10xfounders Backs Zowie's No-Code E-commerce Customer Service Tool

Automating Customer Support with AI Chatbots

A significant portion of customer service inquiries typically center around a limited number of issues – such as returns, processing refunds, or addressing quality control concerns. This repetitive nature of support tasks often restricts the time available for more in-depth customer interactions, like providing detailed product information or assisting customers in selecting the most suitable products.

The Founding of Zowie

Maja Schaefer and Matt Ciolek, the co-founders of Zowie, recognized the potential for automation in addressing these recurring customer service demands. The company was established in 2019, drawing upon their combined experience gained while working with an e-commerce startup, encompassing both product development and customer feedback analysis.

“Existing solutions for customer service proved difficult to implement,” explained CEO Schaefer in an interview with TechCrunch. “Deployment often took months, and ongoing maintenance presented considerable challenges.”

The initial concept for Zowie emerged after successfully proposing chatbots to a client as a means of handling routine tasks. Being tasked with rapid development of these chatbots solidified their vision.

The Rise of AI-Powered Customer Service

The application of AI-powered chatbots in customer service is gaining momentum. Over the past year, numerous companies – including Forethought, Heyday, Cognigy, Landbot, and Heyflow – have secured funding within this rapidly evolving sector.

Zowie’s Unique Approach: Zowie X1 Technology

However, Schaefer highlights a key distinction between Zowie and some of its competitors. Many competing solutions require businesses to manually input responses and define workflow parameters. Zowie’s Zowie X1 technology, conversely, automates these request workflows tailored to a specific product or brand from the outset.

The company’s system can analyze customer support data within minutes, providing an estimate of the percentage of tickets Zowie can effectively handle – sometimes reaching as high as 50%.

Benefits and Impact on Support Teams

Schaefer estimates that these chatbots can liberate approximately two hours of an agent’s time each day. This allows support staff to focus on more complex issues, resolve challenging cases, and proactively convert support interactions into sales opportunities.

Furthermore, customers utilizing Zowie have reported an average increase of up to 45% in sales.

Funding and Growth

Following a period of substantial revenue growth – tripling between 2020 and 2021 – Zowie pursued a seed funding round. The company successfully raised $5 million, led by Gradient Ventures and 10xFounders, with additional participation from Lattice CEO Jack Altman, Giesswein CEO Markus Giesswein, and returning investor Inovo Venture Partners.

Currently, Zowie collaborates with around 100 customers, including Giesswein. The newly acquired funding will be allocated to product development, marketing initiatives, sales expansion, and the growth of the commercial team throughout the United States and North America.

Zowie currently employs 36 individuals and intends to double its workforce within the current year.

Future Product Development

Planned product enhancements include expanding automation capabilities across a wider range of communication channels – encompassing websites, email, and platforms like Whatsapp. The company also aims to integrate features that support the sales process, enabling a seamless customer journey.

Investor Perspective

Darian Shirazi, a general partner at Gradient Ventures, cited Zowie’s rapid revenue growth and the founders’ vision as key factors in their investment decision.

“Zowie stood out as the first AI chatbot specifically designed for e-commerce that automatically generates its own knowledge base,” Shirazi stated. “Other solutions necessitate the provision of a pre-existing knowledge base, a task that many companies lack the time to undertake. We had been actively evaluating the chatbot landscape, and no other solution effectively addressed the needs of the e-commerce sector, a market of considerable scale.”