Retail: AI Customer Service That Actually Knows the Answers

A retail chain with 120 stores and a growing online shop receives around 800 customer contacts per day — via chat, email, and phone. 65% are standard enquiries: delivery status, returns, product availability, opening hours, voucher conditions. A call centre of 15 staff handled these contacts — during peak season, wait times reached 18 minutes.

The Data Protection Problem with Customer Service AI

Customer enquiries contain personal data: name, address, order number, payment information. GDPR requires that this data is only processed in systems with a legal basis — and US cloud services create uncertainties that a retail company cannot afford.

Local Customer Service Agent with SoverIQ

SoverIQ Stack runs on the retailer’s own server. The AI agent is connected to the inventory management system, online shop, and customer database:

• Order status: “Your order #78234 was dispatched yesterday and is expected to arrive tomorrow.”
• Returns: automatically issue a returns label, book collection
• Availability: “Item X is in stock at your nearest store (Cologne-Mülheim).”
• Complaints: triage by urgency, escalate with full context to a human agent

Complex cases are detected and handed over to human staff with the full conversation context — no need for customers to repeat themselves.

Results

67% of contacts handled fully automatically. Average response time: from 18 minutes to under 30 seconds. Call centre team focuses on escalations and complaints — higher value, less monotony. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) rose from 3.6 to 4.4 out of 5.