How BOHSE Heizungsbau automated 60% of its calls without losing the personal touch

The customer

BOHSE Heizungsbau from the region is known for one thing: when there's an emergency, they're there. The family business, now in its third generation and managed by Jörg Suhlmann, has built up an impressive reputation over decades for lightning-fast response times and personal service. Whether it's installing new systems, regular maintenance, or the dreaded emergency service on a freezing cold winter evening, the team is the first point of contact for private and business customers alike when it comes to warmth and reliability.

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The company's philosophy has always been: proximity to customers, fast help, personal contact persons. They know their regular customers by name and often know which heating system is in the basement by the second ring. This personal touch has made BOHSE great. But success brought with it a challenge: the phones simply wouldn't stop ringing.

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The problem: when availability becomes a burden

On an average working day, BOHSE Heizungsbau received over 150 calls. Every single day. Appointment requests for annual maintenance, technical queries about ongoing projects, emergencies due to broken heating systems, status updates on orders, general questions about funding opportunities—everything came through the same lines to the office. The small team, which had to write quotes, create invoices, and coordinate the technicians' assignments in addition to answering calls, was under constant stress.

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The situation was stressful for everyone involved. Constant interruptions made it practically impossible to focus on work. No sooner had someone immersed themselves in a calculation than the phone rang. In the middle of an important customer meeting, the second line rang. Employees jumped back and forth between different tasks all day long without ever really getting into a productive workflow. This not only led to mistakes and inefficiency, but also to enormous mental exhaustion at the end of each working day.

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There was another problem: important issues got lost in the flood of calls. An emergency that actually needed to be dealt with immediately ended up in the same queue as a simple appointment request for maintenance in three months' time. When things got particularly busy – typically on Monday mornings or after work, when many customers were at home – callbacks were left unanswered. Some customers tried several times, but repeatedly only reached the voicemail. This led to frustration on both sides: customers felt they weren't being heard, and the team had a permanent guilty conscience about the calls they simply couldn't handle.

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The atmosphere in the office increasingly suffered from this constant tension. What had once been enjoyable – direct customer contact, helping people, personal conversations – became more and more of a burden. The managing director faced a real dilemma: personal availability was a central part of BOHSE's corporate identity and recipe for success. Customers appreciated exactly that. But things couldn't go on like this without permanently damaging either the quality of the work or the well-being of the employees.

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“We wanted to be there for our customers, but not at the expense of our employees,” recalls the managing director. "There had to be a solution that could do both: provide good customer service and at the same time give our team some breathing space again. But a run-of-the-mill hotline with a waiting loop and keypad menu was out of the question for us. That wouldn't have suited us."

The solution: an AI assistant with a human face

Together with bakedwith, BOHSE Heizungsbau developed an AI telephone assistant that works fundamentally differently from classic hotline systems. The goal was clear: to improve availability, relieve the team, and maintain the personal touch that defines BOHSE. The technical implementation had to disappear into the background and bring the human component to the fore.

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Development began with an intensive analysis phase. What types of calls come in? Which of them are real emergencies, which are routine questions? Who is currently responsible for what? How do the internal processes work? All this information was systematically recorded and processed in order to train the AI optimally. This involved not only technical information about heating systems, but above all the language, tone of voice, and working methods of BOHSE itself.

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This is how a call to BOHSE works today: When the team has their hands full, a personal message from Jörg Suhlmann comes on after a few seconds. No anonymous computer voice, no hold music, just the familiar, authentic voice of the managing director. He explains the situation: "Hello, this is Jörg Suhlmann. We are currently very busy and in meetings. To save you from having to call several times and to ensure that we can still take your request immediately, I have set up an intelligent assistant. She will now speak with you, understand your request in detail, and ensure that we get back to you as soon as possible.“

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This personal introduction was the breakthrough. In the first test phase, when the AI took over the calls without warning, many customers were irritated or even annoyed. Some hung up immediately, others became impatient and wanted to speak to ”a real person." The feedback was clear: the technology itself worked well, but it lacked acceptance. It was only when the managing director built this personal bridge and explained the context that the mood changed completely. Customers understood that this was a solution to their advantage – they no longer had to call several times or wait on hold forever, but their request was immediately recorded and forwarded.

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After this brief announcement, the AI takes over the conversation. And this is where another important difference to traditional voice menus lies: there is no rigid “Press 1 for emergency service, 2 for appointments” or similar. Instead, the AI conducts a natural conversation. It asks about the customer's concern, asks specific questions if something is unclear, and can react flexibly to a wide variety of situations. For customers, it feels like a normal phone call – except that there is a very well-informed digital assistant on the other end.

