GenAI in Contact Centres

The Benefits and Challenges of Using Generative AI in a Loyalty Travel Contact Centre

As the world of travel continues to evolve, loyalty programs like Skywards, AVIOS, Miles & More, Star Alliance, Executive Club, and Flying Blue for example play a crucial role in customer retention and satisfaction. For airlines and travel services leveraging these loyalty currencies, providing exceptional customer service is key to maintaining the loyalty of frequent travellers. Generative AI is rapidly becoming an essential tool to enhance the operational efficiency of loyalty-based contact centres, offering significant advantages along with some challenges.

Benefits of Generative AI for Loyalty Travel Centres

1. Tailored Customer Interactions Loyalty program members often accumulate miles or points for flights, hotels, and other travel-related purchases. Generative AI can offer highly personalised service by analysing customer travel history, loyalty status, and redemption patterns. For example, it can automatically suggest upgrades or point-redemption opportunities based on previous bookings, enabling customers to maximise their benefits.
• Boosting Customer Loyalty: Personalised recommendations—such as the best way to redeem points for an upgrade or the most valuable routes—enhance customer satisfaction, building stronger brand loyalty.
2. Efficient Handling of Routine Inquiries Loyalty program contact centres often manage routine questions related to point balances, redemption options, or booking changes. AI can efficiently handle these tasks, reducing response times and allowing human agents to focus on more complex inquiries.
• 24/7 Availability: AI can operate continuously, ensuring that members can access support at any time, a key advantage for a global industry like travel.
3. Cost Efficiency By automating routine tasks, generative AI can help contact centres reduce operational costs. Tasks such as point redemptions, booking changes, and general inquiries can be managed by AI, reducing the need for large support teams while maintaining high service levels.
• Scalability: AI allows contact centres to scale their services during peak travel seasons without needing additional staff, ensuring efficient service during high-demand periods.
4. Consistent and Accurate Information Generative AI ensures that customers receive consistent and up-to-date information on loyalty program terms, promotions, and point balances. It continually accesses the latest data, offering real-time responses aligned with program rules.
• Minimising Errors: AI reduces human errors in calculating point balances or offering redemption options, ensuring reliable service.

Challenges of Generative AI for Loyalty Travel Centres

1. Handling Complex Travel Requests Loyalty program members often have complex travel needs, such as booking multi-leg trips or requesting specific upgrades. While AI is efficient for standard inquiries, handling bespoke travel plans or complicated redemptions can be more challenging.
• Human Expertise Still Required: For high-value members, human agents are still essential for managing intricate requests, such as optimising routes for point redemptions or handling unique service needs.
2. Limited Emotional Intelligence Travel can be emotional for loyalty members, especially when issues like missed flights or delayed bookings occur. While AI is effective for routine tasks, it lacks the emotional intelligence needed to provide empathetic responses in distressing situations.
• Need for Human Touch: In cases where customers need empathetic handling, AI may fall short. A smooth transition from AI to human agents is crucial to maintaining trust and satisfaction.
3. Data Privacy and Security Loyalty programs handle sensitive customer data, including travel preferences, payment details, and personal information. AI systems require large datasets to function effectively, which raises concerns about data privacy and security, particularly with regulations like GDPR.
• Compliance: Contact centres must ensure that AI systems comply with data protection regulations, safeguarding customer information and preventing security breaches.
4. Potential System Errors AI systems, while efficient, are not infallible. Errors in data interpretation or flaws in algorithms can lead to incorrect responses or miscommunication, which may damage customer trust in loyalty programs.
• Monitoring and Updating: Constant monitoring and updates are necessary to prevent such errors and ensure high-quality service for loyalty members.

Balancing AI with Human Expertise

The integration of generative AI in loyalty travel contact centres offers numerous benefits, including improved personalisation, cost savings, and operational efficiency. However, balancing AI automation with human expertise is critical. While AI can streamline routine queries, human agents remain essential for managing complex and emotionally sensitive customer needs.

Craig Ashmole, founder of London-based consulting firm Straightalking Ltd., states:
“AI tools can drive significant cost savings by automating routine tasks, reducing the need for a large workforce, and improving operational efficiency. However, upfront costs of AI implementation, including training, software, and maintaining infrastructure, can be high. Businesses must weigh these costs against the long-term savings.”

Why Generative AI is Transformative for Contact Centres

When implemented effectively, generative AI is a powerful asset for loyalty travel contact centres. It delivers personalised, consistent, and rapid service, significantly enhancing the customer experience, particularly for frequent travellers who expect quick and accurate responses. By automating routine tasks, AI allows human resources to focus on high-value interactions, improving overall service quality.

In the competitive world of travel loyalty programs, AI brings cost efficiency and scalability, enabling contact centres to maintain high service standards even during peak travel periods. As AI technology continues to evolve, its potential to transform customer service in the travel sector will only grow. By integrating AI with human expertise, loyalty programs can offer an unmatched customer experience, driving retention and brand loyalty.

After reading an article in The Sunday Times, Craig Ashmole comments on a poor introduction of Gen AI. “Generative AI was first introduced into a major contact centre for a large financial institution, it quickly ran into issues due to its inability to handle complex customer queries. While the AI successfully managed routine tasks, it struggled with nuanced questions that required deeper contextual understanding or emotional intelligence. For example, customers seeking support for multi-faceted financial problems, such as reconciling incorrect charges or discussing sensitive account issues, were left frustrated by the AI’s rigid and sometimes inaccurate responses. This led to a spike in customer dissatisfaction, as many clients felt the AI failed to adequately address their concerns.

Additionally, errors in interpreting natural language input caused some responses to veer off-topic, creating further frustration. The company had to swiftly scale back the use of AI and reintroduce human agents for more complex interactions, highlighting the importance of a hybrid approach where AI supports, but does not fully replace, human expertise​.”

In conclusion, generative AI is not just an enhancement—it is a strategic necessity for loyalty travel contact centres, when implemented well and not as a full replacement of humans, it will enable them to deliver unbeatable service that strengthens customer loyalty and keeps travellers coming back.