Automated phone calls : Thanks to Volubile.ai, RETIF has boosted in-store traffic and reactivated inactive customers

For the first time in France, a conversational AI agent generated revenue through outbound call campaigns and didn't destroy a single job.

Interview with Thina Cadierno, CEO of RETIF Group (a subsidiary of the Raja Group), and her new BFF, Stéphanie Delestre, CEO of Volubile.ai. The red shirt helped the blue blazer generate over one million euros in new business in just a few weeks at the end of 2025.

At the end of 2025, the company began a collaboration with Volubile.ai. The goal: to use a conversational AI agent to call back former customers and encourage them to return to stores or place orders directly. The campaign was a real success, both in terms of revenue generated and the positive reception from those contacted. We brought these two women of action together for a photo shoot and to discuss two hot topics: what is the future of brick-and-mortar stores? And how does conversational AI drive incremental revenue and commercial opportunities — how does it work, and what lead times and precautions should you plan for?

What would you say characterizes today's economic environment? Is customer experience, talked about for years, enough to drive profitability for a mid-sized business?

Thina Cadierno: We are increasingly living in a world marked by turbulence. Twenty-five years ago, yes, we went through crises. What has changed today is their intensity, their rapid succession, and their deep impact. The second observation is that we have entered an era of multiple, compounding complexities. And finally, the imperative of speed has taken hold. An entrepreneur, a retailer, a business leader must now navigate operations against a wall built of three bricks: speed, repetition, and intensity. Commercial practices must therefore be continuously adapted, while respecting one rule that hasn't changed: you must serve your customers well and keep winning new ones, without let-up.

After spending many years in B2C, I now run a company that operates in B2B: our customers are retailers and professional clients who in turn serve their own customers — all facing the same challenges I just described.

The priority now is centered on customer, economic, and sustainable performance. That goal is the backbone of resilience and business growth, with customer experience as a means to that end. Nothing is more damaging than creating friction for a customer, or failing to adapt the relationship and solutions seamlessly. Eliminating friction and saving time is a real challenge. At Retif, with our 90 stores and omnichannel ecosystem, offering the right products, being accessible, welcoming customers well in our stores, and building a tailored solution for each professional is our priority — always keeping in mind that time is precious. These customer experience standards must be balanced against the pressure of our operating environment (overhead, costs) and the need to be profitable. Operational and service excellence is our anchor.

What defines Retif and gives it a competitive edge?

T.C: Retif is a company with over sixty-one years of history. It was founded by an entrepreneur, and we serve entrepreneurs and retailers. The size of our store network — 90 locations across Europe in five countries — allows us to stay close to our customers and maintain strong local roots. We have become a fully omnichannel retailer and launched, eleven years ago, the first marketplace in our sector, built with Mirakl. Through this platform, we offer 170,000 product references, available nearby. At Retif, you'll find everything you need to equip and set up your pharmacy, hair salon, restaurant, grocery store, clothing boutique, beauty bar... The directive I gave my teams is simple: never say no to a customer. Listen and find a solution.

How did Volubile.ai come into the picture? How did the collaboration start?

T.C: Our digital channels, marketplace, and store network are levers that allow us to address a wide range of professional needs. And our call center adds the extra layer of customer service that ties it all together. But we also have another unique asset: our customer database, with 2 million contacts, 450,000 of whom trust us on average each year. Our reactivation and loyalty potential is significant.

About 18 months ago, we launched a customer acquisition and loyalty plan built around four initiatives: implementing a customized CRM to sharpen relationship knowledge and personalization across commercial and marketing messaging; launching our Retif Pro+ loyalty program; renewing our product offering; and reinventing the in-store experience. We also expanded our presence on Instagram and TikTok and deployed a conversational agent called AIVA, an expert in store layout, to strengthen our effectiveness with retailers and public-sector clients.

In our model, 30% of sales happen digitally. The bulk is still closed in stores, a channel that remains central to our setup. In-store traffic has to be created — it's no longer organic. Without sustained effort and bold action, it drops mechanically and you become invisible. You have to give customers a reason to come in, and constantly reestablish Retif as a destination. A retailer facing a challenge should think: I'll go to Retif, they'll have the answer. And the time I spend making that trip will be worth it. That changes everything.

I already knew Stéphanie. When she founded Volubile.ai and explained to me what a conversational AI agent was, I was deep in thinking about the best way to reactivate customers and drive foot traffic back to our stores. So I told her I wanted to deploy an agent for outbound calling. We built and launched it in under three months and immediately got strong results: €1.2 million in incremental revenue.

We also assessed how our professional customers perceived the experience of being called by an AI agent. The reception was very positive. That outcome — which was critical — was made possible by the quality of the work put in by the teams involved: Retif's internal staff and Volubile's team, who worked extensively on the prompts, the natural flow of conversation, and the sales arguments. We also learned that one key to performance is knowing when to hand the call off to a live agent for a sale or more technical advice. That happens in an average of 0.14% of cases.

The pilot has since been scaled into a full operation and has already been rolled out in other countries, including Spain, since early 2026.

What other performance drivers have the early campaigns revealed?

T.C: Call timing matters. For food service or hospitality clients, it's far better to reach them before the lunch rush or dinner service. Calling during those windows would be tone-deaf — we're supposed to know our customers. The precision of the pitch and the offers is equally critical. For example, we now have a tailored tech offering to help retailers transition to electronic invoicing — a very timely issue. We plan to roll out Volubile.ai's agents across additional campaigns.

(The full interview is available in Les Cahiers de l'Expérience Client by En-Contact, issue #12.)

Cover photo © Retif