President of Fishbowl, Tim Gruidl, discusses successful implementation of ECHO ODA that resulted in 83% call deflection

MINNEAPOLIS – August 8th, 2022 – On May 24, 2022, Susan Almack, host of Oracle’s Partner Perspectives Podcast, interviewed Tim Gruidl to learn more about the successful implementation of ECHO’s Oracle Digital Assistant. At the beginning of the Podcast, Almack announced that Fishbowl is the first ever partner to discuss Oracle’s Digital Assistant (ODA) on the Partner Perspectives Podcast.

In order to provide Almack with context about the project, Gruidl discussed why ECHO needed a chatbot in the first place. In March of 2020, workers across the globe migrated from their office cubicle to their kitchen table. One common denominator grouped all remote workers together: their new office view of the backyard. Gruidl explains how working from home forced people to stare at their backyard more than ever before. Fueled by pandemic boredom and the urge to maintain a perfectly manicured landscape, remote workers increased the demand for lawn tools. ECHO inc, experienced a boom in business as their power tools became highly appealing to consumers interested in D.I.Y projects.

While introducing ECHO, Gruidl states, “ECHO is an innovator in the power tools business ­– they were the first company to deliver a handheld chainsaw, a weed whacker motor, and a backpack blower.” As a leader in the power tools industry, ECHO’s tools began to heavily resonate with the work-from-home D.I.Y consumers. This is perfectly exemplified by the fact that their company grew about 300% over the course of the pandemic.

As the demand for power tools steadily increased, ECHO struggled to keep up with their high customer service call volume. To help ECHO maintain their greatest value – productivity – Fishbowl implemented a Digital Assistant. Prior to the Digital Assistant, ECHO was utilizing Service Cloud, a program that was designed to be integrated with ODA. Therefore, the chatbot implementation was seamless and successful. Gruidl proudly declared how Fishbowl allowed ECHO to scale beyond their existing support structure by developing a chatbot with two conversational flows, 1 backend API based integration, and front-end brand customization.

Throughout the Podcast, Almack endorsed the Digital Assistant by advertising it as a solution to the Great Resignation. Gruidl agreed with Almack and noted, not only does the 24/7 chatbot provide customers with personalized attention, but it also decreases the reliance on live agents.

In June of 2021, the 24/7 Digital Assistant went live, and ECHO reported 83% call deflection. While closing out the Podcast, Gruidl emphasized the success of the project by announcing, “ECHO paid for their investment in two and a half months.”

At the end of the Podcast, Almack inquired, “Who would be the ideal customer for this solution?” Gruidl responded, “Service Cloud customers are ideal due to the direct integration with Oracle Digital Assistant. However, Oracle’s Digital Assistant was built in a very flexible model, so it can be easily integrated with other customer service software.” Gruidl added that Fishbowl has integrated ODA with Zendesk, Service Now, and Salesforce.

If you’d like to learn more about how Digital Assistant could benefit your company, contact Fishbowl Solutions at info@fishbowlsolutions.com or submit the form at the bottom of this webpage.­

Link to Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/echo-empowers-its-customer-experience-with-oracle/id1541713019?i=1000563541563