PAYLESS

Customer service

The Case

Payless was founded in 1956 in Kansas, United States, with the revolutionary idea of selling quality shoes at affordable prices in a self-selection environment. Over 50 years later, the company has become the largest footwear retailer for people in the West, with a strong presence in Latin America and more than 450 physical stores.

The commitment of Payless to putting the customer first translated into the launch of a powerful e-commerce platform that changed the way its customers buy shoes. However, in order to achieve this, they had to automate and customize website queries to avoid friction between channels.

The Purpose

With the aim of revolutionizing the customer experience, Payless chose Botmaker to develop a WhatsApp chatbot that has quickly become the preferred communication method, thanks to a specific focus on its automated service strategy.

The virtual assistant manages customer queries and helps them choose the right shoe from over 80,000 options in an effective way, considering factors such as size, style, preferred color, material, and many other variables, managing a constantly updated inventory maintained by the Payless team.

At several points of the journey, the chatbot has the ability to recommend complementary items or suggest higher-priced options to customers, contributing to a sales increase.

Finally, and taking into account the customer's geolocation, the chatbot directs them to a human salesperson at the closest physical store to facilitate a frictionless sale within the same WhatsApp session.

The hybrid focus adopted by Payless comes from a deep understanding of its customers and purpose, enabling the company to diversify its offerings, reduce delivery time, and lower logistic costs simultaneously to become the digital leader in the retail shoe industry.

The Success

65%

of automated queries through WhatsApp and a 45% reduction in average response time

15%

of customers who used the bot for purchases became regular customers

80%

increase in customer satisfaction

"It was crucial that our chatbot provided value to customers beyond a transactional relationship, ensuring that initial interactions aimed to provide information and guidance. We also needed all this context to be shared appropriately with the sellers in our nearest physical store to close the sale. The Botmaker platform allowed us to develop our strategy 100% and achieve amazing results."
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Diana Cardona, Head of Ecommerce Latam at Payless