Netomi > Case Studies > Megabus Enhances Customer Experience with AI-Powered Email Bot

Megabus Enhances Customer Experience with AI-Powered Email Bot

Technology Category

Automation & Control - Electric Drives & Control

Applicable Industries

Automotive

Applicable Functions

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Public Transportation Management
Time Sensitive Networking

About The Customer

Megabus is an intercity bus service that operates in the United States and Canada. The company had been making significant strides in improving its customer experience, with a focus on introducing more self-service options for support. However, the global pandemic led to a sudden halt in travel, causing a surge in customer queries related to cancellations, refunds, and policy changes. The company was faced with a massive backlog in ticket volume and response time, and the customer service team was overwhelmed. Despite these challenges, Megabus was committed to maintaining a high level of customer service and sought a solution that would allow them to continue providing immediate responses to customer queries.

The Challenge

Megabus, an intercity bus service operating in the United States and Canada, was faced with a significant challenge when the global pandemic hit. The company had been making significant strides in improving its customer experience, but the sudden halt in travel caused a massive influx of customer queries. Customers were confused and anxious, leading to a surge in calls and emails to cancel or reschedule trips, request refunds, and understand changing policies. This situation resulted in 'ghost contacts', with the same customer reaching out on multiple channels, leading to a massive backlog in ticket volume and response time. The customer service team was overwhelmed, and the company's efforts to improve its Net Promoter Score (NPS) and lower customer contacts were severely impacted.

The Solution

To alleviate the pressure on the customer service team, Megabus decided to incorporate AI into their workforce. After a thorough search, they chose Netomi, a company with extensive experience in the travel industry and a quick time-to-launch. Within weeks, Netomi trained 'Chuck', an AI-powered email bot, to provide immediate responses to the most pressing customer queries, including reservation changes, cancellations and refunds, and lost baggage. Megabus strategically drove traffic away from the cost-intensive phone channel to email, using call-to-actions and prominently placing Chuck on the 'Contact Us' page. This strategy not only reduced the workload on the customer service team but also improved the response time to customer queries.

Operational Impact

The introduction of Chuck, the AI-powered email bot, had a significant impact on Megabus's operations. Not only did it help manage the surge in customer queries during the pandemic, but it also improved the working conditions for the customer service agents. Before Chuck, agents were providing repetitive answers to the same questions, which was monotonous and unfulfilling. With Chuck handling the routine queries, agents were able to focus on more complex issues and truly become customer experience specialists. This change not only improved the efficiency of the customer service team but also boosted their morale. Following the success of Chuck, Megabus plans to expand the reach of customer support AI, including multilingual capabilities and handling more use cases across more channels.

Quantitative Benefit

Contacts via email doubled, reducing the reliance on cost-intensive phone channels.
The contacts per customer fell, indicating improved efficiency in handling customer queries.
Email response time decreased from three business days, improving customer satisfaction.