Army Air Force Exchange Service launches AI customer service chatbot
Army Air Force Exchange Service is leveraging a cutting-edge artificial intelligence model to enhance interactions with customer inquiries.
The retailer of goods and services at exclusive military pricing for soldiers, airmen, guardians and their families is utilizing the Manhattan Associates Active Maven generative AI chatbot solution. Active Maven includes a customer service chatbot for end customers, as well as contact center agent capabilities that leverage customer data embedded in the Manhattan Active Omni unified commerce platform, which Army Air Force Exchange Service has been using since 2019.
As a result, the retailer is able to handle a broader range of customer inquiries directly, including complex requests such a shipping status, order changes, cancellations, returns and exchanges.
In additionally, the chatbot solution automates and streamlines manual customer service tasks, such as conversation summarization and post-interaction notes, reducing human agents’ administrative workload.
"We are thrilled to use Manhattan’s GenAI-powered chatbot to offer our customers better and faster service," said Bill Reynolds, vice president e-commerce merchandise and operations at Army Air Force Exchange Service. "Manhattan Active Omni has been an integral part of getting orders to our customers as fast and efficiently as possible. Manhattan Active Maven is a natural extension of that solution that provides equally fast and efficient responses to our customers’ needs."
Army Air Force Exchange Service deployed Manhattan Active Maven in a few weeks. Since then, it says the chatbot has significantly reduced the volume of inquiries handled by its human customer service agents. By enabling the retailer to more quickly resolve customer issues, Manhattan Active Maven is also helping Exchange improve its customer satisfaction rate and net promoter score (NPS).
"We are honored to work with Exchange and are pleased to have launched their generative AI-based chatbot in just a few weeks," said Sanjeev Siotia, executive VP and CTO for Manhattan Associates. "Because Manhattan Active Maven is built natively into the Manhattan Active Omni platform, it automates customer service inquiries immediately, without requiring additional integration or extensive configuration and testing."
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Founded in 1895, the Army & Air Force Exchange Service is the 54th-largest retailer in the United States. All earnings support military communities.
