The Epicenter shopping mall chain has implemented a virtual consulting system based on QR codes, a Telegram bot, and an automated backend. The pets of the company's mobilized employees have become the project's ambassadors.
The Epicenter shopping mall chain has implemented a virtual consulting system based on QR codes, a Telegram bot, and an automated backend. The pets of the company's mobilized employees have become the project's ambassadors.
The main goal of the project called " Furry Consultants " is to compensate for the shortage of staff in trading floors by introducing fast digital customer service.
"Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, more than 4,000 employees of Epicenter have been mobilized. The company keeps their jobs and regularly pays their salaries while they are serving in the military. At the same time, the staff shortage has already reached 18%. Among all appeals to the shopping center, 50% are related to the absence of a consultant," notes Yuriy Kudlyk, director of the Online Sales and Customer Service department.
In the sales hall, there are life-size figures of “furry consultants” — pets of mobilized workers: cats Richard and Monty, dogs Sirka and Businka, and chinchilla Sonya. Each figure has a personal QR code. By scanning the code, the client receives a set of options for solving their question:
Requests are instantly received by the staff's Telegram bot with an accurate indication of the client's location in the store and the reason for the request. This reduces response time and minimizes the "loss" of customers in the hall. The system also records the speed of request execution and allows you to leave an assessment of the quality of service. The solution is built on a stack:
The pilot testing of the project took place over a period of 6 months in the Epicenter shopping center on Polyarnaya in Kyiv. According to its results, 74.3% of requests concerned product consultations, 11.9% - issuing goods from the warehouse, 10.5% - ordering additional services, and only 3.3% - delivery requests.
