The company is a swimming pool retailer. They sell equipment to repair pools, filters, cleaning equipment and chemicals. The pool industry in South Africa is very competitive: large chains, hardware companies and specialised pool businesses all compete against each other.
It’s a cliche to say that the difference is service, but it’s more true than in some other industries. People don’t visit their pool shop every day, or even every week. If their pool is clean, the most they need is chemicals once a month.
The problem, like a motor car is when something goes wrong: the filter or part of it breaks, or the motor burns out. Sometimes the water goes green.
At that point good service is about testing the water and advising on the right chemicals to put into the pool, chemicals to remove algae, or having the right part in stock.
Many pool owners, like me, do not know the exact details of how the pool works. I can test the water, but when a part breaks I don’t know how to install it. I have on the odd occasion replaced the sand in the filter so I need the extra service and support that the pool company offers me.
Some pool companies are now offering service and support via WhatsApp. This is a crucial communications area for consumers. WhatsApp costs almost nothing, everyone uses it and knows how to use it. It’s most peoples preferred method of communication. As good as WhatsApp is, it is useless if the pool company does not reply to messages. My need and other people’s needs are not confined to when the business is open, or when the person manning the WhatsApp line is available. Your pool could break at any time, day or night.
It would be very nice to be able to talk to an expert, even at 10pm. This is unreasonable – or is it?
No, not anymore.
In my case the handle on the filter mechanism broke one evening, causing me a lot of worry. If I could have sent a WhatsApp saying “The filter handle that changes to backwash has broken, what do I do?” and received an answer immediately, I would have felt far less stressed. Of course I don’t know the exact technical terms of the part that has broken. That’s the service I expect from the pool company
We designed an AI powered WhatsApp responder that replies within 15 seconds, day or night.
Its response to my question is “It sounds like the handle on the multifilter valve has broken. We have it in stock at <R5xx.xx incl VAT>. This is what is looks like. Here are the installation instructions” It even gives me a video on how to do it.”
15 seconds at 10pm at night! This will guarantee I will have less worry about the pool. It will also guarantee that I make my purchase from that company.
We have trained the AI WhatsApp with the correct information. It’s response of 15 seconds is way preferable to waiting on a person to read the WhatsApp and then give a reply, any time from 2 minutes to 2 days and sometimes 2 weeks or never.
How does this help the customer? We get fast and correct answers. That’s what good service is all about.
How does this help the pool company? Happy customers. Fast automated response saves staff time in responding. This is the first step to getting the customer to order on-line or visit the store. The alternative is to make a customer wait, in which case they will likely go elsewhere.
Are the answers always accurate? No, not always. The answer depend on the quality of the training given to the AI system. It also depends on the type of question. A good AI system is able to say “I don’t know, please leave your details and an expert will contact you. It then sends a message to a person who will reply. We monitor all answers given, especially to difficult questions and update the training given to our AI system. It’s a feedback loop that continues to improve the quality of the answers. In our experience over 95% of questions can be answered properly within 15 seconds, day or night.
This differentiates customer service. A pool company that happily gives its expert information to potential customers instantly is likely to gain that potential as a customer.
Who would have thought that there is so much expertise in the pool industry?
Subscribe to our newsletter and keep up to date with useful AI news.