New Zealand Buy Now, Pay Later provider Laybuy has successfully launched its newest digital employee Hugo, using fellow Kiwi company Ambit's technology.
Laybuy says Hugo is an intelligent chatbot that can instantly answer a wide range of common questions on Laybuy's website, providing customers with real-time responses to everyday enquiries.
It's a move that Laybuy say will significantly improve customer experience and help support Laybuy's continued international growth.
Laybuy co-founder and Managing Director Gary Rohloff says "employing" Hugo was an important and innovative step to help manage the increasing demand on Laybuy's customer services team as the company continued on its rapid growth trajectory.
"In just the past year, our customer base has increased by nearly 25 percent and we now have nearly one million consumers actively using Laybuy in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom," he says.
"We know that the key to maintaining this growth is making sure we continue to make our customers' lives easier. This means providing them with an ongoing seamless and first class customer experience, including answering their questions quickly and comprehensively each and every time they make contact. Hugo is helping us do just that."
Laybuy says Hugo is available 24/7 on its website and can deal with requests around resetting passwords, questions around refunds and returns, and payment inquiries.
The company says up until Hugo, those questions had to be answered by the customer services team. However, the team can now be freed up to work more closely with customers who have complex queries that require specialised expertise.
"Hugo is really supporting our customer service team, helping them work more efficiently and to deliver a high quality service, while also ensuring we continue to meet customer expectations for a real time, integrated payments experience," says Rohloff.
"We are proud to be one of New Zealand's leading fintechs, which is why we were delighted to partner with a fellow innovative Kiwi tech company such as Ambit to create Hugo. There's been a real synergy between our teams as we train Hugo in the language of payments."
Ambit co-founder and CEO Tim Warren says conversational AI can significantly enhance the retail and payments customer experience.
"We are in a 24/7 economy now, and companies want to deliver a superior experience while managing support costs," he says.
"We look forward to developing further innovative customer service solutions with Laybuy."
Laybuy tested and deployed Hugo in a matter of weeks in late 2021 in time to help out with the busy Christmas and New Year retail period.
Launched in 2017, Laybuy is a growing fintech company providing buy now, pay later services and partnering with over 13,000 retail merchants. Laybuy is available in New Zealand, Australia and the UK.