2024-07-05 12:25:38
Vodafone is modernising its customer service. The company is investing 140 million euros in its virtual assistant. What this means for consumers.
Vodafone wants to renew its digital customer service. The telecommunications company will equip its virtual assistant “TOBi” with artificial intelligence (AI) from Microsoft throughout Europe, Vodafone announced. The aim is to process customer inquiries faster and more effectively than before. The conversion is set to start in Germany this summer.
“Microsoft Azure Open AI increases the quality of our digital service employee TOBi,” explains Guido Weissbrich, Head of Service at Vodafone Germany. “This makes the customer dialogue more human and empathetic.”
The ability to ask specific questions also improves problem analysis and increases the solution rate of “TOBi,” says Weissbrich. “AI gives our customer service representatives more time to provide personal advice on complex challenges.”
“TOBi” has been supporting Vodafone’s customer service for five years. According to the company, the virtual assistant has so far been able to resolve around 65 percent of the eight million queries independently.
With the planned AI upgrade, “TOBi” should become even more powerful and be able to conduct more natural conversations, analyze more complex problems and suggest better solutions.
In Portugal, where “TOBi” is already working with the new AI, impressive results are being seen, according to Vodafone. The rate of customer problems being solved directly rose from 15 to 60 percent. Response times have also been shortened, leading to significantly higher customer satisfaction.
It goes on to say that the new technology will initially be used in a limited area in Germany. In the coming weeks, “TOBi” will help resolve hardware problems and set up landline routers. Additional areas of application are planned by the end of the year.
Questions that “TOBi” cannot answer will continue to be forwarded to human service employees. This is to ensure that customers receive support even with complex issues.