Netomi’s customer base spans a range of industries, from travel and retail, to gaming and fintech. This also includes Simplex, a fintech company that allows customers to use their existing financial institutions to buy and sell crypto assets, working with partners to “make cryptocurrency accessible to all.” I recently sat down with two of our customers – Simplex’s Mark Faber and Greta Zubrutė – Barčienė – to chat about the importance of customer satisfaction, and how their chatbot, Sarah, works alongside agents to deliver 24/7 support.
Watch the recording below!
Developing an Always-On Support Strategy to Handle Unpredictable Spikes in Demand
“It has always been important for Simplex to have a direct contact with our end-customer, and we decided that it was important for us to be able to have immediate interactions with our customers as they were using our product,” Mark emphasized. “[For instance], if they are doing credit card processing or dealing with something that is generally quite unfamiliar to them, we felt it was important to respond to them immediately and quickly.”
By its nature, the cryptocurrency market is unpredictable, and, with prices constantly fluctuating, goes through periods of ups and downs. Alongside this volatility, Simplex’s support team also faces unpredictable spikes in demand. “If we could predict what will happen, I think we would all be doing crypto trading rather than what we are currently doing,” Mark said, citing a recent instance when certain coins that Simplex’s platform supported were extremely popular.
During that time, customers had plenty of questions and concerns, and Simplex’s support team was unable to deal with the large volume of support tickets. As such unexpected surges will likely occur again in the future, the team looked for a comprehensive strategy to help them streamline their operations – one that is scalable, yet also preserves that all-important personal touch.
Simplex & Netomi: A Match Made in AI heaven
In searching for an AI-powered solution, the Simplex team sought one that met several criteria:
- One that really understands what customers are asking
- One that is is fully integrated into their support platform (Zendesk)
- One that can support multiple channels (such as social media, email, and chat)
The team started working with Netomi in June 2021 to launch an AI-powered virtual assistant on chat.
For the Simplex team, maintaining a human touch is critical when it comes to providing support, which is why Sarah works in tandem with human agents to swiftly handle queries such as email verification, basic troubleshooting and checking payment status. “It’s important for us to have human agents available at all times,” Mark added. “We feel like we have gotten to a point where we have the right number of people to be able to handle the kind of requests that we have…it is not a question of shrinking the team, it is a question of not having to grow it.”
As customer satisfaction (CSAT) is also extremely important to Simplex, ensuring a seamless support experience is also critical. “Prior to the bot, the team maintained a high customer satisfaction score,” Greta noted. “Looking into the overall customer experience, we are looking forward to deleting the boundaries between the bot and the agents, so customers would have a strong sense of good support despite the fact that they are talking to a bot or an agent…there should be no difference if the customer is talking to AI or a human being.”
For other companies looking to implement an AI solution, Greta pointed out, the process takes time, from creating use cases, to training and making enhancements to the chatbot.
“It’s ongoing work every single day, but the results are really rewarding,” she said. “You need to do your homework by understanding your demand drivers, identifying scenarios that potentially could be automated, and evaluating your volumes.”
Would you like to see similar results? We’re can help your organization spearhead its digital transformation efforts, send us a message to see how!