GirikSMS Chatbot for Airlines - Benefits and Use Cases
Disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and smart automation are transforming the way customers interact with airlines and online travel agents. Automated interactions with AI-powered chatbots are paving the way for an enhanced customer experience, greater customer satisfaction, and reduced operational costs. The key lies in personalizing the customer experience and offering assistance at the right time, throughout the customer journey - literally.
What are GirikSMS Chatbots for Airlines?
GirikSMS Salesforce Chatbot for Airlines is a conversational tool that interacts with customers in real-time, just like a human agent. It allows them to book tickets, modify bookings, check in to flights, track flight status, answer FAQs, and even assist them with planning their trip.
In recent years, the adoption of chatbots in the travel industry has witnessed a significant rise. This is because customers prefer everyday use messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and SMS to interact and manage their travel, instead of having to wait in queue over a phone call. 2-way text messaging with chatbots is convenient, queueless, and always available. It's no surprise therefore that many airlines around the world are embracing the disruptive technology of conversational AI-powered chatbots as a part of their customer experience strategy.
Benefits of GirikSMS Chatbot for Airlines:
Fast and convenient
Customers don't have to deal with back-and-forth emails or endure long wait times over the phone to resolve their concerns. With GirikSMS Chatbot for Airlines, customers can get their queries answered in seconds via an interface they are completely familiar with- chat. According to Salesforce research, 69% of customers prefer interacting with chatbots because of their ability to provide instant responses. In other words – zero wait times.
Higher customer satisfaction
GirikSMS Chatbot for Airlines can deliver a more engaging and responsive customer experience compared to traditional customer service channels such as phone or email. According to a customer service study conducted by eDigital, messaging-based customer support had the highest satisfaction levels at 73%, while email and phone-based support stood at 61% and 44% respectively. This was because customers can multitask while chatting and messaging offered a real-time 2-way conversation.
Time-saving and scalability
With the conversational capability of GirikSMS Chatbot, airlines can now reach more customers faster, allowing them to scale customer service quickly. An issue that earlier took hours to resolve over a phone call can now be resolved instantly. Airlines can now be equipped to handle a high volume of customer requests and can go live in a matter of hours.
SLA and cost-reduction
GirikSMS Chatbot for Airlines does not just reduce the response and resolution times for customer queries. It can also have a direct impact on airline SLAs, improving them from hours to minutes. GirikSMS Chatbot for Airlines can deal with thousands of customer queries at once, allowing airlines to scale their customer service without the need for additional investment in human resources, translating to significant cost savings for airlines.
Now that we have covered the benefits of GirikSMS Chatbot for Airlines, let’s dive deeper into what they can do. Here are some use cases where airlines can use them to enhance the customer experience.
Search and book flights
The most obvious goal of an airline chatbot would be to simplify and accelerate the flight search and booking process. Instead of scouring through countless flight options, customers can simply initiate a conversation with GirikSMS Chatbot for Salesforce, specifying their travel dates, source, destination, and airline preferences, and GirikSMS Chatbot will automatically find them the ideal flight. Customers can then complete the booking and make payment right within the chat, enabling a frictionless booking in minutes.
Cancel or Modify a Booking
Customers don’t want to wait in queue when they want to cancel or modify a booking. GirikSMS Chatbot for airlines can automate cancellation by understanding customer requests in natural language and responding by following a predefined authentication workflow to proceed with the cancellation.
Modification of travel itinerary can be a pain for passengers. Just the idea of having to wait in a queue for long periods over a phone call causes stress. Just like with cancellation, GirikSMS Chatbot for airlines can ease the burden on call center agents and save passengers unnecessary hassle. It can verify the passenger and flight details and approve the change quickly.
Answer FAQs
A significant volume of call center queries involves basic customer questions. Answering repetitive queries is not only an inefficient way of working for agents, it’s also frustrating. GirikSMS Chatbots can answer routine customer queries quickly and encourage them to find answers themselves without any wait times. And in case of complex queries, they can route the conversation to an agent.
Check-in
Over the last few years, many airlines have given an option to passengers to do an off-airport check-in via their mobile device. Checking-in via GirikSMS Chatbot benefits both passengers and airlines in several ways, most importantly saving time for both passengers as well as airline staff.
With GirikSMS Chatbot for airlines, customers don’t have to wait in queues for hours any longer, let alone the added stress of whether they will make it to the boarding gate in time or not. This translates to reduced airport manpower and associated costs, and reduced printing infra and consumable costs, saving time and money for both.
Flight tracking and updates
One of the most frustrating and often stressful experiences for passengers is waiting to catch a flight. They must constantly check if it's on time, delayed, or canceled. GirikSMS Chatbot for airlines can eliminate these problems by sending automated updates to passengers about their flight status right on their mobile devices.
Upselling personalized offers
One of the key advantages of GirikSMS Chatbot for airlines is its ability to upsell additional products and services to existing customers.
Based on the passenger’s profile, GirikSMS Chatbot for airlines can offer personalized deals tailored to each customer's individual needs and travel details. For instance, offering in-flight meals and entertainment for a traveling family, or upselling lounge access if their flight is delayed. This opens up revenue opportunities for airlines while providing a more enjoyable experience for their passengers, translating to greater customer loyalty.
Baggage claims and refunds
After missing a flight, losing luggage is perhaps the biggest stress-causing factor for passengers. And the stress doesn’t end there. Retrieving the lost baggage can be an extremely cumbersome process. With GirikSMS Chatbot, airlines can streamline this process by giving them real-time updates on the location of their baggage, thereby calming down an already stressful situation.
GirikSMS Chatbot for airlines can even provide guided assistance to passengers to fill up a baggage claim form, as well as request refunds, all within the chat conversation. With GirikSMS Chatbot for airlines, customers don't have to wait for hours on the phone listening to piped music!
Girikon, GirikSMS Chatbot for airlines can transform customer service for both airlines and passengers. If you’d like to check in and create a conversational customer service experience for your passengers, book a demo today.
