A conversation with Bailey Nelson: Leveling up customer service with AI and automation

We spoke with Jackson Rostagno, Customer Service Manager for Australia and New Zealand at Bailey Nelson, about the team’s experience switching from their previous support tool to Intercom, and how Intercom’s focus on AI, automation, and conversational support has enabled them to solve the challenges they were facing and produce stellar results across their support.

Please tell us a bit about your company and your role(s) there. 

Bailey Nelson is a fashion-forward optical retailer that was born in Bondi, Australia. We devote ourselves to bringing joy to eye care so our customers can continue seeing life in the best possible way. 

By removing exorbitant price tags, blah service, and compromised options, we’ve been able to bring the joy back to eye care and flip the tired “I HAVE TO” situation into a joyful “I GET TO” moment. 

I lead our Customer Service team in Australia and New Zealand. Our job is to respond to all incoming communications through a range of channels, and we also coordinate with our store teams and external suppliers to ensure a seamless customer experience. 

Can you tell us about your customer service setup before Intercom, and what challenges you faced? 

Before we switched to Intercom, we were using another company for our customer communications, but we had a lot of ideas on how we wanted to level up our customer service. The way we were handling support just didn't match up with what our customers expected, especially given that we have a young customer base. Nowadays, people expect to use modern technology to get quick and effective help. We knew we needed to make improvements, especially with the emerging changes in automation and AI in today's world. 

You could say our main problem was usability, both for customers messaging us and for our team managing the conversations on the back end. We needed easy workflows and automations to make sure the right issues reached the right people quickly – and let's not forget gathering enough information from customers outside of our team's working hours. We wanted to solve problems with just one response, not go back and forth for details. 

My team used to be swamped with tickets all day, every day, leaving hardly any time for other tasks. The backlog of 100-200 unresolved tickets was overwhelming, and it definitely stressed out the team. Intercom allowed us to scale in a way that we were able to clear this backlog within a month. This provided us the time to complete other pressing tasks in a timely manner.

What did you need to solve your customer service challenges? 

We needed a solution that could address our main issues, which included long response times, inefficient processes, and a lack of comprehensive, real-time reporting on metrics like customer satisfaction. So, we went on the hunt for a platform that could improve usability, speed up response times, and take advantage of automation and AI to enhance our overall experience through self-serve, proactive, and instant support. 

Can you please describe how you have implemented and used Intercom to solve your customer service challenges? 

We installed the Intercom Messenger on our site, which quickly streamlined communication for customers, and the Inbox made it easy for our team to engage in conversations with them. 

We improved our processes using Intercom’s automation and AI capabilities, which helped us gather customer information faster and cut down on response times. Using efficient and customized workflows, we were able to customize our workspace for our agents to cut down on repetitive tasks throughout the day. The Articles feature allowed us to provide self-service support through our help center, ensuring that customers could find answers quickly, straight from the Messenger. We also connected our social media accounts to Intercom to handle those inquiries promptly. 

Overall, Intercom's approach to conversational support, automation, and AI has been integral in solving our customer service challenges.

How did you find the migration process when switching from your previous support tool to Intercom? 

The migration process was simple and straightforward, with an amazing amount of resources and videos to help. We decided not to take all of our data across. The things we did take across – the help center articles and our conversation history to feed Custom Answers for Fin – both had dedicated API integrations to make this easy and quick. I also found that training the team to use Intercom was very straightforward. The platform is very intuitive and the Intercom Academy has a bunch of helpful walk-through videos to get the team familiar with the platform. All in all, a very smooth process. 

What are the key elements service leaders should be aware of when conducting a migration from your previous provider to Intercom?

I think the main thing that teams initially need to get their heads around is the slightly different philosophy that Intercom has. Intercom has conversations and tickets, where conversations are for quick and seamless interactions, and tickets are for more complex cases where the time to solve might be a few days or the case might involve several different parties.

One other thing that should be considered is having a dedicated representative in the company that is responsible for keeping updated on the exciting changes that happen, and delivering this information to the wider team. Intercom is in a continual process of testing and releasing new and exciting features that allow you to be at the forefront of customer service and be able to integrate the latest technology advances into your workspace, allowing you to improve your customer interactions and processes to deliver the best possible service.

What metrics improvements have you seen across support and marketing since you implemented Intercom? 

Since implementing Intercom, we've seen substantial improvements in our support metrics. Our first response time decreased from several days to under three hours – a 96% reduction. We also cut down the time it takes to resolve issues from three or four days to about four and a half hours, on average. Our customer satisfaction scores started out at around 75% when we first made the switch, and have now risen to between 90% and 95%, on average, each week. We also noticed more people using self-support articles and getting answers from our Custom Answers feature, solving about 11-12% of their issues on their own. These metrics demonstrate how effective Intercom has been in enhancing our support and increasing customer satisfaction.

How does Intercom fit into the rest of your tech stack? What tools have you connected to Intercom? 

We've been able to connect Intercom to our Shopify store and are planning to integrate it into our in-house point of sale system. This will help us improve how we handle internal escalations and enhance the overall customer experience from both an in-store and online perspective. We have been able to also connect Intercom to our Slack Workspace to get quick, customized notifications in specific channels, based on the incoming communication.

What do you think is the biggest benefit of Intercom? 

For us, the best thing about Intercom is how it seamlessly blends automation, AI, and a conversational approach to customer support. This combination allows us to respond to customers faster and more efficiently, while also empowering them to find solutions through self-serve support. The user-friendly interface is a big plus, too, as we can make changes and improvements without needing a coding expert. Plus, the fact that Intercom keeps innovating means we always have access to the latest tools to level up our support.

How does using Intercom make you and your team feel? 

Using Intercom has really boosted our team's morale and effectiveness. Before, we were drowning in tickets and struggling with slow response times. Now, with Intercom's automation, we're managing conversations way better and providing quicker resolutions. It's reduced stress and increased team satisfaction. The platform's simplicity also lets us implement changes and improvements smoothly. All in all, Intercom has empowered us to be more proactive and confident in delivering top-notch customer support. 

Are there any opportunities you’re excited to unlock with Intercom in the future? 

We're looking forward to exploring more possibilities with Intercom and utilizing features such as Fin and Tickets, as well as using the platform for other internal use cases. We also plan on integrating it with our in-store point of sale system for better customer service. There's a lot we can tap into in the near future!

What would you say to customer service leaders considering making the switch to Intercom? 

There are probably many people who aren’t satisfied with their current solution and believe it could be improved. They might start with the intention of innovating but end up replicating old ways when they switch platforms. It's important to break away from that. 

Change can be tough. And if you have a big team using the platform, there's more pressure to make sure everyone is on board and comfortable with the switch. So make sure you think about managing expectations and how to get everyone aligned.