Lloyds digital and Table Joe: Testing digital innovation before entering the market

Beneficiary: Lloyds digital

Lloyds digital is an agency for the development of modern mobile applications, websites and software solutions for domestic and international clients. This energetic and innovative company based in the Istrian town of Labin has a unique culture in many ways. It employs 30 experts of various profiles, including UX/UI designers, database architects, software engineers, and performance optimization experts. With more than 10 years of industry experience, Lloyds digital delivers projects globally and has extensive experience in developing complex digital platforms and solutions. They are characterized by a high degree of digitalisation, both in the provision of services and in internal processes. They apply modern development methodologies and digital tools for project management, cooperation and quality control. They are the initiators of the international conference Digital Labin, partners of the largest Croatian and foreign agencies and winners of a number of domestic and foreign awards.

Challenge: Table Joe as an idea for a new product

A new digital product for restaurants, Table Joe, is a virtual assistant--chatbot with whom the text is communicated (chat), and its purpose is to facilitate and automate table reservations in restaurants across Croatia. This assistant would allow them to receive reservations automatically with minimal investment, potentially reducing the burden on employees and improving the guest experience. Before investing in such a new product for the market, Lloyds digital wants to check its technical feasibility and capacities, and get a clearer insight into possible implementation methods and related costs.

 Solution: Testing before investing in a new digital product

In order to get answers to these questions, Lloyds digital requested the Testing before investing in digital innovation service, which is available through the EDIH Adria consortium. Workshops were held with the expert team of EDIH Adria, with the aim of better understanding the idea and defining the key functionalities of the prototype to be tested. Lloyds digital has prepared the materials and technical resources needed to develop and test the prototype:

• wireframe chatbota with examples of typical questions and interactive buttons,
• preparing API calls for the booking process and communication through chatbot,
• detailed explanations and specifications of API calls.

Experts from Infobip made a demo version based on this chatbota, accessible via live chat channels.

 Prototype characteristics:

• Chatbot – virtual assistant Responds to queries based on predefined rules (rule-based) and keyword recognition
• It is available via live chat
• Allows users to quickly and easily find a restaurant that suits them and book a table in it at the desired time, without the need for phone calls, e-mails or waiting
• Fast and precise gives answers about available tables and dates, special offers, reservation status, etc.
• Responses based on data from the restaurant CRM system
• Supports communication at Croatian and English
• Available 0-24, every day of the week, regardless of restaurant opening hours
• It has an intuitive interactive interface
• It can be quickly and easily integrated into existing processes, and across multiple communication channels (web, WhatsApp, Viber)
• It can easily be replenished additional API calls, new categories and custom questions, depending on the specifics of the restaurant or changes in the offer.

Testing covered the basic steps in the process of booking a table in a restaurant:

1. Chatbot Asks the question "In which city do you want to eat?"
2. A set of predefined city options is displayed to the user via a button, with the option “more”.
3. In addition to selecting the button, the user has the option of free entry,
4. Chatbot then asks the question "What kitchen do you choose?"
5. Options are offered again via a button, with the option “more”.
6. Free entry remains supported at this stage,
7. In the booking process, the user additionally selects:

• date,
• number of guests,
• the desired date,
• (optional) special offer or predefined menu.

Testing demonstrated the technical feasibility of Table Joe, especially through integration with API systems to automate the booking process in restaurants. Examples from the test phase confirmed that key parts of communication can be successfully digitised and automated, with chatbot provide relevant information in real time.

 TBI Project Outcomes

In addition to the Table Joe prototype, EDIH Adria's expert team produced a final report for Lloyds digital as part of the Pre-Invest Testing service, which contains:

• Technical specifications chatbota – description of the potential system for Lloyds digital
• List of preconditions and phases of implementation
• EDIH Adria team recommendations regarding additional business case investigation
• Estimated cost of implementation‘It is a service that allows companies to test ideas for new products for the market with quality support – before investing significant time and money in them. Lloyds digital has many such ideas at all times, and in the case of Table Joe, we have gained valuable insights through a structured and guided process that we will use in our business.“  Domagoj Ostović, founder and CEO of Lloyds digital

Photos: Lloyds Digital