Chronodrive x Volubile: How conversational AI is reinventing customer relationships

At RetailGo 2025, the must-attend event for innovation in retail, Volubile had the honor of being invited alongside Chronodrive, a pioneer in food drive-through services in France. This event brought together major players in the sector to discuss the trends shaping the future of commerce: digitalization, automation, personalization, and, of course, conversational artificial intelligence. 

On this occasion, Céline Flipo, Head of Commercial Projects and Innovation at Chronodrive, shared inspiring feedback on the implementation of Océane, their intelligent voice agent designed with Volubile. This collaboration perfectly illustrates how conversational AI can boost customer satisfaction while freeing up operational teams. 

Why is this topic so strategic today? Because customer relations have become a key differentiator in an ultra-competitive market. Consumers expect quick, accurate, and personalized responses without compromising on human quality. Retailers must therefore strike a subtle balance between technological efficiency and relational proximity. This is exactly the challenge taken up by Chronodrive and Volubile.

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Chronodrive: pioneer and visionary

Chronodrive, a subsidiary of the Auchan group, is recognized as the pioneer of food drive-throughs in France. Since its creation in 2004, the brand has revolutionized consumer habits by offering a simple model: order online and pick up your groceries in a few minutes, without leaving your car. This promise attracts millions of customers every year.

But beyond convenience, Chronodrive has always stood out for its obsession with customer satisfaction. The brand has an exceptional Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 82, a figure that reflects a high level of trust and remarkable loyalty. This performance is based on a corporate culture focused on operational excellence and proximity.

Céline Flipo, Head of Commercial Projects and Innovation, embodies this vision. Her role? To support strategic transformation projects to enhance the customer experience and optimize internal processes.

“My role is to support commercial and innovation projects to enhance our customer experience and operational efficiency.”

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The challenges before Volubile

Despite this level of satisfaction, Chronodrive was not immune to a reality common to many retailers: managing incoming calls. An internal audit revealed a major challenge:

"40% of incoming contacts come through the telephone system, which is managed directly by each store."

In practical terms, this meant that store teams had to deal with a large volume of repetitive and relatively simple questions: holiday opening hours, unsolicited job applications, requests to change delivery slots, etc. Although legitimate, these calls took up valuable resources. In some stores, employees were preparing orders while answering the phone, increasing the risk of errors and putting pressure on service quality. 

The consequences?

• Increased mental load for teams,
• Risk of operational errors
• Sometimes degraded customer experience during busy periods.

The challenge was clear: free up store teams, maintain operational excellence, and preserve human customer relations. 

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Why conversational AI?

Faced with these challenges, Chronodrive explored several avenues. But one conviction emerged: the solution had to be both technological AND human. There was no question of sacrificing the quality of customer relations for the sake of automation. As Céline points out:

"We wanted a solution that was simple, fluid, and not dehumanizing. Some of the technologies tested were immediately ruled out, mainly because their voice recognition was too mechanical."

Volubile conversational AI proved to be the ideal answer. Why? Because it offers:

• 24/7 availability,
• Automated management of simple requests,
• A natural voice experience, a far cry from impersonal robots.

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Meeting Volubile

Volubile is a company specializing in conversational AI, with a unique approach: combining business expertise and technology to create solutions that are truly useful and accepted by customers. As Alexandre Lemarchand, VP Sales at Volubile, points out: 

“Our approach is based on three essential building blocks: high-performance voice recognition, an LLM capable of interpreting the request and finding the right answer in the information systems, and natural sound reproduction, aligned with the brand's identity.”

“AI does not replace teams, it relieves them of repetitive tasks so that they can focus on valuable interactions.”

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Océane: the birth of a virtual employee

This collaboration gave rise to Océane, the first “virtual Chronodrive employee.” Océane is not just a voice agent. She has been created as a real employee, with a defined personality: authorized vocabulary, positive tone, smiling, dynamic. Her voice has become a consistent brand element, used both in customer relations and on social media.

Creating Océane required intensive training. Chronodrive and Volubile worked closely together to improve her understanding and enrich her capabilities.

"Océane is not an anonymous robot, but a virtual person designed to offer a natural and reliable service. "‍

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The benefits observed

The first pilot stores saw significant results:

• Reduction in call volume,
• Improvement in order preparation quality,
• Maintenance of an enhanced customer relationship, never replaced.

Océane answers simple questions. If the request is more complex, she automatically transfers the call to an employee. This hybridization of AI and humans guarantees a smooth and reassuring experience. 

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A vision for tomorrow

Chronodrive is adopting a test & learn approach to roll out the solution on a large scale. The future is based on three pillars:

• Developing new conversational scenarios,
• Implementing centralized customer relationship management,
• Connecting AI to internal tools for greater automation.

The ambition also includes text management (emails, service forms) and the creation of a unified knowledge base, essential to guarantee a single voice with customers.

“The objective is clear: to strengthen our operational excellence while maintaining proximity to our customers.”‍

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Conclusion

Chronodrive and Volubile share a common vision: an enhanced, unified, but never dehumanized customer relationship. This collaboration illustrates how conversational AI can transform operations without sacrificing human quality. An innovation that paves the way for retail that is more agile, more efficient, and always focused on the customer.