OFweekRobotEditor’s Note: www.tnooz.com recently published an article titled Why travel brands should be investing in chatbots, now. The article strongly recommends that today’s travel companies adopt chatbots to respond to customers in order to increase orders, improve customer service, and more.
In the world of consumer marketing, it’s normal to pay attention to where consumers are moving, how they spend their money, and where they focus. This usually requires hiring a team of eloquent marketing representatives to track hot spots or create hot spots, all in order to broaden the channels of communication with consumers and increase their influence.
However, as technology seeps into every bit of life, these communication channels are also changing rapidly, including travel plans. The problem is that the travel industry is lagging behind its own customers in embracing the digital revolution, so while the majority of customers are communicating via social media, messaging software and bots, travel companies haven’t transformed.
So they miss a lot!
The recent news from United and Delta is a sign that the travel industry isn’t communicating well with customers. The latest research from Eyefor Travel and Traveler shows that travel companies don’t value information about customers on Facebook. Most companies don’t respond to customers via Facebook within a week, and they’re less likely to have chatbots.
The service of a small number of robots does not play a critical role in the customer journey. They seem like a gimmick that doesn’t fit into an overall digital strategy.
lack of service
Travel companies may not know that customers want customer service more than better e-commerce.
Passengers can use Facebook to communicate with airlines in times of crisis, and the possibility of chatbots will provide comfort to customers and reduce some of the incidents that can go viral on YouTube.
The most popular travel software is Booking.com and TripAdvisor, with millions of users. But the popular social media and messaging software has 1.2 billion users! The use of social media and messaging software is estimated to have reached 40% in 2016.
So travel companies must have a top-notch social media strategy, and chatbots are at the heart of it.
digital focus
Travel companies are working hard to make that happen. Maybe they are too focused on the wrong technical implementation? For example, the rental car industry should not focus too much on autonomous vehicles, but should improve information and communication platforms.
Some brands like Icelandair, Voyages-sncf.com have made thousands of bookings via chatbots on Facebook, so they are also a typical case study in the above report.
One more question, how do you get started? The good news is that installing a simple chatbot doesn’t cost a fortune, and now there are more and more vendors, and natural language processing is much more complex. Installing a chatbot costs between 15,000-50,000 euros, which is not a huge amount for any airline, which now spends hundreds of thousands of euros a year on digital products.
However, travel companies need a foundation for data collection, as well as resources to monitor, test, and support robots. Beyond that, travel companies can go astray when it comes to chatbots.
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