As organizations continue to modernize customer service operations, AI-powered automation is becoming a key driver of efficiency and business growth. Valrhona, the French premium chocolate manufacturer, has partnered with Esker to automate its order management processes, enabling faster order processing, improved accuracy, and enhanced customer service across its international operations. Within three months of implementation, the company automated 95% of customer orders received via email, significantly reducing manual workloads and streamlining order-to-cash operations.
Valrhona processes more than 100,000 customer orders annually across 120 countries through multiple channels, including email, phone, and online forms. Before deploying Esker's AI-powered Order Management solution, nearly 90% of these orders required manual processing, creating operational challenges during seasonal demand peaks.
By integrating Esker's AI automation platform with its SAP environment, Valrhona has automated order capture, extracted order data, and streamlined processing, enabling customer service teams to focus on higher-value customer interactions rather than repetitive administrative tasks.
The implementation has delivered measurable operational improvements within a short timeframe. Valrhona now processes emailed customer orders approximately three times faster, reducing average processing time to 46 seconds while cutting manual data entry errors by a factor of four.
The platform also provides improved visibility into service-level agreements (SLAs), order volumes, communication channels, and automated order recognition, allowing customer service teams to manage operations more efficiently across international markets.
Following the initial deployment, the solution has been rolled out across Valrhona's subsidiaries in the United States, Dubai, and Japan. The phased implementation enabled the company to expand automation while allowing internal teams to independently manage the international rollout.
"Esker has allowed us to shift our approach: We now use the time we've saved to anticipate needs, follow up with and better track our customers' activity. From the beginning, Esker really listened to us and was able to quickly adapt to our needs. The implementation was smooth and we made progress without wasting time."
— Perrine Guironnet, Head of Customer Services at Valrhona
The partnership demonstrates how AI-powered order management can improve customer service while increasing operational efficiency. By automating repetitive processes and enhancing visibility into order workflows, Valrhona has strengthened its ability to support professional artisans, distributors, and global customers with faster, more reliable service.
As manufacturers continue investing in AI-driven business process automation, intelligent order management solutions are expected to play a growing role in improving customer experience, operational resilience, and sustainable business growth.
Valrhona has been a partner to flavor professionals since 1922 and a pioneer in setting the standard in the world of chocolate. Today, it defines itself as a company whose mission — "together, let's do good things with good food" — expresses the strength of its commitment. Together with its colleagues, chefs and cocoa growers, Valrhona imagines the best of chocolate to create a fair and sustainable cocoa industry and inspire gastronomy that tastes good, looks good and does good.
Every day, Valrhona is driven by a determination to build direct, long-term relationships with producers, seek out chocolate's next innovation and share expertise. Valrhona works with chefs to support skills and craftsmanship, guiding them on their quest for a unique identity by constantly pushing back creativity's boundaries.
Esker is a global cloud platform built to unlock strategic value for finance and customer service professionals, and strengthen collaboration between companies by automating the cash conversion cycle. Esker's solutions incorporate technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to drive increased productivity, enhanced visibility, reduced fraud risk, and improved collaboration with customers, suppliers and internally. Esker operates in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific with global headquarters in Lyon, France, and U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin.
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