Stewart Golf, the electric golf trolley manufacturer, has deployed an AI-powered customer service system that now handles the majority of customer enquiries, marking a shift towards automated support across its UK and US operations.
The company said its AI assistant, known as “Stewie”, developed in partnership with customer experience platform provider Crescendo, is now resolving around 75% of incoming queries across chat and email channels. The rollout has reduced first response times from as long as 72 hours to around one minute.
Stewart Golf, which sells and supports its products across the UK and US, said the system was introduced to address growing customer service pressures as the business expanded internationally. Previously, support coverage was limited to UK working hours, leading to delays for customers in other time zones and backlog issues during peak trading periods.
Under the new model, AI handles initial customer interactions, including queries relating to deliveries, warranties and troubleshooting. More complex cases are automatically escalated to human agents, with an average transfer time of 24 seconds, according to the company.
The business said the system has also enabled it to extend customer service coverage to 24/7 operations across both regions without increasing headcount. It added that it has recorded 100% customer satisfaction for four consecutive weeks following implementation, based on post-interaction feedback.
Nathan Hooper, head of customer experience at Stewart Golf, said the technology had “changed what we thought was possible in customer experience”, adding that consistency and response times had improved significantly since deployment.
The company initially evaluated automation tools within its existing customer support platform, Zendesk, but said these lacked the conversational capability required. Crescendo instead integrated with Stewart Golf’s existing knowledge base to generate automated responses while maintaining brand tone and escalating more complex issues where necessary.
Matt Price, chief executive of Crescendo, said the deployment illustrated a broader shift in how businesses view AI in customer operations, moving from cost reduction towards service enhancement and sales enablement.
Stewart Golf said the system continues to improve through interaction data, with automated quality assurance used to monitor and refine responses over time. The company is also exploring further applications of AI within the customer journey, including product recommendations and purchase support.
The development reflects a wider trend among consumer brands adopting AI-driven automation to manage growing volumes of digital customer enquiries, particularly across multi-market operations.
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