A look back at the road to the future: Walbusch and BSI Software on shared elements of success

BSI and Walbusch have cultivated a strong partnership for over twelve years. The Solingen-based fashion brand recently completed the successful move to the BSI Cloud and a BSI Customer Suite upgrade. Tino Schmidt (2nd from right) and Nick Przybilla (2nd from left) discuss key findings and lessons with Kai Jesse (left) and Matthias Wetter (right) from BSI Software.

Twelve years of partnership between Walbusch and BSI: What are, from your point of view, the elements of success of our collaboration?

Tino: “One of the principal foundations underpinning our success is the collaboration itself. When we started in 2012, we literally had to rethink digital business processes in customer service. Working with your team allowed us to incorporate new perspectives. At the same time, we did a lot at Walbusch internally to drive our development and change our mindset. It is critical to consider processes end-to-end, and this requires consistently breaking down silo thinking.”

Nick: “One element of success that comes to mind is the omnichannel concept: Walbusch is not only a mail-order business. Suppose a customer visits one of our approximately 45 Walbusch stores with a shipping order, a return, or a delivery status question; we can accept and handle these requests and can provide the needed information. No one has to say to the customer: We are not responsible for this – please contact customer service. That is a huge achievement.”

A quote by Marcus Leber, Walbusch Managing Director, is relevant to the keyword “omnichannel”: “Customers do not think in terms of channels. Our company must not do so either.”

Tino: “Mr. Leber is right. This idea is now reflected in our organization. Regardless whether IT or marketing is concerned, we are going to continue to consistently think in omnichannel terms in the future as well. We are experiencing in real time how the channels are shifting. Since our product lines and brand identity are becoming more modern, we are now appealing to a broader target group and are going to increase our communication across digital channels. That is why we are going to incorporate other areas into the BSI Customer Suite as well, in addition to customer service, and make Mr. Leber’s quote a reality.”

How do you rate the support the BSI Customer Suite provides?

Tino: “We continue to firmly believe in your product. The BSI Customer Suite's modularity gives us precisely the flexibility that the market, our target groups, and the shift in channels currently demand of us. Flexibility is the overarching concept that characterizes the entire transformation.”

Matthias: "We see this with other BSI customers as well: Trade means change – this saying is more true today than ever before. Today, there is simply this pressure that you have to be able to act flexibly.”

Tino: “Flexibility is a critical factor for us. BSI will be the key to placing our customers at the center and creating genuine added value with automated yet individual communication. We find some of your solution’s options particularly exciting, such as the specific selection of target groups, the automated follow-up on customer communication, or the early detection and prevention of customer churn. I personally think that marketing automation with BSI would be great because it would allow us to engage even more individually with our customers and continue to develop our customer-oriented strategy.”

Matthias: “Flexibility fits in well with our product strategy. With the Suite, you can use a targeted approach and go step by step. Customers’ expectations are increasing: Soon they will consider it standard for companies to use customer data to offer personalized recommendations. And that's where the topic of hyper-personalization comes in. It allows us to engage with every customer the way they like it – at the right time, with the right offers, and through their preferred channel.”

Kai: “As early as in 2021, you were a pioneer in initiating customer service automation and demonstrated foresight at a time when large language models were not yet available in their current form. Now is the right time to take the next step toward marketing automation with the knowledge you acquired from customer service. Our Suite provides the necessary elements.”

Let's talk about the omnipresent topic of AI. I assume that in your pioneering role, you have probably achieved a lot of savings.

Tino: “It’s a huge topic. You know the numbers: Processing that is 20% faster, a hit rate of 92%, and savings in the six figures. The fact that we have been using AI in our operation for several years now has helped us a lot, especially when it comes to managing e-mails. We can now prioritize order changes and cancellations. We can also detect advertising blocks reliably, for example, when a communication channel has shifted from print to digital. This has saved us resources, and, let me emphasize: It's not about cutting down on human resources. In addition to prioritizing e-mails and initiating advertising blocks, we have a lot of other matters for our service center agents to handle. In addition, a workforce retirement wave will be hitting us soon. That’s why we want to set better priorities and deploy our employees where they are most important.”

What are your AI topics of the future?

Nick: “Our next AI topic will be using BSI AI for the automated detection of customer concerns and requests and using the BSI Companion for the smart support of our service center agents. The project has already started and has a high level of visibility in the company. We all focus our attention on it – from customer service employees to senior management.”

“Our next AI topic will be using BSI AI for the automated detection of customer concerns and requests and using the BSI Companion for the smart support of our service center agents.” Nick Przybilla, Sub-project Management Automation with BSI AI, Walbusch

Kai: “At BSI we are happy that you are bringing intelligence into your processes and that you are automating and operationalizing them sensibly and as much as possible. Your company focused on the use of AI at a very early stage and implemented it in your processes. Now you can take advantage of all the options BSI AI provides today, deeply integrated into our BSI Customer Suite. This means that in contrast to other retailers, you are implementing concrete steps in applications that others are not even mentally ready for. This gives you a critical competitive advantage.”

What will your next steps be with regard to the BSI Customer Suite?

Tino: “With the rollout of the BSI Customer Suite, we merged the EIP (Enterprise Integration Platform), CX (Customer Experience), AI (Artificial Intelligence), and CRM (Customer Relationship Marketing) modules. Now, the data flows seamlessly between the systems, and we are implementing the personalized customer experience and are automating it with BSI AI.”

Nick: “Tino and I are currently in the test phase of it and are getting to know the new system well. What’s so fabulous about it is that we can configure a lot of things ourselves. This is a major advantage that we benefit from on several levels. By the same token, the process visualization looks great.”

With the experience you have today, what advice would you give retail companies for implementing the BSI Customer Suite?

Nick: “First of all: Get out of the box and talk with others. For us, it was great to be able to exchange ideas with some of your other customers. It helped us be well prepared for some pain points after the migration. We really benefited from it.”

“Any retailer introducing a CRM tool must get their employees on board and involve the people who work with the tool.” Tino Schmidt, Team Leader Projects/Systems and CRM Manager, Walbusch

Tino: “The second essential point is that any retailer introducing a CRM tool must get their employees on board and involve the people who work with the tool. The whole system will only work if everyone recognizes that it brings advantages. And thirdly, there is one notion that permeates everything: Be flexible.”

A great closing remark. Thank you for this conversation, and for sharing your experience and the exciting lessons from real life.