Homechoice: Achieving 91% customer satisfaction by moving from call centers to chat
35%
drop in call volumes through chat deflection
15%
lift in customer satisfaction
CHALLENGE
Meeting customer expectations in a world that is going increasingly conversational
Homechoice is one of South Africa’s most established retail and financial services brands, trusted by millions for over 40 years. Known for homeware, electronics, fashion, furniture, and flexible credit, it plays a significant role in the retail and credit landscape, especially for customers seeking convenience, affordability, and personalized service.
As customer expectations shifted to digital, Homechoice’s call‑centre‑led model became harder to scale. Interactions evolved to span the full customer lifecycle – from marketing campaigns and credit applications to post‑purchase support – across a growing number of channels. Enquiries surged on social platforms and other digital touchpoints, but disconnected systems kept each channel in its own silo, slowing responses and limiting insight into customer behaviour. Teams juggled multiple tools, making reporting slow and preventing real‑time action.
Customers increasingly preferred WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger over phone calls yet managing these channels without a unified platform was complex and inconsistent, risking the trusted experience Homechoice is known for.
To stay competitive, Homechoice needed to modernize its communications stack, unify engagement channels, and deliver fast, secure, personalized interactions on the platforms customers use most.
SOLUTION
Enabling omnichannel customer journeys through a unified conversational engagement platform
Homechoice partnered with Cape Town-based systems integrator Codified Development, a partner of Infobip, to design a phased program for interactions where customers prefer the convenience of chat.
Through Infobip’s partnership with Codified Development, Homechoice embedded global, real-time omnichannel communication and digital interactions via a single API and unified SaaS workspace, eliminating the need to manage multiple systems. Codified Development designed and integrated the end‑to‑end journeys and agent workflows, while Infobip provided the scaleable, multi‑channel messaging backbone that ensures reliable delivery. This created a foundation for a conversational experience across the entire customer journey.
Codified Development chose Infobip because, after five years of testing multiple contact center solutions, they proved their ability to scale massive traffic, their willingness to actively listen to partner feedback, and their offering of a full, integrated suite of CPaaS and SaaS solutions – all vital for the rapidly evolving contact center environment. They are simply technical at heart and easy to work with.
Craig McLeod
CEO: Codified Delelopment
Using the WhatsApp Business Platform and Click-to-WhatsApp, Homechoice turned high-intent clicks into real-time conversations. With Infobip’s customer data platform, these chats fed into unified customer profiles, enabling personalized targeting, automated follow-ups, and tailored next steps.
This mirrors a global shift toward conversational commerce as a leading channel for marketing, sales, and support. Infobip helps organizations operationalize this shift by seamlessly connecting channels, data, automation, and analytics.
With Infobip’s full-stack CPaaS and SaaS solutions, Homechoice orchestrated true omnichannel journeys across:
- WhatsApp Business for sales, service, and credit prequalification
- Messenger & Instagram for campaign engagement and routing
- Email for statements, credit decisions, and lifecycle nurturing
- SMS for real-time alerts such as payment reminders and deliveries
For Homechoice, this combination meant rapid rollout of new chat use cases without compromising reliability or compliance across channels.
Because all of these channels run on a single platform and API, Homechoice can follow the same customer from a Meta ad to WhatsApp conversations, email updates, and SMS notifications without losing context.
Automation through our chatbot‑building platform handles repetitive tasks, while our cloud contact center solution unifies all agent interactions in one workspace, enabling faster, more personalized support across every channel.
We wanted to move customers from calls to chat, where they can engage with us anytime. Infobip gave us the flexibility to build across WhatsApp, Messenger, RCS, and future chat platforms – ensuring we’re never tied to a single channel.
Richard Eberlein
Managing Executive: Customer and Growth, Homechoice
RESULT
91% customer satisfaction rate thanks to intelligent CX
Homechoice’s transformation delivered measurable impact across operations, sales, and customer experience.
- Customer satisfaction increased from 76% to 91%, driven by faster interactions and an always-on conversational presence.
- Call volumes dropped by 35%, as customers shifted to chat-based support.
- And Click-to-WhatsApp Ads achieved 9% conversion, performing 8 times better than web journeys.
Automation now manages approximately 22% of interactions, supported by advanced analytics and Infobip’s resilience, scalability, and global reach. This shift demonstrates the power of conversational engagement at scale – unifying data, channels, AI, and automation through a single platform to drive loyalty and growth.
Moving forward, Homechoice is expanding its capabilities with Infobip’s AI Hub, integrating GenAI, predictive analytics, and Agent Assist to support smarter decision-making and automate more of the customer journey. These advancements support the evolution toward fully conversational, AI-enabled commerce that offers customers seamless, intuitive experiences 24/7.
Infobip enables Codified to focus entirely on client trust and the delivery of new developments and client integrations. Having the confidence that Infobip handles the core platform, aggregation, and scale for chat commerce is a critical part of the partnership.
Craig McLeod
CEO: Codified Delelopment
COMPANY PROFILE
Homechoice is a South African retail and financial services brand that has been serving households for more than 40 years. Known for homeware, electronics, fashion, furniture and flexible credit, it helps value‑conscious customers access quality products and financial solutions through convenient, omnichannel experiences.