A lot of people have been sharing the news about the facebook messenger bot for airlines the last weeks (ICYMI, you can see some articles here, or here or eventually here… anywhere basically).

Undoubtedly this is very cool: You can directly book a flight and receive your boarding pass within messenger – sparing you the effort to go on a website.

Cool for the user… but more importantly cool for the airline which won’t have to invest in costly chat services, and a nice bot will be able to swiftly and efficiently answer customers.

But does this make really a big difference in your travel booking experience ? I’m not so sure. It’s just a new way to do something, something that wasn’t so awful to do online in the last few years. But even if its not ground-breaking, airlines will go for it, aiming for cost reductions.

What really stunned me this week is THIS :

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7qDMMuh0fM1FVkDm/giphy.gif

Group bookings made easy thanks to bot integrated in conversations.

During the 7 years I’ve worked at an airline, I scratched my head wondering how I could improve group bookings. How I could find an easy solution for people who want to go together on a citytrip to agree on a destination, agree on a flight time, be ok with a price, all received their boarding passes in an easy manner. I never succeeded. Group bookings remained a lengthy and annoying experience for my passengers.

If the experience of this gif happens, this is what I call progress. Technology would be answering a real customer PAIN. Not simply adopting a technology decreasing the cost to serve. And in an industry where you need to differentiate through experiences rather than price, this is badly needed.

About the author

Audrey has been managing digital strategy and digital transformations during several years from within large corporations before creating Belly & Brain.

By creating Belly & Brain, her aim was to design a consultancy firm finally adapted to the needs and reality of business leaders confronted to strong digital challenges - combining consultancy and coaching capabilities able to handle as well marketing and sales strategic questions, as well as change management, organisational & culture challenges needed to actually deliver on the transformation.

Audrey organises regular free meet up sessions with executives to discuss their challenges and give rapid feedback on solutions and options. Learn more about these here