A mechanic who has to step away from a bike three times an hour to answer the phone. At Stella Fietsen, that's a thing of the past: digital assistant Stella recognises the caller, checks CycleSoftware in real time, and now handles more than a third of all calls entirely on her own.
Who answers the phone when the mechanic has his hands on an e-bike and the sales advisor is helping a customer at the counter? At Stella Fietsen, one of the largest e-bike retailers in the Netherlands with 13 locations, between 500 and 750 calls came in every day. Repair status updates, appointments, orders, opening hours. During the lunch break and on Saturday afternoons the phone went unanswered, and many callers simply tried again later.
The challenge
All customer information at Stella Fietsen lives in CycleSoftware: customer records, repair orders, purchases and workshop schedules. When someone called, a staff member had to ask for everything and look it all up — even though the answer was already in the system. The goal: an assistant that recognises every caller immediately, handles the most common questions independently, and only involves the shop when a human is genuinely needed.
Listen first, build second
Before anything was built, Ipster analysed more than 5,000 existing phone calls from Stella Fietsen. Why do cyclists call, at what times, and which questions keep coming up? That baseline measurement determined what Stella needed to handle first — not what is technically possible, but what Stella's customers actually ask.
The solution: Stella
On 1 June 2026, Stella went live at the Assen location.
Direct integration with CycleSoftware
The heart of the solution is the integration between Ipster and CycleSoftware — both reading and writing. As soon as a cyclist calls, Stella recognises the phone number and opens the file: the customer record, open repair orders and purchase history. Exactly the information a staff member would consult, but ready the moment the call begins.
What Stella handles independently
- Repair status enquiries. Cyclists who want to know whether their bike is ready get an immediate answer based on the current workshop status
- Booking, changing and cancelling workshop appointments. Stella enters the appointment directly in CycleSoftware, at the right location
- Opening hours per location. All locations, always up to date
- Logging callback requests. If a question can't be answered immediately, a complete callback request is created in the file, with the context of the call included
- Sending SMS confirmations. After an appointment is made, the cyclist receives a confirmation on their phone
Transferring calls with context
Not every question is for Stella. A cyclist who wants advice on a new e-bike belongs with an advisor in the showroom; an insurance matter goes to the right line. Stella transfers the call and leaves a note in the file, so the staff member doesn't have to start the conversation from scratch.
Also via chat
The same knowledge is available through the chat on the website. Cyclists who prefer typing to calling get answers from the same CycleSoftware file.
Getting better every week, with data on the table
Going live with an assistant is the beginning, not the end point. Ipster analyses Stella's calls every week: which questions does she handle well, where does she get stuck, and which topics are coming up? That analysis goes to Stella Fietsen as a report and is discussed in a regular meeting. Every finding becomes a concrete improvement to the assistant.
It works. In the first pilot weeks Stella handled 11% of calls entirely on her own. By mid-July 2026 that figure stands at 35%, and the shared goal with Stella Fietsen is to exceed half.
Results (as of July 2026)
- 35% of calls handled fully autonomously, up from 11% in the first pilot weeks
- 70% of callers recognised immediately by phone number, with their CycleSoftware file pulled up straight away
- More than 1,100 calls answered since the go-live on 1 June, including during lunch breaks and outside opening hours
- Appointments, leads and call notes recorded directly in CycleSoftware, with no double entry
- Weekly reporting and fine-tuning, so the result improves every week
Following the pilot in Assen, Stella is rolling out to the other locations.
