Introduction to Särkänniemi

Tampere’s Särkänniemiis a tourism company owned by the City of Tampere, established in 1966. Särkänniemi is a platform for joy and experiences, Finland’s most versatile travel destination, and the biggest attraction in Tampere’s tourism scene. The Särkänniemi experience currently includes an amusement park, an aquarium, the Näsinneula observation tower, a planetarium, Koiramäki Animal Farm, and one of Finland’s top restaurants, Restaurant Näsinneula.

We sat down with Heikki Ihanamäki, the HR and Marketing Director of Särkänniemi, to discuss his experience as a Leadoo partner after the first full year of collaboration. These are his words:

How Customer Experience Has Exceeded High Expectations

Collaboration with Leadoo AI began in early 2024. From the start, the cooperation has been smooth and effortless. The process has been clear, structured, and professional, which has also made the entire Särkänniemi team’s role in this partnership easier.

Initially, we thought that using Leadoo would require a lot of time and resources, despite the emphasis during the sales process on efficiency and allowing the customer to truly enjoy being in the customer’s position. However, it has been a pleasure to see that everything was made incredibly easy for us during the structured onboarding process – and this ease has continued in our daily operations.

We started designing solutions by utilizing Leadoo’s traditional conversion tools (InpageBot, ChatBot, VisualBot), and in the next phase, we will implement the AI-powered Leadoo AI tools.

Reducing the Customer Service Team’s Workload and Enhancing Online Customer Experience

At first, we implemented Leadoo to improve customer service and customer experience. Our goal was to reduce the workload of our customer service team and enhance the customer experience on our website.

With Leadoo, questions from the website are now better structured, and the need for follow-up inquiries has significantly decreased. This has directly reduced our customer service workload and improved operational efficiency.

As originally planned, we have now also expanded the use of Leadoo to support our B2B sales – specifically for lead generation and qualification. This process is still ongoing, but we are excited to see the results.

The Results Have Been Outstanding

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) topics placed a significant strain on our customer service team. While the information was available on our website, people couldn’t find it easily – and calling or emailing felt like the most natural way for them to resolve their issues. We were not fully succeeding in helping our customers help themselves online.

Since launching our partnership with Leadoo, over 250,000 people have interacted with our customer service tools regarding topics such as rides, ticketing, arrival, and parking.

During the amusement park season, over 25,000 visitors initiated a customer service dialogue with the tool, and only 70 of them – just 0.3% – felt they did not receive a resolution and requested further contact from our customer service team.

As another example, in our online store, around 75,000 visitors used the customer service tool last season, with 10,500 initiating a conversation. Of those who started a conversation, only about 1.2% were redirected to our customer service team. The remaining 98.8% of visitor inquiries were handled in a consistent and automated manner.

From an operational perspective, this is an incredible efficiency ratio.

Smooth Start and Easy Implementation

The Turku region public transport service, Föli, adopted Leadoo’s solutions quickly and seamlessly, even without previous experience in conversion tools. At the beginning of the collaboration, the team received clear onboarding on building bots and tracking analytics, which enabled fast adoption and visible results.

Since then, website leads have accelerated, generating business growth through website reservations and showroom appointments. FOW have also won multiple industry awards for the quality of digital experiences they are providing customers.

Support That Makes Everyday Work Effortless

Föli has received continuous support from Leadoo AI’s team, with a dedicated contact person always ready to help and answer questions. Regular meetings have enabled the smooth development of bots and other tools.

“The support has helped us adopt new tools and develop our bots to fit our everyday needs easily,” Sinikka continues.

Tangible Benefits in Daily Operations

Leadoo’s ChatBot and other conversational tools have significantly improved the usability of Föli’s website and reduced the workload of customer service. The use of the live chat service has decreased by 25%, which in practice means 215 working days freed up for other tasks.

For a public services provider, these efficiencies and cost savings are invaluable, and can set precedents to emulate throughout the organisation.

Looking Ahead With AI

Next year, Föli plans to transition to an AI-powered chatbot – a development the team is eagerly looking forward to. The collaboration with Leadoo enables the continuous improvement of the customer journey and digital services, making them increasingly intelligent and user-friendly.

Smart automation guarantees a superior customer experience and frees up time for meaningful interactions

The Lappeenranta Region Student Housing Foundation (LOAS) provides homes for thousands of students. During peak seasons, when the number of inquiries rises to hundreds per day, Leadoo’s smart tools help keep response times short and service quality high.

