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    Biedronka – how Poland’s largest retail chain is revolutionizing customer service

    Automation area
    Customer service Enterprise
    Channel
    Messenger WhatsApp
    Sector
    FMCG

    6 500
    conversations monthly

    50 000
    messages exchanged monthly

    100 000
    users served

     

    Poland’s retail leader

    Biedronka, the largest retail chain in Poland, has been on a market for 29 years. Operating over 3,500 stores across 1,300 locations, it is part of Jerónimo Martins Polska S.A. Renowned for its commitment to innovation, Biedronka continually adopts solutions that drive growth and elevate customer service quality.

    Our partnership with Biedronka began in 2019 with the development of an internal chatbot designed to support over 80,000 employees. You can learn more about that project here. Since then, we’ve worked hand-in-hand to successfully automate key processes and enhance communication across the organization.



    Challenges

    With the rapid expansion of Biedronka’s store network came a significant increase in customer inquiries. An analysis revealed that the majority of these questions were repetitive, making it an ideal opportunity to introduce automation into the service process. The primary challenge was to effectively manage these inquiries, freeing up customer service team time and allowing them to focus on more complex and unique issues.

    Working with a retail leader like Biedronka brings both challenges and remarkable satisfaction. The chain serves an incredibly diverse customer base – people from all regions of Poland, speaking different dialects, using various expressions and phrases. Since their underlying needs remain similar regardless of how they’re expressed, the chatbot automatically resolves more than half of all inquiries. At this scale, this represents significant time savings, enabling swift and thorough handling of cases that truly require human expertise.

    Aleksandra Bilińska
    Head of Business Partnerships at KODA

    Client needs

    Biedronka needed a solution that would:

    • Automate responses to recurring customer inquiries
    • Ease the workload of the customer service team, allowing them to concentrate on more complex issues

    In addition, we provided:

    • Flexibility to support promotional campaigns, including loyalty programs and seasonal offers
    • Efficient information campaigns to deliver key updates to users in a clear and timely manner

    Solution

    To address Biedronka’s needs, we implemented an advanced chatbot powered by machine learning technology (for more details on the language models used, visit this page). This solution was chosen based on the wide and varied customer base of Biedronka. Unlike projects targeting more specific audiences, such as those for Semilac’s customers, this chatbot needed to serve a highly diverse group. Our main goal was to ensure that it will be easy to navigate for all users, providing accurate and relevant responses to their inquiries.

    Machine learning proved to be the perfect fit, offering the flexibility and precision required to handle a broad range of queries. After thorough testing, we made sure that this approach would best meet the needs of Biedronka’s diverse audience.

    The chatbot was launched in 2021 on Messenger, and in 2022, its availability was expanded to WhatsApp. Key features include:

    • Automating responses to frequent customer inquiries, significantly easing the workload of the customer service team.
    • Supporting promotional campaigns, such as the popular “Produkciaki” campaign, as well as interactive activities like holiday quizzes.
    • Running information campaigns to deliver essential updates during specific timeframes.
    • Integrating with the client’s API, allowing users to search for recipes based on selected ingredients.

    Results

    Chatbot now automates over 50% of conversations, which, given the scale of Biedronka’s operations, means a significant number of inquiries are handled without the need for human agents. This has noticeably reduced response times for customers. The chatbot’s traffic is largely organic, indicating a high level of user engagement.

    Post-implementation

    Our partnership with Biedronka did not end with the chatbot’s deployment. We regularly monitor its performance, analyze emerging user needs, and continuously develop new features to enhance its functionality. We ensure that the chatbot not only responds efficiently to inquiries but also evolves to meet the changing demands of the market.

    Thanks to a large user base, the machine learning model enables the chatbot to recognize a wide variety of messages with greater flexibility. Over 100 000 users have already interacted with the chatbot, and it exchanges tens of thousands of messages with users each month. This project has been an invaluable learning experience, demonstrating how advanced technological tools can significantly improve customer service at scale, even with a highly diverse audience.

    Key takeaways

    We are proud of our over 5-year collaboration with Jerónimo Martins Polska S.A. and, thanks to the business effectiveness of the tools we’ve implemented, we are now working together to create new, technology-driven projects. The client team’s dedication made the chatbot implementation a success, improving daily operations and processes in a tangible way. Through this project and its scale, we have learned a great deal—especially that nothing is impossible—which inspires us to create even more innovative solutions for our clients.