to illness. In the worst case, a newspaper may not be delivered at all.
Although readers receive digital information about delays and can easily alert the paper of a delivery breakdown online or via an app, many still prefer to contact them by phone.
- For the agents, this meant recurring calls and long queues.
- For subscribers, this meant long waiting times and, on top of not being able to read their newspaper, an unsatisfactory service experience.
Nordwest-Zeitung and WESER-KURIER recognized the opportunity for innovation and decided to use the AI Voicebot as part of their customer service team.
The objectives of project MVP were clearly defined:
- Agent relief via AI Voicebot should take over 20% of telephone complaints and process them on a case-by-case basis.
- Customer service availability should significantly increase, especially at peak times.
- Seamless integration of the AI solution into the media companies' existing technical infrastructure, including the telephone system, SAP, and Salesforce.
- The AI Voicebot should prevent cancellations from poor customer service availability.
- Implementation of an MVP should happen as fast as possible, to grant agents immediate relief.
The Solution
Medien Hub Bremen-Nordwest and MSP Medien Systempartner chose to start the project together with SC Soft-Concept because of their extensive expertise in the publishing industry, their understanding of the technical infrastructure of both media companies, and long-standing cooperation.
SC Soft-Concept brought Parloa into the project. The contact center AI solution meets the high demands of the industry and customer service with high-quality, authentic voice AI.
"The use of Parloa Voice AI is a big step from sender-oriented IVR systems towards natural, customer-oriented dialogue. Our customers can speak the way they do in everyday life - in complete, clear sentences. And the technology understands exactly what they want to say. Now the customers are in charge!"
Fast Implementation Thanks to Preconfigured Solutions
A key step in maximizing the performance of the voicebot was Parloa’s seamless integration into existing systems.
SC Soft-Concept was able to provide pre-prepared components and Parloa supplied the appropriate interfaces. With the connection to the telephone system, a preconfigured Salesforce integration, and trained call flows, the media companies were able to accelerate the implementation of their MVP to go live quickly and achieve immediate results.
6 Weeks from Idea to MVP
With a lean and dynamic team, the Nordwest-Zeitung and the WESER-KURIER are focused on flexibility and responsiveness.
Involving the agents was an important part of the process right from the start, allowing their experience and best practices to flow directly into the dialogue design.
This agile and team-oriented approach made it possible to execute the project in just six weeks.
Use Case on Complaints: Intuitive Detection and Immediate Processing
“A key element of the process is issue recognition. The AI bot specifically asks "What can I do for you?" and gives callers the freedom to phrase their concerns as if they were speaking to human agents.”
Then AI supports decisions on how best to process the customer’s request. In the event of complaints, callers are verified via zip code. Any problems are included in the dialogue, like the absence of delivery staff.
Complaints are automatically recorded and booked in Salesforce and SAP IS-Media via the interface provided by MSP – including possible refunds.
The Results:
“From the very first day, the Voicebot not only achieved the goals we had set, but exceeded them.”
The agents who primarily interact with customers also felt that their workload had been significantly reduced and were amazed at the efficiency of the voicebot. Thanks to targeted training and the opportunity to provide feedback, they were able to quickly adjust to new processes and have been able to continue to optimize the dialogues.
- Increased efficiency: 30% of telephone complaints are now processed automatically by the AI Voicebot – 10% more than originally planned.
- Authentication: 70% of all customers can be identified by their telephone number. This rate will increase as telephone numbers are added to the CRM.
- Fast implementation: The project launched in six weeks.
- Technical integration: Both media companies, the phone system, Salesforce, and SAP were integrated smoothly within a month.
- Service quality: Customer service availability has significantly improved.
- Satisfaction: Both customers and agents are more satisfied.
- Customer loyalty: Improved service allows the company to avoid subscription cancellations.
"The benefits for our customers are enormous – complaints are now processed within seconds. They used to experience long wait times before they could even speak to an employee. The feedback is definitely positive."
What happens next?
- Expanding feedback options: In addition to current complaints, customers will also be able to submit complaints for past periods via AI Voicebot in future. This will continue to refine the service process and increase customer satisfaction.
- Integrating vacation service: Another important step on the roadmap is the implementation of vacation service. Customers should be able to conveniently cancel their newspapers for certain periods of time. This use case is not only important to subscribers, but also allows for the efficient logistical planning for employee resources.
