Summary
Heroes are born in times of crisis, such a Hero was brought in as Dia (d2h's Intelligent Assistant) – the d2h Chat bot
Challenge
Customer service has always been of highest priority for d2h. However, in 2020, the country got affected in the worldwide pandemic of Covid-19. This pandemic not only affected the daily livelihood of every individual, but also affected the operations of our call centers, which provided solutions to customer queries. With this service not available at the customers disposal, there were high chance of customers disconnecting services or getting their services disrupted as those grievances could not be handled. d2h noticed this being a critical pain point of their subscriber and immediately started working on this, within a very quick turnaround time, introduced the d2h Chatbot – Dia. This is an automated response system which allowed the customers to interact with d2h in an all-new manner and get their queries resolved in real time.
Objective
The campaign objective was to provide customer service using new age and easy to reach technology with focus on – • Maximizing query resolutions on chat bots • Providing real-time resolution within seconds • Reduce call volume at the call center A very cost effective future inclined plan of "No call center queues, instant, real-time query resolution!"
Strategy
Utilizing a dire situation of lockdown in pandemic as an opportunity to come up with a New Age customer centric solution. Customer service has always been of highest priority for d2h. In the covid-19 lockdown period, d2h launch virtual assistant chat bot, to provide instant solution to customer queries. The service was named ‘Dia' as it is easy to recall and symbolic to ‘hope, power & light' in difficult times to ensure connect with the audience. • This service was made available cross-platform – on the website, on mobile app and extended to WhatsApp & Facebook Messenger, to ensure multiple touchpoints to the customers. • The initial overwhelming response to the Chatbot pushed us to broaden its scope to more complex processes such as connected devices upgrade, relocation, contact update etc. making our ability to respond customer needs even better. • The service proved to be a strong strategic move for business as it bridged limitations of lockdown on call center operations and improved response time on query solutions significantly. [For instance, prior to Dia, channel removal could take 3-5 mins a CC, which now can be executed over a few seconds] • The service was made live within 20 days of its conception [that too during lockdown] - an organizational benchmark for d2h. Promotions done to increase the usage of chat bot: • Planned communication through Mobile App Notifications • On-TV promotions during lockdown • Email promotions to target Online Customers (digital customer base of d2h) • Promotional Push through Trade partners and Sales Team to have ground reach • Integration of Chat bot information that were being sent to the customer during pandemic • Chat bot promotions through Call center IVR to re-direct customers to the product
Data
d2h is a leading brand in the value category of DTH providers and has always led by example in providing exemplary customer service. Brilliant customer service is the most important aspect of service in DTH industry as the customer volume being served per day is very high, to the tune of 1.2 lakh subscribers reaching the call center per day for issues of different categories. The onset of pandemic in March followed by nation-wide lockdown brought the entire country to a halt. Since the call centers we affected too, it became a Herculean task for us to cater to customer queries as customers were struggling to reach us for inquiries and we were unable to assist them. During this challenging time, d2h had the chance to step up and turn around the situation. As the saying goes, Heroes are born in times of crisis, such a Hero was brought in as Dia (d2h's Intelligent Assistant) – the d2h Chat bot.
Solution
Dia is d2h's chatbot that opened a whole new window for customers to interact with us and getting their queries resolved in real time. Speed and Agility was one of the core organizational values and keeping in line with it, Dia was developed, tested and integrated across below touchpoints in records 3 weeks (28th March – 17th April). 1. Customer Website 2. Customer Mobile App 3. WhatsApp 4. Facebook Messenger
Results
The results were exceptional akin to the endeavors in swift launch of the Chat bot. • Customers experienced an interactive and real-time query resolution during lock-down • Over 1 Lac customers interacted with Dia with 1.38 Lac sessions recorded within 2 weeks of launch • Within 18 months of launch Chat-bot users have gone up by 300% and it caters to 14% of total activation. This degree of adoption in DTH industry is one of its kind. • Cost break-even was achieved within 2 months of chatbot launch!
