RetailNest stopped losing leads and hours to manual support
A 24/7 AI agent takes on their catalogue and now handles what used to take a full support team
Retail
73%
Customer queries resolved in 60 days
73%
Customer queries resolved in 60 days
42s
Average response time
42s
Average response time
91%
Of queries handled without human intervention
91%
Of queries handled without human intervention
"Within 6 weeks our AI agent was handling 91% of customer queries and our support costs dropped by half. What used to take a team of three now runs on its own around the clock."
Dave Mitchell
Head of Operations, RetailNest
RetailNest
Client
RetailNest
Industry
Retail
Company Size
35–50 employees
Location
Austin, Texas
Services Deployed
AI Chat Agent
Project duration
6 weeks
Tools used
Overview
RetailNest is a fast-growing direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand based in Austin, Texas, specialising in home and lifestyle products. With over 2,000 SKUs and a customer base that had tripled in 18 months, the lean support team of three was buckling under the weight of hundreds of daily enquiries.
The company needed a way to maintain the personal, responsive support their customers loved without hiring an entirely new shift to cover evenings, weekends and holidays. They approached Operator looking for an AI chat agent that could handle the volume intelligently and escalate only when a human was genuinely needed.
Overview
RetailNest is a fast-growing direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand based in Austin, Texas, specialising in home and lifestyle products. With over 2,000 SKUs and a customer base that had tripled in 18 months, the lean support team of three was buckling under the weight of hundreds of daily enquiries.
The company needed a way to maintain the personal, responsive support their customers loved without hiring an entirely new shift to cover evenings, weekends and holidays. They approached Operator looking for an AI chat agent that could handle the volume intelligently and escalate only when a human was genuinely needed.
The Challenge
RetailNest is a fast growing e-commerce brand selling home and lifestyle products across the US. With a lean support team handling hundreds of daily customer enquiries manually they were struggling to keep up with response times qualify inbound leads and maintain consistent service outside business hours — all while trying to scale their operations without adding headcount.
The Challenge
RetailNest is a fast growing e-commerce brand selling home and lifestyle products across the US. With a lean support team handling hundreds of daily customer enquiries manually they were struggling to keep up with response times qualify inbound leads and maintain consistent service outside business hours — all while trying to scale their operations without adding headcount.
The Solution
RetailNest's support team was spending the majority of their day answering the same customer questions manually updating the CRM and following up on leads that had gone cold overnight. With no after-hours coverage enquiries that came in outside business hours sat unanswered until the next morning by which time most prospects had already moved on. The team was stretched thin costs were climbing and the volume of incoming messages was only growing.
The Solution
RetailNest's support team was spending the majority of their day answering the same customer questions manually updating the CRM and following up on leads that had gone cold overnight. With no after-hours coverage enquiries that came in outside business hours sat unanswered until the next morning by which time most prospects had already moved on. The team was stretched thin costs were climbing and the volume of incoming messages was only growing.
The results
The results
What changed in the first 60 days
• 68% reduction in inbound support queries within the first 60 days of deployment freeing the support team from repetitive questions that previously consumed most of their time
• 89% of customer conversations handled end-to-end by the AI agent without requiring human intervention allowing the team to focus on higher-value interactions
• 4x faster response times dropping from an average of 5 hours to under 30 seconds across all channels regardless of peak traffic or time of day
• 280 support hours saved every single month post-deployment — hours now redirected toward growth initiatives instead of repetitive support tasks
The impact was both immediate and cumulative. The business shifted from reactive support to proactive operations where AI absorbed the bulk of incoming volume and humans focused only on what truly required judgment. Response delays disappeared, customer satisfaction improved and operational efficiency increased without increasing headcount.
What changed in the first 60 days
• 68% reduction in inbound support queries within the first 60 days of deployment freeing the support team from repetitive questions that previously consumed most of their time
• 89% of customer conversations handled end-to-end by the AI agent without requiring human intervention allowing the team to focus on higher-value interactions
• 4x faster response times dropping from an average of 5 hours to under 30 seconds across all channels regardless of peak traffic or time of day
• 280 support hours saved every single month post-deployment — hours now redirected toward growth initiatives instead of repetitive support tasks
The impact was both immediate and cumulative. The business shifted from reactive support to proactive operations where AI absorbed the bulk of incoming volume and humans focused only on what truly required judgment. Response delays disappeared, customer satisfaction improved and operational efficiency increased without increasing headcount.
"Within 6 weeks our AI agent was handling 91% of customer queries and our support costs dropped by half. What used to take a team of three now runs on its own around the clock."
Dave Mitchell
Head of Operations, RetailNest
read more
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