Are Chatbots the Future of Event Concierge?
Event concierge can be a tricky proposition to handle. Customer service is an important element in every event, but with events whose attendees number in the thousands, this can quickly become a costly and time consuming expenditure that eats into both the event budget, and the event team’s time.
But one technological development has come to save the day. And best of all, the technology has already proven itself in by excelling in other customer-facing industries, including banking, retail and others.
What’s a Chatbot?
If you’ve visited a website in the past few years and interacted with a helpful “staff member” who just happened to be waiting at the other end of a chat box especially for you, chances are, you were probably talking to a chatbot.
Also, if you’ve used Apple’s Siri, the Amazon Echo, Google Home or other personal/home assistants – you’ve been speaking to chatbots. Except in these cases, it’s a little more apparent that it isn’t a human that you’ve been speaking to (since you can see the device you’re interacting with).
How Does an Event Chatbot Look Like?
An event chatbot (or Event Bot) can be attached to your event website or event app. Its main purpose is to interact with your event’s audience.
Interacting with a Chatbot: A Prospect’s Journey
Let’s imagine this. A prospect visits your website with the intention of finding out more information (before making a decision on whether to purchase tickets or register). They have questions that they may be able to find answers to online, if they have enough patience to visit all the relevant pages in your site.
Or they could simply ask these questions to your chatbot, who can not only provide prospects with the information they’re asking for – but also act as a salesperson and convince prospects to take the next step (and purchase a ticket or register).
As the event approaches, the ticket holder may have more questions. Questions that could get answers to by calling your hotline or emailing your support staff (and waiting for replies) - or they could simply go back to your helpful event bot and get all the answers to their questions there.
Even on event day, this participant remains reliant on your event bot – this time, asking it questions that relate to event registration, locations of conference halls and breakout rooms, reviewing the most updated agenda, and more.
Through all this, your trusty event bot assists every person who asks it questions - at any time of the day, without complaints (or overtime pay). And it does so for every event participant, without bias.
When it finally does come across a situation that needs human intervention, your chatbot relays the request for your event team to follow up on – acting as an effective filter that only screens all lower level questions and requests, freeing up time that your event team can better invest into delivering an amazing event.
Get to know more about chatbots (and specially, event bots) by speaking with your local Angage team.
