How ecoATM reimagined customer support with AI at the front door.

ecoATM operates at the intersection of convenience and sustainability. Across the United States, nearly 7,000 kiosks sit inside familiar retail locations such as grocery stores, pharmacy chains, and dollar stores, offering people a simple way to sell their old phones for cash. Behind that simple transaction is a much larger system: millions of devices processed each year, and phones either sold for resale or responsibly recycled to keep hazardous materials out of landfills.

It’s a business built on physical interaction. Customers aren’t browsing from a laptop when they need help. More often, they’re standing in front of a kiosk, phone in hand, or driving to one nearby. When they have a question, they call.

As ecoATM expanded its support operation, one pattern became clear: support was scaling in lockstep with the business. More kiosks meant more customers. More customers meant more calls. And more calls meant more support staff.

Meeting customers where they are

The challenge wasn’t just volume, it was the nature of the volume.

A significant portion of inbound calls revolved around simple, repeatable questions—how much a phone was worth, where the nearest kiosk was, whether a device was accepted, or what would happen to customer data.

The result was a system where repetitive inquiries crowded out more urgent issues. Customers with time-sensitive issues, like a stalled transaction or a device stuck in a kiosk, were competing for attention with customers who needed basic information. Support reps, meanwhile, were stuck answering the same questions over and over again.

Designing for the moment customers call

ecoATM’s answer was not to replace its support operation, but to reshape the front door.

The company introduced a voice AI agent named Echo, designed to handle the most common customer inquiries before they ever reached a human agent. The focus was straightforward: start with the highest-volume, lowest-complexity interactions and solve them well.

The initial rollout centered on three core journeys: pricing devices, locating kiosks, and answering general questions. These were interactions that made up a large share of inbound demand and were well-suited for automation.

From the beginning, the experience was designed to feel natural and accessible. Customers don’t navigate menus or press buttons, they simply ask for what they need, while Echo guides them step by step, referencing ecoATM’s knowledge base.

What ultimately set Sierra apart wasn’t just the product, it was the philosophy behind it. As Michael Walzak, ecoATM’s VP of Customer Care, explained, “At the end of the day, we kept coming back to incentives. Sierra is incentivized to solve the problem, and payment is tied directly to resolution.”

That alignment showed up quickly in practice. In one case, Echo stayed on the phone with a first-time customer for more than 25 minutes, walking him step by step through the entire kiosk process, and even guiding him, turn by turn, over voice as he drove to the nearest kiosk.

As ecoATM scaled its use of their agent Echo, the team also began to see something unexpected: visibility. Conversations that once disappeared into a call queue were now structured, tagged, and measurable, revealing patterns they had never seen before. As Michael put it, “Before Sierra, we had no idea who was trying to reach us after hours or why. Now, we can actually see it and route it properly.”

The compounding effect

The impact was immediate, but it also reshaped the operation in deeper ways.

Within the first month, Echo was handling more than 30% of inbound calls—now stably in the mid-30% range, more than double what ecoATM expected. That translated into significant savings.

With repetitive calls handled upfront, support reps now spend their time on higher-value interactions. The work is more engaging, less draining, and attrition across BPO partners has dropped. In Michael's words, “Now what’s left requires more independent, higher-level thinking. The [reps] are happier and the customers are happier. It’s a better experience all around.”

Customers see it, too. Simple questions are answered instantly, while more complex issues reach human agents faster, and Echo is always available, even after hours.

At the same time, Sierra has unlocked a new layer of insight. ecoATM can now see what customers are asking for and where demand is growing, informing decisions far beyond customer care.

What started as a way to reduce call volume has become something more fundamental—helping ecoATM grow without letting support scale alongside it.