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The AI was intensively trained with specific information from BOHSE Heizungsbau. It knows the most common customer inquiries and their context: What does it mean when someone says “the heating isn't getting warm”? What additional information is needed? Is it an emergency or can it wait until tomorrow? It understands internal processes and responsibilities: Who takes care of maintenance appointments? Who is the right contact person for technical questions about heat pumps? Who coordinates emergency service calls? And it speaks the language of the company – friendly, down-to-earth, solution-oriented, without coming across as too formal or too casual.

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Depending on the issue, the AI can respond differently. It can answer simple, frequently asked questions directly: opening hours, service areas, basic information about different heating systems, maintenance procedures, or initial troubleshooting tips for minor problems. For appointment requests, it can suggest available time slots and make preliminary arrangements so that the office only has to confirm. Particularly important: it can recognize emergencies and prioritize them accordingly. If someone calls because their heating has completely failed in the middle of winter and there are small children in the house, the AI understands the urgency and marks the request accordingly. It forwards more complex inquiries that require expert advice or individual solutions to the right person in the team in a structured manner.

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A central component of the system is automatic documentation. Every conversation is transcribed in real time, i.e., converted into text. The AI uses this to create a compact summary with the most important information: who called, what the issue is, how urgent it is, and what background information was provided. From this, it derives specific action items—i.e., what to do next—and automatically transfers all of this to BOHSE's CRM system. This means that when an employee arrives at the office in the morning or returns after a long customer appointment, they can see a structured overview of all calls that have come in in the meantime at a glance. No more illegible handwritten notes, no more long voicemails that have to be listened to first, no more information lost because it was only passed on verbally.

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Depending on the nature of the request, customers are then contacted via WhatsApp, email, or a traditional callback. A customer who wants to make an appointment for annual maintenance receives a WhatsApp message with suggested dates. If there is a technical query, the responsible specialist calls back personally. An emergency is immediately forwarded to the technician on duty. The system is flexible enough to choose the appropriate communication channel for each situation.

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An important aspect from a business perspective: the cost model is transparent and calculable. BOHSE pays around 20 cents per call processed. No monthly basic fees for telephone systems, no expensive licenses, no hidden costs. With an average of 90 automated calls per day, this amounts to around 18 euros per day or around 400 euros per month. In comparison, the office team previously spent at least four to five hours per day on these routine calls. Even based on conservative estimates, the system is therefore not only an organizational improvement, but also an economic one.

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The results: More peace and quiet, better service

The figures speak for themselves: Today, around 60 percent of all calls are answered automatically and intelligently pre-sorted. The office team saves around four to five hours every day, which they can now invest in value-adding activities. Since its introduction, not a single emergency has slipped through the net – intelligent prioritization ensures that urgent matters receive the right attention immediately.

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Customers are also pleasantly surprised. They no longer have to call multiple times, they don't get stuck in queues, and their concerns are dealt with promptly. The average processing time has decreased and customer satisfaction has increased.

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One office employee reports: "I was skeptical at first. I thought customers wanted to talk to people, not machines. But customers often don't even notice that it's AI – and when they do, they tend to think it's cool. My job has changed for the better: I now do the work I was actually hired to do instead of answering phones all day."

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What we've learned

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The human touch is crucial. Jörg Suhlmann's personal message makes all the difference between rejection and acceptance. It builds trust and makes callers feel like they're not being dismissed. This small human touch is the key to perceiving technology as an improvement.

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Maintain control instead of total automation. At BOHSE, the team decides for itself when the AI is activated. On quiet days, they answer all calls themselves. This flexibility greatly increases acceptance – it doesn't feel like a replacement, but like an intelligent tool.

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Good processes are the foundation. Before the technology comes in, it must be clear: Who is responsible for what? Who needs what information? At BOHSE, a lot of time was invested in process analysis. This effort has paid off many times over, because only with clear processes can AI assign and prioritize tasks in a meaningful way.

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Training is a marathon. The first few weeks were spent intensively on improvements. Real conversations showed where the AI still needed to learn. Today, everything is running smoothly, but it takes patience at the beginning.

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Automation can make service more personal. Because the team now has more time and peace of mind, they can engage much more intensively with customers in the really important conversations. The technology has created space for more humanity, not less.

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Facing a similar challenge?

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Is your team drowning in calls, emails, or inquiries? Do constant interruptions make it impossible to concentrate on work, leaving important things undone? At the same time, do you want to maintain the personal touch that your customers value?

That's exactly our specialty. We don't develop one-size-fits-all solutions, but tailor-made systems that fit your company, your processes, and your culture. Systems that preserve your strengths and remedy your weaknesses. Systems that your team will love because they really make everyday work better.

Let's talk about your specific situation in a non-binding conversation.

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