Epigamia Eliminates Manual Customer Support System with the help of Conversational AI

Covid impacted all facets of life and industries worldwide. Among the sectors profoundly affected, the Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) industry stands out. The transition from traditional brick-and-mortar purchases to online shopping, coupled with the evolving expectation for personalized buying experiences, marks one of the most significant shifts observed post-COVID-19. Notably, the adoption of AI solutions, particularly Conversational AI, has played a pivotal role in engaging users and ensuring a smooth pre-sales, shopping, and post-sales journey. A report from Statista reveals that over 80% of FMCG industry CEOs are actively altering or planning to change their approach to client engagement through AI, positioning themselves strategically in the competitive landscape.

In India, the D2C market is being propelled by dynamic factors, including shifting consumer preferences, increased funding, governmental support, and technological advancements. However, this market is not without its challenges. Intense competition, substantial upfront costs, intricate logistics, regulatory complexities, and the imperative of customer retention pose significant hurdles. To outpace competitors in this landscape, a crucial emphasis is placed on adopting a seamless and personalised approach to cater to the evolving demands of the market.

A prominent player in the food and beverage retail sector in India, encountered similar challenges just as they were gaining momentum. Let’s delve into the strategies they employed to overcome these obstacles and explore how they navigated through them to achieve success.

About Epigamia

Epigamia is a brand of healthy and delicious snacks that combine the best of Indian and Greek cultures. Founded in 2015, by Rohan Mirchandani (CEO), Rahul Jain (COO), and Uday Thakker (Director). Epigamia aims to create products that are free of preservatives, artificial flavours, and adulterated ingredients, using fresh and locally sourced ingredients. Epigamia offers a variety of products, such as Greek yogurt, plant-based yogurt, smoothies, snack bars, puddings, and more, in different flavours and formats. 

Epigamia is also committed to sustainability and social responsibility, by investing in new technologies, improving feed practices for cattle, and easing access to water for communities. 

Epigamia is driven by innovation and passion and strives to make snacking healthier, yummier, and fun for everyone.

Query Load and High Customer Cost – Challenges Faced by Epigamia

With the onset of the pandemic, more and more customers started preferring to explore and buy every product online, rather than going to a shop. Epigamia, while scaling up, faced the challenge of the shift in consumer behaviour— found itself confronted with the demand for online exploration and purchase of its products. However, this shift brought with it a surge in pre and post-sales inquiries, including product tracking, which posed a significant challenge in terms of management and tracking.

The influx of queries originated from diverse platforms such as social media channels and the company’s website, creating a logistical challenge in consolidating and monitoring them effectively. On any given day, Epigamia found itself contending with an overwhelming volume of 40-50 queries, rendering monthly management an arduous task.

In an effort to address this issue, Epigamia opted to hire an external agency, necessitating a comprehensive training program to equip the agents with the ability to proficiently respond to a spectrum of customer queries. These trained agents predominantly engaged with customers through social media platforms and email. However, the process was not without its challenges, as manual errors frequently crept into the responses provided to customers during the course of communication.

Streamlined Customer Support System Launched

With the help of Verloop.io, Epigamia launched an automated customer engagement system on:

• WhatsApp
• Website

The solutions help Epigamia’s customers to:

• Explore products
• View and get help for their past orders
• Track their orders
• Help with a subscription plan 
• And ask any other queries that they might have about their purchase.

The solution enabled a 24/7 available, personalised support system on customers’ preferred platforms.

 Loyal Customer base Increased with Conversational AI

“Customers love that they can explore the products and track their orders so seamlessly and on the platform they prefer. – Disha Jaidhara, Creative Excellence and Strategy, Epigamia

 Customer Support Operational Cost Reduced

With the launch of an automated support system, Epigamia didn’t need the agency they hired on payroll, anymore to answer their customer queries. They were able to remove them completely, thus reducing the customer support operations cost.

 Query Resolution Automated

Epigamia is now easily resolving on an average of 800 queries per month, with very little human intervention required. 76% to 79% of queries are resolved by the solution itself. Thus, reducing the workload on customer support agents.

Recurrent Users Increased.

Around 50% of customers coming onto the platform for query resolution are recurrent users, which showcases how the solution impacted customer loyalty.

 CSAT Collection System Launched 

Epigamia, earlier didn’t have a system to collect customers’ feedback. With, Verloop.io they are able to collect their customer’s feedback. Overall CSAT rating ratio has improved by 14.58% and the positive CSAT score improved by approximately 70%.

Epigamia’s journey exemplifies the potential of technological solutions in not just overcoming challenges, but also in propelling businesses towards sustained success in the dynamic D2C landscape. As industries continue to navigate an uncertain future, Epigamia stands as a beacon of how strategic technological adoption can elevate customer satisfaction, foster loyalty, and fortify a brand’s position in a competitive market.