How Hello Sugar reached a 66% automation rate with Zendesk's hybrid solution

Trying to double the number of stores in its franchise within the year – without growing the support team – may sound like the makings of a sticky situation. But what sets Hello Sugar apart in the beauty and wellness space is their tendency to be tech savvy. The team knew that the best way to scale was to automate. And while a lot of other AI providers sugar coat their automation capabilities, Zendesk’s automation solution proved to be the real deal.

Hello Sugar’s Chief Technology Officer, Austin Towns, was instantly impressed by the generative AI technology behind Zendesk’s AI agents and quickly began automating common intents about salon services and pricing. With the help of a hands-on customer success team, Hello Sugar enhanced the quality of its support by combining ultra-personalized service with near-instant response times.

With the freedom and flexibility of generative AI, Hello Sugar’s AI agent also delivers precise info about the location of salons to lost customers as well as empathetic responses for first time waxers – all in perfect brand tone of voice.

Meanwhile, the precision and control of manual conversation design enabled them to automate the entire appointment booking process. Now, Hello Sugar boasts a 66 percent automation rate, thanks to the hybrid automation solution.

AI use case spotlight #1: Hello Sugar’s journey to +66 percent automation

Hello Sugar wanted an AI provider that could go beyond the traditional dialogue builder. Zendesk’s hybrid approach integrates the precision of conversation design with the freedom and flexibility of generative AI to deliver on this promise.

Generative AI has enabled them to quickly automate FAQ style questions about services provided and how to prep for an upcoming appointment. And conversation design helped them automate intents like booking appointments, as they can use API integrations to confirm location and generate a booking link for customers.

Taken together, Hello Sugar has reached a 66 percent automation rate – with rave reviews about the company’s CX from customers.

AI use case spotlight #2: Knowledge base optimization for better CX

Hello Sugar also succeeded in honing the powers of a well-designed knowledge base to enhance the capabilities of the generative product.

By compiling a knowledge base replete with information on the details and location of each salon around the country, the company’s generative AI-powered agent can provide extremely precise directions. Customers are also left with the feeling that they’re speaking to a human receptionist, thanks to the AI agent’s natural-sounding tone of voice (TOV).

As a result, Hello Sugar harnessed the power of generative AI to deliver ultra-personalized and empathetic support to customers within seconds and at scale.

Hello Sugar’s success story

As a tech-savvy business in the beauty and wellness space, Hello Sugar has significantly improved customer experience while doubling the number of salons and saving $14,000 per month in agent costs. By leveraging a hybrid AI solution, which combines generative AI and conversation design, Hello Sugar has achieved an automation rate of over 66%. This has not only led to cost savings and efficiency gains but has also enhanced customer service. Customer queries are addressed in seconds, and with the help of generative AI, interactions are infused with empathy and a consistent, on-brand tone.

Next on Hello Sugar’s automation journey

Hello Sugar plans on continuing to find more use cases for AI to improve CX, such as by expanding their APIs to reduce manual work for receptionists. For example, they want to harness the capabilities of API integrations for booking and rescheduling appointments to expand the capabilities of what their bot can do when responding to these requests. They also plan to audit all existing intents to find more opportunities to leverage generative AI.