As a subsidiary of the Swiss headquartered Holcim, Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe (Limited) taps into world class standards in building solutions supply as well as health and safety standards.
“Gikko are experts in their field, and working with an organisation at the top of their industry helped us create a smart, scalable and successful digital solution for our customers. Gikko’s spirit of innovation, collaboration and excellence tied in seamlessly with what we stand for as Lafarge, which is to deliver forward looking, easy-to-use platforms for our customers.”
~ Stanley Meck, Head of Marketing & Innovation, Lafarge
CHALLENGE
Covid had affected Lafarge negatively by impacting the number of customers who could visit their brick and mortar stores, make enquiries and then purchase. Additionally, due to lockdown and remote working restrictions, their customer service team’s efficiencies were impacted by power cuts – this affected telephone connectivity and data used to address online customer complaints. Although the business was an exempted service during this time, customers were finding it hard to get in touch.
SOLUTION
Lafarge decided to place a big bet on digital services and with Gikko’s WhatsApp Chatbot Services that integrated with a Cloud Contact Center, launched a whole ecosystem of these. The chatbot allowed users to get in-touch with the business with 24/7 accessibility on a whole host of enquiries and getting real time feedback to guide them – which in turn translated directly to sales growth as leads were firmed up into volumes.
RESULT
Firstly, sales started firming up quite significantly from enquiries to confirmed orders in a ratio of 4 enquiries to 1 confirmed order as reflected by the online store. Secondly, customer satisfaction improved significantly as measured in two different waves of Net Promoter Score rankings done during the period from launch to a full year later.
