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The starting point: growth and rising pressure on customer service
DEUBA GmbH & Co. KG is one of Germany's leading e-commerce companies. With steady growth and expansion into new markets, the pressure on customer service grew too. Every day, the team receives over 1,000 emails – from different countries, in several languages and across many sales channels.
"We've grown strongly in recent years and expand into several countries each year. That was a challenge for our customer service: on the one hand, finding native speakers to answer customer requests professionally. On the other, the response times on new platforms, which are usually 24 hours," says Frederik Ernst, Head of Communications at Deuba, describing the starting point.
Rising effort combined with high quality standards made it clear: customer service had to become more scalable, more efficient and future-proof.
Choosing melibo: a partner that understands e-commerce
In May 2025, Deuba decided to introduce melibo Ticket Automation. The AI-based solution automates recurring customer requests so support teams can focus on complex issues. The system went live in July 2025.
"melibo was already deeply involved in our service topics. From the start, we felt we were working with a reliable partner who knows our business – and knows what they're doing," explains Ernst.
Thanks to close collaboration, melibo tailored the automation precisely to Deuba's requirements – from integration to AI-based classification of incoming messages.
Implementation: from assist mode to full AI agent automation
Deuba uses GREYHOUND Software as its helpdesk system to manage all customer requests. At first, the company worked with the melibo feature "Response Assist". The AI agent supports agents by automatically generating reply suggestions for incoming tickets. These suggestions could be used directly in the GREYHOUND interface or rated – "good" or "bad" – to keep improving the AI agent.
After an intensive test phase, it quickly became clear that the AI answers for requests about product details and order status were of high quality. Deuba therefore decided to have these requests answered fully automatically by the AI agent from then on – with no manual rework.
"Our main goal at the start was automating recurring messages. That let us dedicate our time to other topics relatively quickly – which affects both customer satisfaction and our employees' satisfaction," says Ernst.
In the next stage, returns and complaints will also be fully automated. Step by step, the AI agent becomes an integral part of the customer service process and takes on more and more responsibility for standard requests.
Results: faster response times and significant cost savings
Introducing the melibo AI agent has delivered measurable improvements at Deuba. Of around 1,031 incoming emails per day, 377 tickets are currently handled automatically – an automation rate of 36.58 percent.
The results at a glance:
- Handling time per ticket: just 1–2 minutes
- First response time: down from 5 hours to 1 hour
- Cost per ticket: down from €3.00 to €0.20
That saves Deuba over €5,000 per month.
Besides the financial benefits, the team benefits too: with the AI agent, employees can focus on complex requests, which significantly increases service quality and employee satisfaction.
Expansion: AI agent also active in the Deuba service portal
After the successful launch of Ticket Automation, Deuba also integrated the AI agent into its own service portal. There, the previous chat solution "Zowie" was fully replaced by the melibo chatbot.
Here too, the AI agent now automates many customer requests directly in the chat – from order information to product details. Many issues are resolved before they ever reach a human agent.
"AI and automation will offer many possibilities in the future that we don't even know about today. E-commerce is going through an exciting transformation, and we want to stay at the forefront. That's why we value melibo as a partner at our side – for technical implementation and for sharing experience," explains Ernst.
Conclusion: Deuba shows how modern AI agents transform customer service
By introducing melibo Ticket Automation and the AI agent, Deuba has taken its customer service to a new level. Smart automation has sped up processes, significantly reduced costs and improved the customer experience for good.
The combination of melibo AI agent and GREYHOUND helpdesk shows how automation in e-commerce can be implemented successfully and practically – with measurable value for companies, customers and employees.
Deuba proves that AI doesn't just support – it actively shapes, as a real service partner in the digital age.
