Customer Story

AI-Powered Customer Care: Transforming Payment Reminders for Leading e-Commerce Platform

4 mins
Share:
Waterfield Success Story Header Image

Promised to make payment

while interacting with AI agent
0 %

vs

while interacting with human agent
0 %

Fulfilled payment

after interacting with AI agent
0 %

vs

after interacting with human agent
0 %

About the Company

As a global e-commerce and fintech powerhouse, this retailer is one of the largest and most innovative players on the worldwide stage. With a vast online marketplace and a popular digital payment platform, they also offer customers the option to easily finance their purchases with a retailer-issued line of credit. This is typically a great experience for both the retailer and their customers. 

But when payments are missed, things get complicated. The retailer faces the delicate task of reaching out to remind its customers to pay – ensuring that revenue is collected quickly, with fewer calls, and without harming their relationship. The traditional approach to reminders – relying on human call center agents to handle the conversation, was largely effective but risky – sometimes creating tense interactions that didn’t reflect the retailer’s commitment to a positive customer experience. 

A new solution was required that could handle a delicate moment consistently and firmly. The client turned to Parloa and our AI agents. 

The Bottom Line

To address the delicate challenge of payment reminders without compromising customer relationships, the retailer partnered with Parloa and Waterfield Tech, a leading US-based CX expert. Together, we created an advanced AI-powered agent capable of conducting natural, empathetic conversations in multiple dialects, combining the consistency of automation with the adaptability of human-like engagement.

A two-month pilot quickly demonstrated our AI agent’s ability to handle sensitive interactions with respect, maintain positive customer experiences, and achieve impressive success rates in securing payment commitments.

parloa website ressources success story headshot daniel aslet

"This collaboration allowed us to push the boundaries of what’s possible with conversational AI. Through our partnership with Parloa, we delivered an AI agent capable of handling complex, emotionally charged conversations - an impressive leap forward in CX,"

The Challenge

Missed payment reminders are a tricky but essential part of maintaining a healthy customer relationship. For this global retailer, relying on human call center agents was effective – but inconsistent. Emotionally charged situations often led to strained conversations, risking harm to the brand’s reputation and customer trust.

They needed an advanced technology that could adapt to emotional cues, speak in everyday language, and understand regional dialects – all of which could combine to create a seamless experience that combined the consistency and scalability of automation with the empathy and adaptability of a human-like agent, and while reducing the risk of tense or confrontational exchanges.  

The goals of the project included: increasing efficiency, speeding the time and effort involved in collecting payments, and ensuring each customer interaction is handled in a sensitive but firm manner.

The Solution

Enter Parloa’s AI-driven conversational platform – expressly customized to meet this retailer’s unique needs. Together Waterfield and Parloa developed an AI agent that manages payment reminders with a blend of tact, empathy, and efficiency. 

Rather than following a script or decision tree, our AI Agent responds dynamically, adjusting its tone based on the customer’s mood and feedback. This allows it to have sophisticated, multi-turn conversations easily – processing slang and colloquialisms and expressing as much or more empathy and patience as any human agent. And by automating the exchanges, the retailer’s team could exponentially increase efficiency and decrease time to resolution.

The Parloa team also recognized an opportunity to develop our already human-like agent even further,  expanding its capacity to recognize and properly handle such emotionally charged conversations around financial matters.

Parloa chose Waterfield Tech as a partner for this project due to their extensive expertise in conversational AI, proven track record in delivering persona-driven solutions, and collaborative approach to innovation – including solving critical last mile challenges such as analyzing, testing, and reporting findings for improvements. Leveraging decades of expertise in optimizing human-agent interactions, Waterfield Tech applied its deep CX knowledge to design a seamless, AI self-service solution addressing the customer’s need for empathetic, brand-safe payment reminders. Waterfield’s commitment to building trust and fostering collaboration with stakeholders made them an invaluable partner for Parloa in deploying this groundbreaking project.

To get this perfect, we at Parloa and Waterfield put the AI agent through rigorous testing, refining its ability to handle the nuances of many languages and dialects. We also ran high-volume simulation tests to help fine-tune the platform’s responsiveness, ensuring smooth, multi-turn conversations that flow naturally, even during peak call times.

With the help of Parloa and Waterfield Tech, this retail giant was able to transform payment reminders into more personal, understanding interactions 

parloa website ressources success story headshot daniel nieves

“What sets this project apart is the emotional intelligence we built into the AI - even in tough conversations, our AI agent can maintain neutrality or positivity the vast majority of the time.”

About Waterfield Tech

Waterfield Tech transforms customer engagement for organizations worldwide. Operating across six continents, our employees leverage a consultative, client-centric approach to design, build, and manage scalable, omnichannel, and AI-enabled customer experience solutions. Our breakthrough innovations in contact center technology, applied artificial intelligence (AAI), and workforce engagement reduce business costs, improve customer satisfaction, and help customers deploy a smarter utilization of the human workforce. To learn more, visit waterfieldtech.com.

Ready to make AI part of your team?

Let’s meet at CCW Berlin! 25 - 27 Feb 2025