RTL+ KI-Chatbot im Kundenservice: Erfolgsstory

About the Company

RTL+ is Germany’s largest streaming provider and part of the RTL Group. The platform combines series, films, live TV, music and podcasts under one roof and stands for cross-generational entertainment. In recent years, RTL+ has been able to gain around one million new subscribers annually.

RTL+ at a Glance

• Industry: Media / Streaming
• Number of employees: 17,000 (RTL Group)
• Market/Region: DACH region
• Target group: Streaming-oriented users who want to stream both classic RTL content such as reality TV, soaps, live sports, shows and entertainment, as well as movies and series

Key Facts about the Project

• Over 1 million conversations per year
• Human Takeover Rate: only 2%
• 45% reduction in service contacts, despite continued customer growth

Video Testimonial

Nicolas Klasmeier, Product Owner at RTL Interactive, shares in this video how RTL+ achieved a 98% automation rate and reduced service contacts by 45% with LoyJoy – and why the partnership has been a milestone for their AI strategy.

Initial Situation

The continuous growth of RTL+ brought not only revenue, but also a variety of new challenges in customer service. With increasing user numbers, the volume of support requests also grew, especially in the evenings and on weekends during live events. Classic structures reached their limits:

• Tickets were predominantly processed manually via email and forms
• Previous attempts to automate support with keywords or rule-based systems did not lead to the desired success
• 70% of written requests required human support!
• Unpredictability of request peaks (e.g., in the evenings or on weekends during live events). Difficulty: finding willing workers for these off-peak hours
• The new solution should be intelligent, scalable and high quality

Our Project

Already in the second quarter of 2023, RTL+ started together with LoyJoy the conception of a generative AI-based chatbot for customer service. In close coordination with the legal department, a data protection-compliant AI framework was developed. At the time, generative AI at the customer interface had just become possible and LoyJoy and RTL+ were at the forefront.

After initial tests in the account area, gradual integrations into central support paths followed. The basis for the AI solution is a revised, AI-capable FAQ database with the most common user questions and answers.

This is how the introduction went:

• Q2 2023: Conception and testing of the first generative AI chatbot
• Q3 2023: Launch in the account area (~ 25,000 conversations / month)
• Q1 2024: Integration before the contact form (~ 80,000 conversations / month)
• Q3 2024: Complete rollout in the help center as First Point of Contact (~ 150,000 conversations / month)

Customer satisfaction has since been at the same level as in classic email support. Many users said they took the chatbot for a human conversation partner. The use of generative AI did not lead to a deterioration of the service experience.

The LoyJoy Solution

The developed AI chatbot today takes over the first communication with customers in the entire help area.

• Generative AI models provide context-related answers to common service questions
• The bot is based on curated knowledge from a structured FAQ database – no open web search, no self-learning AI
• The system was iteratively optimized with customer variables and feedback
• Operation is GDPR-compliant and within the existing infrastructure

Extension with Personalized Content Recommendations

In Q4 2024, RTL+ started another project with LoyJoy: the development of a Streaming Buddy – an AI-based content advisor. Although the platform has a very diverse content offering, 95% of users only watch 5% of the offering.

Challenges:

• Existing recommendation engines promote popular content like reality TV or soaps
• New target groups (e.g., sports fans) don’t find themselves represented and cancel their subscription
• Goal: Overcome classic machine learning recommendation logic and suggest suitable content to users on request

Initial prototypes showed that insufficient metadata reduced the quality of recommendations (e.g., searching for “Julia Roberts” did not lead to the result “Pretty Woman”). After targeted optimization of the data basis and intensive testing, the PoC went live in Q1 2025 on two selected format pages (football & reality show Temptation Island).

Initial results: Significantly broader usage behavior and positive user reactions to the new recommendation experience.

Testimonial

”I was particularly thrilled by LoyJoy’s innovative power and how dedicated they were to us as customers. The way the AI agent communicates with our users and solves their problems is fascinating!”

– Christiane Konrad, Vice President CRM at RTL

What’s next?

RTL+ plans the targeted expansion of the “Streaming Buddy” project as a central element of its generative AI strategy. In the next expansion stage, the Buddy will be able to start content directly from the chat and access additional meta and usage data.

In addition, a pilot with telephony functionality is in preparation to enable the dialogic user experience in the future also via spoken language.

In the long term, RTL+ positions itself as a pioneer of a completely AI-supported user journey – from individual consulting via seamless content access to case-closing customer service.