Does your customer have a question about an order, a return, or want to make an appointment? Chances are the customer will speak to a chatbot or voicebot first. And that is not always a success: in practice, chatbots often get stuck in dead-end flows and result in more frustration than answers.

 

During the upcoming edition of conversation conference The central focus is on how you, as an organization, can make automated customer contact work well. Many customer contact teams are currently facing questions such as: how do you scale up customer service without quality declining? How do you maintain control over AI when you cannot predict every output? And how do you build solutions that continue to work in practice?

This year, Frankwatching is once again putting organizations on the stage that deal with these kinds of issues on a daily basis. During the Conversational Conference, they speak openly about what works, the choices they have made, and the lessons they have learned along the way. The program includes Vattenfall, Utrecht University, Vereniging Eigen Huis, NS, and Sabio, among others.

A selection from the program

Bernard Steenbergen (Vattenfall) holds up a mirror to both frontrunners and doubters. He explores the intersection between AI developments and customer experience. What foundation do you need before AI truly improves your service? Where does the hype end and real value begin?

Charlotte van Hooijdonk (Utrecht University) demonstrates how conversational AI can actually increase customer satisfaction. Based on scientific research, she answers questions such as: how do you correct incorrect answers from a chatbot? And when do you hand a conversation over to an employee?

Louise Meijer-van den Ham and Kirsten Arensman (Vereniging Eigen Huis) discuss VEH's move from a traditional selection menu to an AI assistant. They show the choices involved, how they handle challenges, and the measurable impact of this transformation.

NS also offers a behind-the-scenes look at chatbot Jens. Siem Uittenhout and Jouke Bakker take you through the transformation from a scripted chatbot to a smart AI assistant that truly thinks along with travelers based on RAG and AI agents.

Jacqueline van Arkel (Sabio) demonstrates how to prepare agentic chatbots and voicebots for real-world use. She shares how to start small, then scale up iteratively, and why knowledge management, automated testing, and observability are indispensable for conducting reliable customer conversations.

The eleventh edition of Conversation Conference is organized by Frankwatching and takes place on September 17 at Jaarbeurs Utrecht. Ziptone is once again the media partner of Conversation Conference this year.

Especially for Ziptone readers: profiteer van €125 discount on your ticket. This way, you attend the Conversational Conference at the most affordable rate possible. Claim your discount via this link.

(Ziptone/partnercontent)

 

The lessons of Achmea, Rabobank and VodafoneZiggo at the Conversational Conference

Customer Experience, Event, Featured Frankwatching