Customer Story
Challenge: Answer FAQs and keep visitors up to date on mall news
Solution: Orion Genie, a WhatsApp chatbot with 24/7 availability
Results: Increased footfall and happier, informed customers at the mall
“Instead of broadcasting information without knowing if people were interested, we wanted to send customers useful information.”
Rahul Malhotra
Head of Marketing, Orion Mall
The 3rd biggest shopping mall in Bangalore, Orion Mall, has four floors of retail space with shopping zones, restaurants, cinemas, bowling, and gaming zones. An engaging shopping experience used to be enough to keep customers coming through the doors, but now shopping malls have to compete with the growing number of e-commerce businesses and have more choices for how to spend leisure time.
Add to that the fact that it’s challenging for malls to gather information about what customers want from the mall experience, and you’ve got a real puzzle on your hands – how to bring in visitors and give them a great time.
In 2021, Orion Mall was up against a common challenge in the retail industry: how to answer customer questions quickly but personally. They needed a solution to keep visitors updated on the latest mall news, including opening and closing hours, shops and brands, food and entertainment options, promotional offers, and more.
Orion Mall understood that providing more information to visitors would increase their chances of attracting more customers and boosting sales. However, their existing communication channels weren’t cutting it, and there was no way to scale.
The mall wanted a faster and more accessible way for visitors to get FAQs answered and find the information they needed.
In January 2022, with the help of Sinch, Orion Mall introduced a new employee to the team: Orion Genie, a 24/7 WhatsApp chatbot designed to quickly answer FAQs and help drive more visitors to the mall, potentially leading to increased sales. During the holiday season, Orion Mall expects the chatbot to double the number of visitors.
Orion Mall took a personalized approach with its bot, calling it Genie, like the famous “Genie in a bottle” who can answer all your wishes.
The expert team at Chatlayer by Sinch in India handled the installation. Marketing Head at Brigade Group, Rahul Malhotra, praised the team, saying “the team from Sinch listened to our needs from the first meeting and understood exactly what we wanted.”
Orion Genie was integrated into Orion Mall’s WhatsApp channel to interact with visitors who can now start chatting with the chatbot by scanning the QR code shared on social media or through posters and banners around the mall. The team found that on-site promotions worked best in driving engagement with the chatbot.
Orion Genie has smashed all expectations, with an impressive number of active users and conversations showing how much customers enjoy interacting with the chatbot. Access to information in the moment of need has massively impacted customer satisfaction.
At the same time, Orion Mall has seen a significant increase in visitors, thanks to the fast and reliable information provided by Orion Genie. This is particularly important for customers who plan to spend their entire day at the mall, taking advantage of everything on offer. Access to up-to-date information about mall events and offers has made planning trips easier, boosting footfall and revenue.
Going forward, Orion Mall plans to continue enhancing the customer experience by adding feedback options to the chatbot and exploring more ways to improve the service.
