Mekonomen's AI-Powered Virtual Agent Revolutionizes Customer Service

Mekonomen is the leading automotive spare parts retailer in Northern Europe. The company offers automobile service and repair, in addition to a wide selection of aftermarket products available for purchase via an e-commerce platform. Through a network of workshops, physical stores, and digital channels, Mekonomen serves a wide customer base. The company's Swedish operation recently relaunched its website with a new engine and webshop, aiming to enhance the overall customer experience and shift the majority of customer contact to online channels.

Mekonomen, a leading automotive spare parts retailer in Northern Europe, was facing a significant challenge in managing customer inquiries. The company's Swedish operation had recently relaunched its website with a new engine and webshop, aiming to shift 95% of customer contact from phone to online channels. However, the live chat service they had implemented was overwhelmed by the volume of customer inquiries, leading to inefficiencies and long waiting times. The company recognized the need for a solution that could scale their response to the high volume of customer service traffic, while still providing a great customer experience.

Mekonomen partnered with boost.ai to develop and launch an advanced virtual agent powered by conversational AI in July 2021. The virtual agent was designed to answer general questions related to the company's wide range of products and services and guide customers to relevant pages and content on the Mekonomen website. This allowed the virtual agent to act as a concierge, directing customers to the answers they needed quickly and empowering self-service. The virtual agent was built on boost.ai's Natural Language Understanding (NLU) stack, enabling it to maintain consistently high resolution rates per interaction, regardless of the volume of incoming traffic. Mekonomen plans to continue developing its virtual agent further, allowing it to do more than simply direct customers to helpful information.

• The implementation of the AI-powered virtual agent has significantly improved Mekonomen's customer service operations. The virtual agent acts as a friendly concierge, directing customers to the information they need and empowering self-service. This has been well-received by Mekonomen's clientele, with most customers starting with the chatbot first and working their way outwards from there. The virtual agent has also reduced the load on the company's contact center, with very few customers needing to be transferred to a human operator for further support. The success of the project has led Mekonomen to consider further development of the virtual agent, including deeper integration with the company's other systems.

• The virtual agent resolves around 95% of all requests successfully.

• Less than 10% of conversations need to be transferred to a human operator for further support.

• Significant cost savings as the company only pays the call center per call, with no cost running the chatbot.