BT Group Aims to Continue Customer Service Success

BT Group is the largest provider of fixed-line, broadband, and mobile communications services in the United Kingdom and also provides subscription television and IT services. Though it’s based in London, BT has operations in around 180 countries.

With a business that large and diverse, the global telecom was looking to better inform, support, and power new customer service initiatives, and that brought it to Sprinklr in early 2024.

BT Group’s collaboration with Sprinklr “marks a significant step forward in BT Group’s commitment to using cutting-edge technology to deliver exceptional customer experiences,” says Harry Singh, managing director of consumer digital at BT Group,

The deployment integrated Sprinklr’s Unified-CXM platform throughout BT Group’s operations. It builds on the success BT had with Sprinklr as the backbone for Aimee, a virtual assistant it rolled out for its EE Broadband unit.

The refreshed Sprinklr customer contact platform is significantly enhancing the EE and BT customer experience through conversational and generative AI and enhances support processes for the group’s customer service agents across its business, consumer, and internal contact channels.

With Aimee, when customers need support, the platform can draw on BT Group’s data to provide a personalized, accurate response. The customer contact platform, which powers Aimee, also provides the messaging capability for real-time online chat with customers.

BT has already equipped Aimee to handle more than 30 separate customer experiences, and it plans for many more to come. Aimee’s use has risen 51 percent in one year, which BT and Sprinklr both say demonstrates customer enthusiasm for the channel.

BT Group experienced impressive growth in customer interactions facilitated by Aimee. Aimee handles up to 60,000 customer conversations per week, up from about 30,000 per week just two years ago. Automation success rates on several types of customer journeys are now approaching 50 percent.

One area where Aimee has made a huge difference is helping BT customers prepare for international travel. In that area alone, Aimee has already cut in half the need for online chat/messaging support from live agents.

Billing support has also benefited significantly from Aimee, which can leverage generative AI to provide detailed explanations of charges, enhancing transparency and customer satisfaction.

Rich media within Aimee also means the chat experience isn’t just a text exchange; product cards and carousels are more engaging and valuable for customers.

“With our customer contact platform, we have unlocked powerful AI-enhanced capabilities for our customer service, boosting satisfaction and creating exciting new opportunities for customer experience,” Singh said.

Prior to the rollout, Sprinklr worked with BT Group to install key ethical guardrails to ensure robust data privacy and security measures. AI capabilities are hosted on a private cloud, ensuring compliance with data and privacy regulations, and data policies are set by BT Group’s internal data management platform, Data Fabric. This allows BT Group to maintain control over its data while benefiting from Sprinklr’s AI capabilities.

Sprinklr’s architecture also allows BT Group to draw on different large language models for its generative AI. BT Group can select the optimal LLM for each use case and is looking to integrate the platform with its own GenAI Gateway in the future.

Looking ahead, BT Group also plans to expand its use of generative AI to further improve customer support. Upcoming features are expected to include AI-driven summaries of customer interactions and real-time support and guidance. With this, Aimee will be able to act as a virtual AI assistant for all customer service reps, helping to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and customer experience.

“We’re delighted to be working alongside the iconic brands within BT Group, at the forefront of innovative customer engagement through effective AI,” said Sprinklr President and CEO Rory Read. “AI has huge potential to enhance and elevate customer experiences, and it’s been fantastic to help BT Group achieve such brilliant results, so quickly.”

The Payoff

Using Sprinklr to power its Aimee virtual assistant, BT Group has seen the following results:

• the automation of more than 30 separate customer experiences, with more to follow;
• the automation of about 60,000 conversations per week, compared to about 30,000 per week just two years ago; and
• automation success rates on several types of customer journeys approaching 50 percent.