Visionworks Hires Amelia to Enhance Customer Service and Reduce Costs

The leading eye care services provider will utilize Amelia to schedule appointments, provide patient order updates, answer high-volume inbound calls and more.

Amelia, the leading Enterprise AI software company, announced that Visionworks, one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing eye care service providers, has hired Amelia to join their Conversational AI strategy team as a digital customer service representative. Amelia’s responsibilities at Visionworks include scheduling appointments for eye exams, contact lens fittings, order pick-up and more; providing status of eyewear orders; sharing of safety and COVID-19 protocols; confirming benefit eligibility and providing location services for ease of access.

Prior to Amelia’s deployment, increases to inbound call volumes, combined with necessary safety protocols and modifications to the in-store staffing model, created customer satisfaction and service delivery challenges. To resolve such concerns, Visionworks wanted to identify a digital solution that could bring about rapid relief and grow with the needs of the organization, all while improving customer service and reducing operational costs. The provider was drawn to Amelia’s experience and omnichannel capabilities, and hired Amelia as its digital customer service agent in September 2020.

Instead of relying solely on in-store employees or third-party call center agents, Visionworks now utilizes Amelia to handle all incoming calls for a majority of Visionworks’ retail stores, handling upwards of approx. 30,000 calls every day. Amelia schedules more than 2,500 optometric exam appointments daily, and answers customers’ questions regarding store locations, directions and order status updates. If Amelia receives a request that is not within her purview, she immediately transfers the call to a human customer service representative, creating a seamless customer experience.

In a little more than a year, Amelia already has had a positive impact on Visionworks’ overall customer satisfaction rating. With Amelia, customers can book eye exam appointments with ease, resulting in higher customer satisfaction scores. By relieving the responsibility of handling all inbound customer calls from her human colleagues, Amelia helps Visionworks drive an improved customer and associate experience. In addition, Amelia benefits optometric doctors by identifying appointment availability via their digital exam schedulers, and providing patients the ability to schedule appointments weeks and even months in advance. Continuing to improve customer experience with self-serve and automated phone options reduces on hold and wait times for patients, and frees up associate time to drive a more focused in-person engagement.

Shawnna DelHierro, VP of Technology at Visionworks, said: “We wanted to transform our customer support with a digital solution that would enable us to deliver extraordinary experiences across all channels. At Visionworks, we recognize that enterprise and organizational agility, where once desirable, is now central to business survival. Automation and modernization are no longer viewed as simply preferable solutions, but instead are critical to shift the corporate model innovatively forward. What drew us to Amelia was the ability to deploy the platform quickly, Amelia’s flexibility and rapid learning model, and her experience with delivering both voice- and chat-based services. Since deployment, Amelia has made appointment scheduling and other functions a friction-less experience, allowing in-store personnel to concentrate on personalizing each patient and customer visit, and providing the level of service our Visionworks customers deserve.”

Chetan Dube, CEO of Amelia, said: “Regardless of where customers reach your business, whether it be in-person, via phone call or by website chat, every customer deserves and expects extraordinary customer care. By hiring Amelia, Visionworks has exemplified its commitment to delivering high-quality customer experiences through all channels, and they’ve set an excellent example for how a digital-human hybrid workforce benefits customers and employees alike. We’re excited to play a role in Visionworks’ continued customer service success story.”