Mess(aging) with chatbots
Chatbots have been around for a while where artificial intelligence (AI), and automation have already been introduced earlier in various other industries. The hospitality industry though, has been reluctant to accept this new technology; largely because of the fear of losing that ‘human touch’ its guests are accustomed to. The recent COVID-19 pandemic however, where hotel employees and guests are required to maintain social distancing, pushed the case for integrating chatbots into customer service systems.
As of now, Radisson Blu offers its guests a chatbot named Edward at its Edwardian Hotels, Ivy advises guests at Hilton, Sheraton, or Holiday Inn hotels, and Rose is the seductive sounding chatbot personality at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, who has a rather flirtatious tone with her guests. Marriot on the other hand has several chatbots, among which are the Aloft’s Chatboir and MC. Aloft in fact, introduced the first generation Botlr, a robotic butler way back in 2014 as a pilot program to allow front desk associates to respond more immediately to guest needs.
These new "employees" are either integrated into the hotel's own website or app with artificial intelligence or can be reached at any time via messenger services such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. Guests can ask the Chatbots questions about the hotel or order room service 24 hours a day. Not only do they have easy to remember names, they will always sound friendly because their answers are pre-programmed.
However, chatbots do not yet have an answer for everything. (Mind you, that can also be the case with an actual person or a live support agent). The point here been, when it comes to providing a meaningful response, the chatbots are unable to react to specific issues. That’s because most of today’s automated messaging platforms on the market today are mainly designed to understand what a user is asking for – what is referred to as intent recognition.
The result is that many of these virtual agents take directions but struggle to hold a conversation. For introverts, who dislike interacting with other people, the perfect solution perhaps? On a more serious note, when chatbots fail to offer a clear path to resolving a problem, it can cause frustration and anger. That’s when customers find live chats with humans to be more effective in solving their issues or taking care of their needs.
When a chatbot sends a customer back to where he / she had just been, a cycle of frustration creeps in. This, ultimately, can lead to the customer ignoring the chatbot altogether and opting to call customer service instead - the very thing the chatbot was designed to prevent.
Arahoz Noorhem is an educator who teaches English as a foreign language. A passion for music, bird watching, photography and an intrepid traveler.
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