Lenovo wanted to streamline the process of booking technical service appointments by encouraging customers to schedule and manage their appointments within WhatsApp. Working with Meta, the Lenovo team enabled customers to manage their appointments quickly and efficiently without leaving WhatsApp - reducing long queues and delays in service caused by walk-ins to retail stores.
Lenovo employed Flows to optimize appointment management, leading to improved engagement and booking conversion
From laptops to tablets, gaming accessories to smartphones, multinational technology company Lenovo provides customers with the products and services to work, play, and connect. For nearly 40 years, Lenovo has focused on technical innovation while emphasizing high-quality customer experiences.
Lenovo wanted to make scheduling appointments to get help at its retail stores easier for customers, reducing the number of people without appointments coming into stores to get products repaired. This was particularly problematic during peak business hours.
Seeing that WhatsApp was widely popular around the world, including southeast Asia, Lenovo created a chatbot in WhatsApp where customers could start the process, receiving a link that directed them back to a portal on the Lenovo website to finish scheduling their appointments.
While the chatbot in WhatsApp offered a faster way of connecting with Lenovo, customers still had to engage in multiple steps – repeating those steps to make a change or cancellation. If a customer missed an original appointment, agents had to reach out by phone. Always searching for the next evolution in technology, the Lenovo team in Indonesia explored other methods to further improve scheduling appointments.
The Lenovo team was excited to collaborate with Meta on a more intuitive, convenient customer support channel through WhatsApp Flows, piloted with customers in Indonesia. Lenovo and Meta shared a vision for a streamlined process where customers managed their appointment entirely through WhatsApp, encouraging more customers to book directly in the WhatsApp messaging thread, while increasing the likelihood of customers following up to reschedule or cancel if necessary.
Within a month, the teams created a simpler process through WhatsApp Flows: Customers entering WhatsApp to book an appointment are greeted by a menu that enables them to choose between local stores for service, as well as available dates and times. Afterward, customers receive confirmation via WhatsApp and an email with a QR code linking back to WhatsApp. If they need to reschedule or cancel, they can simply go right back into the app.
Through integrations with the Lenovo CRM, all customer information is easily accessible for customer care agents at the stores. Changes to appointment times are automatically updated in the system – allowing Lenovo agents to spend time directly helping customers instead of following up about appointments.
Director, Services Delivery, TSD ISS - AP Services Support, Lenovo
Lenovo Indonesia promoted the enhanced experience via WhatsApp Flows through Ads that Click to WhatsApp. These ads took users directly into the self-service customer experience in WhatsApp Flows. The team included a QR code linking directly to WhatsApp on the Lenovo Indonesia website, while displaying the QR code throughout service centers.
“In only three months of using WhatsApp Flows, conversion rates of customers booking an appointment on WhatsApp was 8.2 times higher than rates on our website. By giving customers a more fluid and efficient way of managing their appointments with WhatsApp Flows, we achieved a 44.5 percent uplift in customers using WhatsApp – nearly 10 points over our original goal,” says Willie Chiang, Director, Services Delivery, TSD ISS - AP Services Support, Lenovo.
As an increasing number of customers enjoy a streamlined appointment management experience via WhatsApp Flows, Lenovo is more effectively fulfilling its mission of revolutionizing customer service. Lenovo's relentless commitment to customer engagement has garnered recognition from industry leaders, culminating in the prestigious 2023 Service Quality Index Diamond Award in the Laptop After Sales category. According to Naveen Buddhar, Sr. Manager, Transition Realization Management, SSG HQ Strategy, Lenovo, the team was able to expand its current use of WhatsApp so quickly and successfully because of the close relationship between Lenovo and Meta.
“We have a philosophy of ‘One Lenovo,’ where every member of our team aligns around a goal of delivering transformative customer experiences. Right away, the Meta team became a part of ‘One Lenovo,’ working on a bespoke solution in WhatsApp Flows that increased our customer satisfaction scores while improving internal resource management,” says Buddhar.
The Lenovo team is excited to create more functions through WhatsApp Flows, with goals to broaden appointment management capabilities to more countries. There is also interest in letting customers register their accounts and purchases in WhatsApp.
“Using WhatsApp Flows gives us the creativity and flexibility to continually evolve our approach to customer engagement,” says Chiang.
WhatsApp Flows engages customers with a seamless and user-friendly self-service experience
Lenovo collaborates with Meta to build a bespoke, streamlined process through WhatsApp Flows that enables customers to completely self-manage their appointments without leaving WhatsApp, driving increases in customer engagement and appointment scheduling.
*All results are self-reported and not identifiably repeatable. Generally expected individual results will differ.
Sr. Manager, Transition Realization Management, SSG HQ Strategy - Transformation Office, Lenovo
