Qualimero×Elektroheizung-Direkt
Success Story · Electric Heating

How Elektroheizung-Direkt automates more than 1,000 heating consultations per month with AI expert Eva

Advice-intensive products, a hotline limited to two daily time slots, a team of four: how the Saxon manufacturer automated its product consultation across webchat, WhatsApp and voice.

15×

Return on Investment

hotline savings plus attributed chat revenue vs. Qualimero costs

1,000+

Conversations per month

webchat, WhatsApp and voice combined

11 sec

Avg. webchat response time

Executive Summary

Heating consultation at expert level, across three channels.

In the summer of 2025, Elektroheizung-Direkt faced a structural capacity problem: highly advice-intensive products, a hotline limited to two time slots per day and a team of four heading into the heating season from October. Around 60 percent of buyers arrive on mobile devices, and a WhatsApp channel was missing.

Together with Qualimero, the company implemented the AI heating expert Eva. Nine months later she answers around 1,000 conversations per month across webchat, WhatsApp and voice, in 11 seconds on average. Every euro invested returns 15 euros in value, from saved hotline time and attributed chat revenue.

The client

A family-run manufacturer with three sales pillars.

The Lucht LHZ group is a family-run manufacturer of electric heating systems from Saxony, based in Burgstädt and Hartmannsdorf near Chemnitz. Its main brand is Technotherm; as an OEM, the company supplies more than 140 dealers in 32 countries. The group has grown from 65 to 80 employees in recent years, with revenue up 6 percent year over year.

Elektroheizung-Direkt.de has been the third pillar since 2019, alongside the manufacturer division and direct sales: a B2C web shop built by e-commerce manager Rafael Frommhold. It sells the full range from storage heaters to infrared and smart units, with the own brands Evamo and areo as well as Technotherm, in a price range from 279 to 2,932 euros.

What is being sold is not the storage heater itself, but the certainty that the chosen unit fits the existing electrical circuit.

80

employees in the Lucht group

140+

dealers in 32 countries (manufacturer)

33,200

visits / month (April 2026)

€279 – €2,932

shop price range

Evamo · areo · Technotherm

own brands

The starting point

Three structural challenges

01

Consultation intensity meets a limited hotline

"Electric heaters are a very advice-intensive product", says e-commerce manager Rafael Frommhold. "During the season you basically cannot keep up." The typical inquiry is a multi-dimensional expert question about room size, year of construction, circuit protection and the choice between storage and infrared technology. Such inquiries require sizing knowledge, awareness of the load on individual circuits and the patience to clarify all of it in a chat with a first-time buyer.

Against that stood a team of four with a hotline limited to two time slots per day (10 to 12 and 1 to 3 pm), in a season running from September to February. Whoever researched in the evening, which is the standard case, reached someone the next morning at the earliest.

02

Mobile buyers without a suitable channel

Around 60 percent of buyers arrive on mobile devices. Whoever configures a 2,000-euro unit on the sofa in the evening does not write an email but expects a chat channel. WhatsApp, however, was not connected; even complaint photos went back and forth by email. For a mobile-driven shop, that is a measurable conversion loss.

03

A failed first AI attempt

Elektroheizung-Direkt had already tested a chatbot around two years earlier and abandoned the attempt. "Some cheap AI that tells you rubbish makes no sense", says Rafael Frommhold.

The bar for the second attempt was correspondingly high: a wrong recommendation in this industry means a cold living room, a tripped fuse or, in the worst case, a liability question. An AI solution therefore had to verifiably reach the level of a heating expert.

The approach

Five design principles of the implementation.

The kickoff took place on September 1, 2025. The rollout proceeded in stages from webchat through WhatsApp to voice.

Domain exclusivity.

Eva is trained like an electrician specializing in heating technology. Multi-loop accuracy checks guard against incorrect advice.

Done-for-you instead of build-it-yourself.

Qualimero builds, maintains and optimizes the solution. No logic tree has to be maintained in the shop, and there is no learning curve for the team.

Multi-channel without friction.

Webchat from September, WhatsApp and voice from November: one AI across three channels, with the same answer quality.

Modular rollout, revenue first.

Product consultation in the webchat launched at go-live; service and voice followed once consultation ran stably. Instead of a big-bang launch, the rollout proceeded in stages.

Tracking and KPI reports from day one.

Tracked links and weekly KPI reports ran from the start, including an AI-versus-no-AI comparison for the manufacturer division.

The impact

Three effects after nine months of live operation.

Consultation capacity is decoupled from team size

Eva handles around 1,000 conversations per month plus roughly 15 fully automated calls per day, at the level of a heating expert and through peak season.

The economics are verifiable and conservatively calculated

Saved hotline effort and attributed chat revenue already add up to 15 times the cost. The full conversion impact becomes causally measurable in the 2026/27 heating season.

A clear line of responsibility between AI and trade professionals

Installation and commissioning stay with the electrician. The delimitation is documented and traceable in every case.

Eva live as webchat on elektroheizung-direkt.de

Eva live on elektroheizung-direkt.de: consultation for a 60 m² old building with storage heaters, with concrete model recommendations, wattage calculation and pricing in the shop brand context.

If you want consultation at this level running in your shop too:

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The numbers

Values from nine months of live operation.

Conversation and topic data cover the full heating season. Conversion tracking has been running since May 2026; the full season becomes causally measurable in 2026/27.

Eva

Eva

AI heating expert

  • Scope

    Product consultation, service, voice

  • Live since

    September 2025

  • Channels

    Webchat, WhatsApp, voice

  • Languages

    100+

  • Return on Investment

    €15 per €11

  • Conversations per month

    1,000+2

  • Conversations since go-live

    4,1443

  • Avg. webchat response time

    11 sec4

  • Customer satisfaction

    7.8 / 105

  • Topic distribution

    53.5% consultation · 18.9% sales · 12.7% support6

  • Voice channel

    ~15 calls / day7

  • Chat revenue in the tracking window

    €15,8178

  1. 1500 min/month hotline volume × €0.50/min + attributed chat revenue, divided by Qualimero costs
  2. 2webchat, WhatsApp and voice combined, steady state 2026
  3. 3webchat plus WhatsApp, cumulative since September 2025
  4. 4measured across all conversations
  5. 5chat-end survey
  6. 6classified via conversation analysis
  7. 7fully automated, since the November launch
  8. 8May to June 2026, webchat plus WhatsApp

What Elektroheizung-Direkt evaluated

Five criteria. All met.

Elektroheizung-Direkt had already invested in a chatbot once. Before the second investment, a clear evaluation matrix was on the table.

“First, you come from the industry; second, a small team of specialists; third, quality over speed. That was the order that mattered for us. AI is going to help massively here.”

Rafael Frommhold

Rafael Frommhold

E-Commerce Manager, Lucht LHZ Group

Elektroheizung-Direkt

Transferability

Heaters are bought in the evening, not between 10 and 12.

A heater is bought on a Sunday evening when the living room is cold, not during hotline hours. Whoever gets no answer in that moment switches to a competitor; with units of up to 2,932 euros, every unanswered inquiry is a directly quantifiable loss.

For the Lucht group, Elektroheizung-Direkt is also the blueprint: the B2C shop is followed by the manufacturer division with 140 dealers in 32 countries, the new B2B brand and direct sales. AI is being built here as infrastructure, not as a single chatbot.

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How Elektroheizung-Direkt automates more than 1,000 heating consultations per month with AI expert Eva