The applications for chatbots in the hospitality industry will only continue to grow – as demonstrated in examples ranging from Marriott’s Slack integration for business travelers to the Henn na Hotel’s robo-dinos.
There’s a reason Gartner made this prediction:
“By 2020, the average person will have more conversations with bots than with their spouse.”
Chatbots make life easier for your customers. They’re accessible anytime, they provide instant answers to questions, and they learn as they go. They’re a cool drink on a hot day for the customer who used to have to go through several engagement channels – website, email and then a live agent, for example – for a resolution to a problem or question.
As a hospitality provider, bots, in combination with machine learning, can also make your life easier, by creating opportunities to upsell based on customers’ profiles and histories. For a customer who had previously inquired about a waterfront suite, a bot could offer a coveted suite at a special discount during a specified time window.
Incorporating bots into your customer service mix doesn’t come without its challenges – as my colleague outlined in “To Bot or not to Bot – the Promise and Pitfalls.” But in this article, we’ll leave you with some of our favorite examples of innovative uses of the mighty chatbot for inspiration:
Casper
Can’t sleep? Created by mattress company Casper, Insomnobot-3000 (which is only available between 11 pm and 5 am) keeps insomniacs company by chatting about anything from Stranger Things to pizza to the latest World Cup results.
“Some nights, it’s just impossible to fall asleep, so I think Casper wanted to create something that’s a friend that keeps you up at night,” company VP Lindsay Kaplan told Venture Beat.
National Geographic
To support their new TV show “Genius,” featuring the life and works of Albert Einstein, National Geographic launched a Facebook Messenger bot where users could ‘chat’ with Einstein.
“Rather than having the campaign speak for Einstein, we wanted Einstein to speak for himself,” Layne Harris, 360i’s VP, Head of Innovation Technology, said to GeoMarketing. “This provides a more intimate and immersive experience for users to really connect.”
Duolingo
Learning a new language can be intimidating – enter Duolingo’s Chatbot language tutor. From speaking, writing and listening, the bot helps the user practice in a safe, risk-free environment – at any time of the day, for free.
