An Automated Customer Service Case Study Featuring AI From Netomi
WestJet is looking at digital as a means to transform and raise the bar for the guest experience, not simply augment it.
A large part of the overall guest experience for an airline takes place long before the wheels lift off and long after the plane door opens at the destination. WestJet sought to leverage automated customer service by using artificial intelligence as a way to:
- meet rising customer expectations for immediate, accurate and effective resolution
- easing the burden on their human support agents.
Meet Juliet, A Workforce Multiplier
Fittingly named after one of the airline’s first aircraft, WestJet launched “Juliet” on Facebook Messenger to assist during pre-booking, booking, day-of-travel and post-trip support.
Juliet is deeply integrated with core business systems so it can provide real-time information on everything from flight status, gate information and booking availability, in addition to questions like traveling with pets, baggage fees and how a bride can carry on her wedding dress (a surprisingly popular query).
We worked closely with WestJet to determine Juliet’s role within the customer experience. We focused Juliet’s expertise to very specific and valuable scenarios based on analysis of the frequent issues highlighted by the Customer Service team. The methodology behind this was to target the highly repeatable use cases that could benefit from a quick, simple, and accurate response. This allowed us to enhance the experience for both our customers and the social care team.
The Results Have Taken Off
Juliet is being measured the same way as human employees: how well is she doing her job, how happy is she making customers (CSAT), how quickly she is responding (first response time and average handle time) and how well is she working with others.
Since launch, Juliet is making an incredible impact on the guest experience. The AI is the first line of defense in 100% of these interactions and determines if it should handle the inquiry or hand it off to a human agent. On average, more than 50% of all inquiries are handled by the AI all while responding to customers in less than 1 second, which feeds incredibly into our on-demand, instant gratification society. During COVID, the AI was able to resolve 87% of all incoming customer questions, making it the best AI chatbot on record.
Simultaneously, Juliet is offloading work from the social care team, and boosting productivity. Juliet has multiplied WestJet’s workforce, with the company able to manage 5X the number of interactions. While we see a natural increase in the usage of Juliet from the deflection from call centers, what has been rewarding is to see consumer engagement sky-rocket! As a result, WestJet has seen an increase of 24% in consumer satisfaction.
WestJet’s results show no signs of reaching a cruising altitude. The spike across customer experience and agent efficiency are still very much upward trending.
To read more, check out Facebook’s case study on WestJet’s Netomi-powered AI experience here.