AirAsia's Transformation: Reducing Wait Time by 98% through Automation

AirAsia is a global leader in the airline industry, carrying more than 100 million travellers every year to over 140 destinations around the world. The company is known for its commitment to customer experience and has plans for significant growth. As the company grew in popularity, it faced an increase in the number of brand interactions. The company was reliant on call centres that operated within local hours and languages, which limited its ability to connect and drive sales with international audiences. The lack of a self-service solution led to long wait times for customers, putting the brand's reputation at risk.

AirAsia, a global leader in customer experience, was facing a significant challenge as it grew in popularity. The number of brand interactions was increasing, and without a self-service solution, customers were forced to wait almost an hour to reach an agent. This situation was putting the brand’s reputation at risk. Furthermore, by relying on call centres operating within local hours and languages, AirAsia was missing out on opportunities to create new connections and drive new sales with international audiences. The live agent support was available only on the website and through the call centre. The agents were overwhelmed by the volume of international interactions, and the customer wait time was around 45 minutes. The voice call centre support was limited to APAC hours.

To improve its customer service, AirAsia decided to automate support across multiple channels. The company chose Ada’s platform to build and launch a 24/7 multilingual chatbot ready to assist customers instantly across the brand’s website and app. The chatbot was connected with the business’ back-end, allowing customers to check flight updates, book flights, answer key questions about the AirAsia experience, update passenger information, and add ancillary products to bookings. Ada’s Automated Customer Experience (ACX) Consultants provided resources to AirAsia’s non-technical support team to successfully launch and manage AI-powered automation. In less than a month, the team built a customized chatbot with rich content, including images, videos, and GIFs. The bot was deployed for instant website support, as well as on Facebook, WhatsApp, and WeChat. With Ada’s multilingual capabilities, AirAsia automated experiences in English and then deployed them to guests in 11 languages.

• The implementation of Ada's automation as the first line of support led to a significant improvement in AirAsia's customer service. The average wait time was reduced to less than a minute, a reduction of 98%. The chatbot was able to handle a large volume of interactions, freeing up live agents to handle more complex issues. The chatbot also enabled support in eleven languages, expanding the company's ability to connect with international audiences. The automation also provided new data, with over 20 million interactions annually, helping AirAsia to understand and improve the customer experience. Furthermore, the chatbot was able to upsell and cross-sell ancillary products, leading to an 8x increase in sales of these products.

• 75% of all brand interactions solved without a live agent

• CSAT improved from 60% to 90%

• Customer wait times reduced to less than 1 minute