Reefi, one of Saudi Arabia’s leading online retailers, has experienced remarkable success since its inception in 2018. Having originally started sales through social media, the company is now a top destination for customers seeking high-quality homewear products, such as towels and robes made from unique microfiber.
With a loyal base of 700,000 customers and 12 multi-product concept stores across the Kingdom, Reefi has adopted innovative solutions to cater to its expanding customer base. Recognizing gaps and opportunities in the market, the company diversified its product offerings from a single item to a comprehensive range of homewear products. Reefi also introduced a new line of mattresses called Awa under its own brand. However, managing the exponential growth of customers presented a significant challenge, particularly in terms of marketing and customer service.
“We always aim to enhance the engagement and interactivity of our customer communication. However, the high volumes of requests from telephone systems and web chats were very challenging for us. Our customer service agents simply could not handle all these requests promptly and efficiently,” says Dr. Tamim Alganam, CEO of Reefi.
To tackle this challenge, Reefi engaged Unifonic. The conversational solutions of the Unifonic platform put WhatsApp and chatbots at the core of Reefi’s engagement strategy and helped them dramatically improve their customer experiences. Customers can now receive real-time support through WhatsApp, allowing them to ask questions, seek assistance, or gather product information, all with the assurance of prompt replies. The integration of self-service chatbots with WhatsApp automates responses to frequently asked questions, ensuring instant and efficient customer support around the clock, 24/7.
“Given the popularity of WhatsApp in Saudi, we also leverage it as a marketing campaign tool to convert customers. One of the things that many online stores in Saudi are not great at is customer retention. Brands spend a lot of money to acquire new customers but don’t make much of an effort to retain them. When, in fact, it is easier to re-target the same customer through different channels, and we saw a good return on investment on the retention part using WhatsApp,” says Dr.Tamim.
So instead of relying only on traditional customer support channels like phone or email, which can be time-consuming and expensive, Reefi is leveraging automated chatbots to handle a significant volume of customer queries simultaneously.
“Chatbots now handle 85 percent of our customer support function, which helped us reduce the need for extensive human support teams, resulting in cost savings of 25 percent and improved operational efficiency,” says Dr.Tamim.
Furthermore, Reefi can seamlessly transfer conversations to customer support agents using the Unifonic Agent console when a human touch is required.
Another advantage the Unifonic platform provides Reefi is a deeper understanding of their target audience, which, in turn, helps them make data-driven decisions for future growth and optimization.
Dr.Tamim adds: “We are now in the process of integrating the Unifonic platform within our SALESmanago customer engagement platform, which will give us valuable data and insights. One of the important advantages of working with the Unifonic platform is its versatility in integrating with any technology, both now and in the future. This flexibility ensures that we can leverage Unifonic’s capabilities seamlessly, aligning with our evolving technological needs.”
According to the CEO, Reefi thoroughly evaluated various similar offerings in the market and ultimately chose Unifonic’s CX platform. The decision was primarily based on Unifonic’s exceptional support and commitment to customer satisfaction.
Dr. Tamim emphasizes that being heard and having a responsive support team is a top priority for Reefi. Additionally, Unifonic’s dedication to incorporating customer feedback played a significant role in the evaluation process.
As Reefi embarks on major expansion plans, including increasing the number of physical stores to 30 by the end of 2023 and venturing into other GCC countries such as Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman, the online retailer aims to triple its sales. Dr. Tamim affirms that the scalability of Unifonic’s platform is vital for achieving the company’s growth objectives. As it is designed to cater to diverse businesses, it aligns perfectly with Reefi’s expanding operations.
In conclusion, Reefi’s selection of the Unifonic platform was driven by the exceptional support of the Unifonic team, their responsiveness to customer feedback, and the ability to seamlessly integrate the Unifonic platform with their existing systems. Reefi has full confidence in Unifonic to support their ambitious expansion plans and facilitate their goal of tripling sales.
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