The use of chatbots in the South African tourism and hospitality industry has been lagging behind the rest of the world. However, industry experts believe it could be one of the answers that significantly improves businesses’ customer experiences.
Chatbots refer to a computer programme designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.
“Overall, we believe that adopting chatbots in South Africa's tourism and hospitality industry can play a pivotal role in enhancing customer engagement, automating routine tasks, and ultimately driving business growth. While specific market data on the chatbot industry’s value and size in South Africa may not be readily available, its potential for growth and positive impact on the industry is substantial,” Stewart Smith, MD of MEA at Sojern, told Tourism Update.
Globally, in 2022, the global chatbot market was estimated at US$21.7bn, and it is anticipated to reach US$60bn in 2028, with a compounded annual growth rate of 18.41%, according to a report release by financial news website Benzinga this month.
Smith said the hospitality industry’s customer experience would receive several major benefits if it started to employ chatbots on its websites.
“From a hotel's perspective, chatbots can significantly enhance the guest experience by providing instant responses to enquiries, assisting with bookings, and offering personalised recommendations. They can operate around the clock, providing a seamless and efficient way to engage with potential customers and guests,” Smith explained.
He further added that Sojern, a leading travel marketing platform designed to boost growth and profitability for the travel industry, continuously aimed to improve its offerings and, as such, had recently acquired VenueLytics – a fully integrated guest experience platform serving independent hotels, resorts, chains and casinos.
“With VenueLytics, we have expanded our capabilities to engage customers through a diverse multichannel network. This network includes SMS, email, WiFi, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, ChatBot, Alexa, Google Home, and other social media and third-party apps. This strategic move empowers Sojern to leverage cutting-edge tools in Generative AI to drive and optimise booking value for hotels,” Smith said.
An industry example
“City Lodge Hotels has been using a chatbot on its website for over five years. It is very responsive to customer queries and we receive accurate reporting from our service provider,” Neda Smith, Divisional Director of IT at City Lodge Hotels told Tourism Update.
Instead of AI-generated responses, the hotel group employs real humans to respond to queries in its chatbot function, with the aim of providing guests with a more authentic experience.
Nevertheless, City Lodge Hotels is looking to incorporate a machine-learning chatbot to improve response times so that guests’ everyday queries are less reliant on human intervention.
This is to combat potential complaints from guests who have a sense of urgency surrounding their booking and who use the chatbot after hours when hotel staff cannot respond to chatbot queries.
“The time between a chatbot escalating a query and this query being responded to by a staff member may take time, as the chatbot functions 24/7 and our office staff work regular hours. Therefore, the more complicated queries that require human intervention may take some time to resolve.
“However, we will always have humans available to speak directly to guests – in hospitality, human interactions by our staff are critical in conveying our warm hospitality, brand positioning and professionalism,” Smith said.
She added that its chatbot had improved the hotel group’s responses to frequently asked questions.
“The chatbot is mostly used during the pre-booking, exploratory/research and booking phases of our guest journey. It means potential guests don’t need to phone our hotels with all their queries as the chatbot is programmed to answer most frequently asked questions,” Smith explained.
City Lodge Hotels’ chatbot averages around 1 080 chats in a calendar month, with response times averaging 29 seconds.
“User numbers for our chatbot are consistent. However, there is a steady increase as users become more comfortable interacting in that space. It’s becoming more commonplace to interact with a chat service in general. Also, as machine learning enhances chatbot functionality, answers to queries will be more nuanced,” Smith concluded.
