The Dream Getaway: How An AI-Powered IVA Can Help Your Customers Travel with Ease

It doesn’t get much better than going away on vacation. On the other hand, there’s not much worse than an airline, car rental company, or hotel that leaves you high and dry when you need them most.

When a traveler has a bad customer experience at any point during their trip, you can guarantee it’ll be just as memorable as a sunset stroll along the beach. Obstacles that impact the booking process or make changing itineraries more difficult can have a lasting impact on a company’s reputation.

People value their hard-earned trips, so they’re likely to take bad service more personally than usual.

Verint’s State of Digital Customer Experience Report 2024 found that 70 percent of people would switch to a competitor following a terrible customer experience, and 65 percent would warn friends and family off a company. It’s clear that travel companies simply can’t afford to deliver bad CX.

If you’re a travel brand, the secret to improving your customers’ journeys is to improve your customer journey. And you can do that by introducing artificial intelligence-powered solutions, such as an AI chatbot, which deliver outcomes that increase efficiency, productivity and ROI while also elevating CX.

Here are three common trip-planning scenarios that can be improved with the addition of Verint’s AI-powered bots.

Booking a Flight

Gone are the days when most people would head down to the local travel agent to book a flight or an entire vacation. While price is often the main driver of purchasing decisions, ease and convenience are important for consumers in any transaction.

Rather than relying on customers wading through the minefield of price comparison sites–not knowing whether the price includes baggage, a meal or even a seat–airlines can offer an automated alternative through Verint Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA).

On top of handling travel-related queries (more on that later), this bot operates across voice and digital channels, such as live chat or private messaging (think Messenger or WhatsApp) and does the searching for your customers.

If the IVA is connected to back-office systems, after entering a few details of who, where to and when you want to fly, it delivers a personalized quote specifically tailored to your customers’ plans. This capability makes the AI-powered bot more than just an issue resolver. It becomes a revenue generator while also containing customer conversations, which creates extra capacity for your contact center agents.

Changing a Booking

Ahead of travelling, there can be issues that arise which don’t require human interaction. In fact, it’s not always in the best interest of the traveler or brand for a customer to speak to an agent.

If an airline passenger wants to, for example, check the status of their flight, there are far more efficient and convenient methods than phoning a contact center.

Verint IVA can provide this service, ensuring first contact resolution and containing the conversation without escalation. The IVA can verify a passenger’s identity by confirming their flight details before acting on the request.

The bot works across multiple digital and voice channels, from live chat to social media and private messaging. So, no matter where a customer reaches out, they can get an update on their trip efficiently, with no need to involve a human agent.

When You Need a Live Agent, Now

Sometimes people really do need to speak to a live agent, and your brand needs to be able to swiftly make the transfer from the IVA without making the customer repeat themselves.

Let’s say a customer’s flight is delayed and rather than waiting for the passenger to arrive at the airport unaware of the issue, the airline sends a proactive update with the information.

The customer is now worried about missing their connecting flight and reaches out. The IVA offers the opportunity to rebook the connecting flight but, understandably, the customer is keen to speak to a human in what can be quite a stressful situation.

In the background, the Transfer Summary Bot has been monitoring the conversation. Using generative AI, it summarizes all relevant information about the interaction, ready for the Smart Transfer Bot to route the customer to the right agent with all relevant information.

These bots help both sides of the conversation. While the customer is stressed about the disruption to their travel plans, the bots combine to reduce the effort needed to resolve their issue. The conversation reaches the most suitable agent who’s equipped with the context required to ensure a swift and satisfying resolution.

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Improve Your Customers’ Journeys with CX Automation

Taking the scenic route can really improve a vacation–but not when you’re dealing with a travel agency or airline. Booking a trip or resolving an issue needs a swift journey from point A to point B with no surprises along the way.

Discover how Verint’s Open Platform can help you deliver the dream getaway.