Jetstar passengers can now get instant responses to their questions through Facebook Messenger, as the airline’s chatbot ‘Jess’ is now available on the social media site.
In use since 2013, Jess uses artificial intelligence technology to retrieve bookings, resend itineraries and add baggage to bookings.
Jetstar says that two-thirds of passengers are now using Facebook to make enquiries about their bookings. Jess is already assisting more than 8000 customer queries each month through Jetstar.com and the airline expects this to grow significantly through Facebook Messenger.
The airline also says that the trend for social media is increasing significantly, while the number of passengers contacting them by phone is in significant decline.
Jetstar Group Chief Customer Officer, Catriona Larrit:
“Jess is giving customer’s instant answers to their questions which previously would take our customer care team some time to process. This frees up our team to deal with more complex customer queries.
“We’ve been testing Jess on Facebook Messenger since November and have been overwhelmed with the response. This has lowered our response time from up to 17 hours in some cases to zero minutes.”
Jess is powered by Nuance Nina, an intelligent virtual assistant, that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to allow passengers to engage with Jetstar across different channels.
Robert Schwarz, managing director for Nuance Enterprise, Australia and New Zealand:
“Jetstar is providing its customers with support in the places they are having the majority of conversations today – on the digital channels.
“Through Nuance Nina, Jess ensures that no matter where a customer may be, they can get the information they need, in the moment they need it.”
Jess does look like it has a way to go though.
About Jetstar
The Jetstar Group is one of Asia Pacific’s fastest growing airline brands with one of the most extensive ranges of destinations in the region. It is made up of Jetstar Airways (subsidiary of the Qantas Group) in Australia and New Zealand, Jetstar Asia in Singapore, Jetstar Pacific in Vietnam, and Jetstar Japan in Japan.
Routes: Jetstar branded carriers operate up to 4,200 flights a week to more than 75 destinations. Collectively the Jetstar Group offers more than 5,000 flights a week to 85 destinations in 18 countries and territories across the Asia Pacific region.
Fleet: The Jetstar group currently operates a fleet of over 120 aircraft.
- 99 Airbus A320
- 8 Airbus A321
- 11 Boeing 787-8
- 5 Bombardier Q300
Passenger numbers: The Jetstar Group carried more than 34 million passengers in financial year 2016.
N.B. Image credit: wikipedia
