In public administration, medicine or many businesses automated support helps to cope with the increased volume of enquiries and to provide right answers as fast as possible. The startup Parloa has developed a simple solution with which every company can easily implement its own voice assistants or bot communication.
Will my package still arrive? How do I cancel my booked holiday? What options do I have to file for business continuity support? The Corona crisis certainly is a time when new questions arise. And correct and appropriate communication is crucial at this very moment. Bots – especially call-center bots – , voiceassistants and co. play an important role in this situation. They channel the high support load, offer quick answer to a set of standard questions and at the same time unleash important human resources that can be used more efficiently for other tasks.
In the past, however, the deployment of such solutions has always been associated with a high development effort and was therefore mainly reserved for large companies. With its platform Parloa, the Berlin based startup, one of the participants of InsurTech Hub Munich’s (ITHM) current Innovation Programme, is offering a solution that is applicable for call-centers, all major platforms such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, but also for use in social media or on a customer’s own website.
“Our vision is to enable companies to develop extraordinary bot dialogues and thus reduce efforts and satisfy the customers at the same time,” explains Malte Kosub, who created Parloa with his two co-founders Stefan Ostwald and Tilmann Böhme. The three entrepreneurs got to know each other through a scholarship program of the “Stiftung der deutschen Wirtschaft”. At the time they met, Malte had just sold his previous e-commerce start-up and was looking for a more tech-oriented business.
Delivering seizable value in times of crisis
The potential of phonebots, voice assistants and chatbots has long been considered high in many industries, though implementation was rather hesitant to date. In the current corona crisis, which massively reduces personal contact and puts pressure on call center agents, help lines or your local doctor’s office, technology can provide real benefits. Therefore, the company is specifically focussing on automating call-center experiences right now:
“The volume of enquiries and the need for communication will increase significantly in the near future, especially in the healthcare industry. In order to use resources here as profitably as possible, communication must be made as efficient, customer-oriented and, of course, humane as possible”, Malte emphasizes.
As a participant in this year’s ITHM Innovation Programme, the Berlin based startup hopes to win over further companies from the insurance industry for its solution. “The insurance industry the call volume is very high – and companies are well aware of and open for digital solutions. Through ITHM, we aim to assist insurers in developing their support decisively”.
Stefan Ostwald Tilmann Böhme Malte Kosub
Text: Daniel Lange