Meet Tricia and Stephanie
Tricia Berthet, Contact Center Director at Calendars.com, strives to empower her team to bring memorable experiences to each customer. As Contact Center Senior Manager, Stephanie Pineda oversees daily activities to ensure agents have what they need to deliver world-class, efficient care.
The challenge
Calendars.com’s business revolves around a single peak season that brings along a 7000% spike in support requests, putting their customer service team to the test each year.
Previously, Tricia and Stephanie had seen the toll this surge of incoming contacts could have on agents and customers alike. Frustrated with longer wait and handle times over live chat, customers would abandon them and create greater phone or email volume instead — placing greater strain on those channels.
Without automation, an increasing number of seasonal reps had to be added to help with each holiday rush. As Calendars.com continued to grow, it was clear this wasn’t a sustainable solution.
Tricia knew automation was her golden ticket. She needed a next-generation AI tool that could:
- Free up agents by automating Calendar.com’s most repetitive support contacts
- Get up and running quickly with frictionless onboarding
- Instantly handle customer questions and improve first contact resolution rates
- Make the chat experience simpler and more effective for both customers and agents
“Our holiday rush was giving us so much contact volume that, even with seasonal hiring, keeping wait times down wasn’t feasible. Zowie changed all of that, making it easier for us to offer the best CX possible.” Tricia Berthet, Contact Center Director
The solution
Calendars.com went with Zowie and streamlined their customer support. They onboarded the Zowie Chatbot in 2 weeks and surpassed their automation goal in the first month.
This impact was substantial — wait times over chat plummeted by 81%. Zowie has provided Calendars.com with an effective solution that:
- Immediately answers customers’ top questions 24/7 — without getting overloaded
- Offers minimal time to implementation by being built specifically for ecommerce
- Lowers support costs, boosts efficiency, and improves key service metrics
- Empowers customers to achieve more over chat while providing relief to agents across all support channels
Improved metrics — like a 60% reduction in where’s my order? contacts — mean agents are better equipped to assist high-value shoppers who want a human rep. In addition, Zowie collects customer insights for any chat that isn’t resolved by the bot, letting agents handle tickets more quickly and effectively.
Zowie’s post-chat surveys even helped the team identify and fix an issue some customers were facing at checkout — allowing them to improve the experience ahead of their busiest season.
Integrating with Zowie couldn’t have gone smoother. Even with our limited time frame, the setup was stress-free. And using the chatbot is super-easy — a customer just types what they need, and they either get an instant answer or go straight to the right agent."
The result: peak-proof customer service
The results were even better than Tricia and Stephanie expected
By leveraging Zowie, along with other internal improvements, Calendars.com was able to take on their peak season in stride, cutting wait times across all channels with 17 fewer seasonal agents.
Afterward, Calendars.com has continued to enjoy consistently better metrics. Since launching, Zowie’s intuitive automation has brought them the following results:
- 57% drop in wait time across all channels
- 17 fewer seasonal agents
- 84% automation rate
- 40% deflection rate
On top of this, Zowie’s AI-generated recommendations are helping Calendars.com streamline operations across the board. Data-driven insights inform their team where improvements can be introduced, making it easier to spot customer pain points and deliver an enhanced customer experience moving forward.
"Anywhere you look, Zowie’s given our efficiency a huge bump. Costs are down, and we can now answer questions outside of working hours. The chatbot handles the lion’s share of our contacts, so we can get to the cases that really need an agent faster."
Tricia Berthet, Contact Center Director
Handle high-demand seasons with intuitive AI
Calendars.com saw first-hand how AI automation from Zowie can provide instant relief while still bringing customers engaging, satisfying interactions.
And Zowie’s AI-generated insights have opened the door for even greater success moving forward. Tricia and Stephanie’s team gets a clear view of their top customer concerns and is fully equipped to introduce ongoing improvements to the customer experience.
Calendars.com now has a reliable automation partner that produces tangible rewards for customers and agents every single day.
"We didn’t want to sound like robots and risk frustrating customers — and with Zowie, we don’t. It’s so easy for us to make sure shoppers still get a personal experience, especially since their AI is built to protect our brand."
Stephanie Pineda, Contact Center Senior Manager
Discover what’s possible with Zowie. Book a demo today.
