Can Chatbot Travel Solutions Respond to the Demands of Small & Midsize Enterprises?

Sports video technology startup Hudl has booked trips using Concur and a local travel management company since 2014. With their three-year contract nearing its end, Hudl wanted a replacement that would better suit the startup's techy and Millennial culture. Hudl event and travel coordinator Brandon Gries told BTN associate editor JoAnn DeLuna why he was sold on a chatbot solution after only a 10-minute demo.

BTN: You began looking for a new solution this summer. Were you specifically looking for a chatbot platform?

Brandon Gries: Not specifically a chatbot, but that did help. TripActions reached out [to me] prior to the Global Business Travel Association convention in Boston. One of the founders gave me a quick 10-minute demo of the app. We made that move pretty quickly and started using TripActions in August.

BTN: Just like that?

Gries: Our other solution was outdated and not very user friendly, especially with our company being a tech company. Our average employee age is around 30 with lots of people just out of college. A group of employees refused to book on Concur: They had tried it once and got an error or it was too slow or they [simply] didn't like it. I needed a tool that was more user friendly that our employees would like and easily adopt. I could tell from the 10 minutes that [the chatbot platform] looked way better and easier.

BTN: What did you like about the Concur/TMC service platform, and does the chatbot fulfill those aspects?

Gries: I thought maybe TripActions was too good to be true, so I wanted to make sure that all the other boxes were checked. The actual support we had through our previous travel agent was really good. Also, all the reporting. On Concur, I could get the information I needed, but it did not look very nice and was sometimes difficult to pull. Reporting on TripActions is a lot cleaner and easier to pull up. Concur and our former travel agent did a pretty good job of making sure our travelers were aware of the passport and visa requirements. TripActions does that, [too].

BTN: TripActions says its bots proactively contact travelers with instructions and tutorial links when they sign up and later if they run into booking trouble but that it's not just a bot solution. When do humans get involved?

Gries: Sometimes the first response will be automated, and once [the conversation] gets more detailed, more difficult, that's where a live person steps in. A traveler can type, "My flight got delayed. Can I get other options?" Then a live TripActions person would jump on. Probably the two most [common] use cases are changing and canceling a reservation. [Additionally,] as a travel manager, I once reran a report a couple of times because I was trying to look for something specific. Something triggered [TripActions] that I was struggling and the bot sent me a message asking if I needed more help.

BTN: How has the trip search and booking process changed since you adopted the chatbot solution?

Gries: It doesn't take our travelers as long to book a single trip anymore. Adoption has been a big improvement, as well. [With our prior tools], adoption was about 65 percent to 70 percent, and now we're at about 85 percent to 90 percent. We're going to have a lot more complete data. TripActions also pulls in a better overall inventory from [Expedia] and Priceline [subsidiaries] than what we were getting [through the traditional TMC]. European travel is still a little bit of a challenge, [but] TripActions now has a separate European product that pulls in more low-cost airlines.

BTN: Have you seen savings?

Gries: TripActions' incentive program gives [travelers] a ballpark idea of what the average price should be, and travelers can get rewards if they book cheaper. We've had a lot of hotel costs under $100 a night, which previously I [rarely] saw. Our average ticket cost in 2016 was $615; in 2017, we're right around $400 [for the months we've used the chatbot]. That does not factor in the money we're spending on those incentive rewards that the company pays, but even factoring those in, I'm sure that our overall spend has still improved.

BTN: Have your travelers experienced any annoyances with the automated chatbot?

Gries: None of our travelers have voice frustrations in that way. Nobody has specified whether they think or know it's a bot in the beginning because the conversations and messaging come across as very personal.

BTN: Hudl is a fast-growing company. Do you think this solution can scale with you?

Gries: I'm pretty confident that they're going to be able to remain the solution to us for a while, even if we continue to grow.