From Skeptic to Advocate: How Aday Embraced AI to Scale Personal Customer Service

Customer expectations for immediate, personalized service have never been higher than they are today.

For sustainable fashion brand Aday, managing increasing customer inquiry volumes while maintaining their brand voice presented a significant challenge.

But when Irene Karaminas, responsible for customer experience at Aday, first heard about using AI for customer service, her reaction was one of skepticism.

After dedicating over a decade to perfecting her customer service skills and building Aday's reputation for authentic, personalized communication, the idea of turning customer interactions over to AI seemed antithetical to her values.

And yet, embracing AI resulted in a massive transformation of Aday’s CX, resulting in a leaner team structure, faster response times, consistently high CSAT, and proof that technology, when thoughtfully implemented, can enhance rather than diminish the human elements of customer experience.

The challenge

"Trying to keep up with the high volume of emails, chat, and social media while still giving fast, personal responses was hard. We didn't want it to be robotic and automated."

Aday faced multiple challenges that threatened to compromise their commitment to authentic, personalized communication:

• Growing volume across email, chat, and social media channels.
• Staffing limitations with a small team trying to manage increasing demands.
• Response time pressures in a market where customers expect near-immediate answers.
• Brand voice consistency concerns across all communication channels.

"We live in a very fast-paced world, right? And nobody has patience for anything. Nobody can wait eight hours, nobody can wait on a Friday to get a response on a Monday," notes Irene, highlighting the urgency that drove their search for a solution.

Another challenge was that she was based in Greece, while much of their customer base was based in different time zones. That meant providing fast responses across the board was particularly challenging.

"I can't be there 24/7 Monday through Sunday to answer questions as much as I'd love to," she explains. This meant that urgent customer inquiries outside of working hours often went unanswered until the next business day.

They initially tried to address this by hiring part-time staff across different regions, but this created inconsistencies in training, voice, and approach. So they needed to find something else.

The solution

Aday's journey with Siena began with healthy skepticism. "I was very skeptical. This was very brand new to me," admits Irene. "I was scared of the unknown."

After conducting competitor research, Aday found that Siena offered something unique: AI that didn't feel robotic.

"After seeing what Siena can actually do, it felt natural. It's not robotic in the way I was scared of," Irene explains. "It feels like it's my teammate and they just came on board and I trained them."

Fast and accurate responses that felt human

"I love the fast responses. They feel like customers are talking to a real person," Irene says.

More impressive than the speed was the accuracy and helpfulness of these responses.

Siena could access Aday's product information, policies, and customer data to provide tailored assistance for each inquiry. From answering questions about fabric care to processing returns and providing order updates, Siena handled a wide range of customer needs without the robotic feel Karaminas had initially feared.

"The feedback that we're getting after they rate their experience, it's always like four and a half stars, five stars," Irene notes. "Even when something is slightly off, customers often appreciate the help and speedy reply."

Adapting the persona

One of the most critical aspects of implementation was developing Siena's persona to accurately reflect Aday's unique brand voice.

"The Persona also was a little bit challenging because we wanted through Siena to actually get the brand and the tone of voice that we're using," explains Irene. "It was very important to us because we don't talk to our customers on the phone, they only communicate to us through email."

She invested a lot of time in building the automation library and fine-tuning Siena’s persona to make sure it sounded like Aday. And customers couldn't tell the difference between responses from Siena and those from human team members.

Continuous innovation

Rather than simply providing a product and leaving Aday to figure it out, Siena offered continuous support and guidance throughout the implementation and beyond.

"I felt supported along the way from day one." Irene shares. "I felt like there was somebody holding my hand while we were developing this new and unknown thing, and I feel like that's why I was able to make it so successful."

This approach extends to Siena's product development.

"I'm just amazed with the new features that Siena is constantly releasing."

A recent example is Siena's new Automations Assistant, which simplifies the creation of automated workflows.

When first testing this feature, Irene was blown away: "You should have seen my face last week when I tested it. I was like, 'This is crazy!'"

The results

1. ^4.88 CSAT scores, out of 5
2. ^<12 hours resolution time
3. ^3-5min first response time

Aday saw impressive results within just two weeks of going live. Today, their metrics showcase the transformation of their customer experience:

• First response time: 3-5 minutes (previously measured in hours).
• Total ticket resolution time: Under 12 hours.
• CSAT score: Consistently averaging 4.88 out of 5.

"Siena has had a constant CSAT score of 4.88. It's always high and the feedback is always very good from our customers," Irene shares.

One of the most significant impacts of implementing Siena has been the transformation of Aday's team structure:

Before Siena, customer service resources were primarily focused on handling inquiries. With Siena handling routine communications, team members could be reallocated to work on strategic initiatives across the business. Siena became the primary communication channel for customer inquiries, with Irene providing oversight and handling more complex cases
"We have definitely made some changes to our team," Irene explains. "We had two part-timers that were able to move on to something different. Now it's just Siena. I call her our main team lead."

Looking ahead

Siena has helped the team achieve 24/7 coverage, which was unthinkable before.

It’s enabled them to achieve a quality and level of service that they couldn’t have managed.

"Having that peace of mind, knowing that you can catch errors, you can create a sale from an email, and you can answer something urgent that might come through is huge,” Irene says. “Sometimes just having a conversation via email with Siena can lead to a very large order." Siena has given them opportunities to be more proactive in their customer service, which they’ll build on in the future.

"If you want to scale your CX without losing that personal touch, that's what Siena does."

Are you looking to scale your CX operations without sacrificing quality or brand voice? Contact us today to see how Siena can help your business provide faster, more consistent customer service while maintaining the human touch that builds lasting relationships.