At the heart of the LOAS office is the goal of providing affordable homes and smooth everyday life for students. Office Manager Pirita Vuorinen leads the customer service team, whose daily routine becomes particularly fast-paced in early summer as new students begin their search for housing.

Hundreds of Inquiries a Day. How to Maintain Quality During the Rush?

In student housing, the seasons are intense. LOAS received a vast number of inquiries regarding questions for which answers could already be found on the website, but locating them was challenging for the customers.

“As a team, we want to offer a superior customer experience, fast response times, and consistent service. We wanted to ease the workload of our customer service and automate frequently recurring questions, while still maintaining personal service for those who need it” Vuorinen explains.

“Our site is visited by a variety of different key audiences. We need our conversational tools to help funnel them clearly, swiftly and relevantly. Not just for lead generation purposes, but for user experience. With something as sensitive as pensions, trust and usability are core values we have to demonstrate throughout our site.”

A Reliable Partner with Sector Expertise

LOAS chose Leadoo because the service felt tailored to their needs from the very beginning. The representative’s expertise and the positive experiences of other student housing foundations convinced Pirita and her team.

According to Pirita, the onboarding process was very smooth: “After every meeting, we received a summary of what was discussed and the plans for the next steps. We have received great ideas from the Leadoo team on all the different ways their tools can be utilized in our operations.”

More Time for Complex Customer Situations

Although the cooperation is still relatively new, the effects are clearly visible in daily operations. Leadoo’s bots don’t just serve students; they have also become an important tool for LOAS’s own staff.

Staff Support. LOAS’s own team also utilizes the bots for internal information searches, making their workdays smoother

Less Manual Work. Bots handle many routine questions, which frees up the team’s time to solve more complex customer situations

Reliable Information Retrieval. The bots provide accurate information even for free-form questions, speeding up interactions for both parties

As Ben explains, “for our senior colleagues, reducing the burden on our busy administration teams was a priority for the new website. Historically we receive a number of repeat questions on how members are able to access their pension, what happens at retirement, etc. While important to address, these enquiries were taking up a lot of manual time for our teams.”

Since September 2024, TPT’s digital team has been using Leadoo AI to completely streamline customer service. Now, AI instantly answers these FAQs through TPT’s ‘PensionBot’.

Successfully streamlining customer service was immediate. In the first two months of AI going live, there was a 32% reduction in website enquiries that came through to the contact centre.

Introduction to Oulun Pysäköinti

When Oulun Pysäköinti modernised its parking facilities with camera-based recognition technology, customer service had to evolve too.

With Leadoo AI, the company successfully shifted its customer service focus to digital channels, reduced routine inquiries and freed up the small team’s time for developmental work.

Oulun Pysäköinti Oy is the largest parking operator owned by the City of Oulu, with its most well-known site being the underground facility, Kivisydän. In an expert organization of four people, every employee’s contribution is critical, and continuous development is at the heart of their operations.

From Physical Service Points to Seamless Digital Interaction

A little over two years ago, Oulun Pysäköinti began a major transition. Parking facilities were updated to be ticketless and partly barrier-free through automatic camera recognition. This technological leap also meant that the traditional physical customer service point was no longer needed.

As customer service moved to phone and email, Account Manager Hanna Käsmä soon noticed that many inquiries followed a predictable pattern.

“We noticed similarities in the inquiries and started thinking about how we could make information easier to find on our website, so that customers could smoothly find answers to their questions themselves” Käsmä explains

The solution was a smart bot tool to assist customers right when a question arises.

Why Leadoo?

During the evaluation phase, Leadoo AI stood out due to its comprehensive references and advanced tools.

The onboarding process received praise specifically for its phased approach, where experts from different fields supported the implementation within their specific roles.

Less Routine, More Time for Development

Although Oulun Pysäköinti does not use Leadoo for traditional lead generation, the results have been significant for the organization. The greatest benefit has been the reduction in customer service workload.

• Fewer “Unnecessary” Inquiries: Bots guide customers to the right information. For example, matters not handled by the company, such as parking enforcement, are now filtered out by the bot before reaching a customer service advisor
• Freed-up Resources: With routine tasks handled by automation, the small team has more time to focus on service development
• Utilizing Data: The company closely monitors the tone and topics of conversations. If a topic recurs frequently in the bots, it is addressed with more in-depth content on the website or social media

Independence and Analytics as Favorite Features

Oulun Pysäköinti appreciates the ease of use of the Leadoo platform, especially the ability to train and edit bots independently. Comprehensive reporting and Livechat have also been in active use.