Big Bus Tours is using Freshworks technology to handle a growing volume of customer service requests.
Ollie Wildeman, VP Customer at Big Bus Tours, explained to diginomica at Refresh 2024 in London how his company is using Freshworks Customer Service Suite, an omnichannel support software that includes AI-powered chatbots and ticketing, to manage disparate requests and to support a shift from reactive to proactive customer engagement:
We've got a huge number of customers. There's always somebody on a Big Bus somewhere, any hour of the day. We needed a place to sit that volume of customer service requests in one spot so our agents could handle email and chat tickets.
He explained how the Freshworks ticketing system is fed information from a contact form on the website. The firm also uses an AI-enabled virtual assistant from Satisfi Labs that connects to the website and deals with basic queries. Any issues that need escalation or clarification come through to a live agent via Freshservice technology:
We needed a way to respond to all of these queries and figure out which ones are most important and which need answering straightaway.
Wildeman says Big Bus Tours implemented the cloud-based support tool Freshdesk in 2019 to centralize customer service. Before implementing Freshdesk, the company managed service requests across 26 cities via email through local teams during business hours. The centralization strategy created a business process outsourcing (BPO) centre in Romania. Wildeman says Freshservice technology was crucial as service requests increased:
We were coming out of COVID and suddenly had an explosion of inbounds and contacts. We grew the BPO team very quickly. I think we had four or five agents during COVID. And then we expanded to 20. And then last season, we went up to 35 agents.
Wildeman says the number of customer service requests increased again in March 2023 when the company added chat to its companion app via Satisfi Labs technology:
Our customers have a chat bubble, so at any point in their journey, if they have a query, they can get hold of us, and we react to it. That access increased the volume of requests massively. But the more people you speak to, the more issues you can identify and solve. And you also have an opportunity to upsell, too.
Today, the BPO team uses Freshworks technology to deal with queries from around the world on a 24/7 basis:
More recently, as we were installing our virtual assistant from Satisfi Labs, there was a business requirement to move to the most recent version of Freshworks technology, which was the Customer Service Suite, where you've got chatbots and ticketing close together and can report on everything from the same spot.
The benefits of this integrated approach are clear - Big Bus Tours has much greater awareness of its customers and their requirements:
We're now sat in front of far more people. I don't think many customers won't be in touch with us in some form, either online or with our street agents.
Wildeman says that whilst his team has already started to take a more proactive approach to customer service requests, there's much more to come:
We're not fully proactive yet. Our first objective was to deal with the volume of requests. We've started handling the volume effectively, and now the idea is to manipulate the data and use the insight to start reaching out and creating value.
One of the next stages will involve using emerging technology, including Freshservice's generative tool, Freddy AI. Wildeman says switching to Customer Service Suite meant the company gained access to a Freddy copilot beta:
We switched it on, and I was initially sceptical about how much usage we would get out of it. But the agents took to it quickly, especially for summarizing tickets.
Wildeman says he asks service staff to write notes when they speak to a customer. Many conversations with customers are short, but the insights are invaluable. Generative AI gives support staff crucial and time-saving assistance:
Writing notes can often take as much time as it does to solve the problem in the first place. So, the summary generator from Freddy is saving us minutes per interaction - and in high season, we're dealing with 45,000 to 50,000 interactions.
The next stage will be to use these summaries to generate deeper understanding via Freddy Insights, which is a tool that allows staff to have a conversation with the generative AI tool through a prompt-based interface in natural language:
We're still getting to grips with that technology, but you can start asking questions about what people say. It's no longer just about trying to get the feedback, it's now about trawling through the data and finding something useful to do with it.
During the next 12 to 24 months, Wildeman expects proactive outreach from Big Bus Tours to pick up pace:
As I said, we've got ourselves in front of more people. But that's not quite the same as reaching out to them before they contact us.
While the exact details of this approach are still to be decided, he hopes that increased proactivity - with the help of Freshservice and AI - will become part of the sales process:
So, perhaps you deliver their tickets via WhatsApp. In the app, you have the customer, their tickets, and their information, and if they respond and ask a question, you're already ready to reply. Or there's a bot that reaches out and offers an upsell, such as, 'We know you're travelling to London. Here are your tickets. By the way, did you fancy a trip on the London Eye?'
He advises other digital and business leaders considering Freshworks technology to focus on getting as many services as possible into one place. This preparatory work will make it easier to embrace further digital transformation and AI:
