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Lufthansa Group passengers often have similar questions: Is my flight on time? What gate does my plane leave from? And how heavy can my hand luggage be? In order to be able to answer these and many other questions quickly, passengers now have access to a digital assistant in addition to the familiar customer services such as lufthansa.com, the Lufthansa App and the Customer Service App. The Bots Elisa (Lufthansa), Nelly (SWISS) and Maria (Austrian Airlines) – based on the names of the first female flight attendants of each of the three airlines – are available to customers around the clock every day. The new digital customer service complements the existing service. Simple questions can thus be answered quickly. This is intended to increase customer satisfaction. In addition, the service centers are to be relieved so that they can concentrate on customer inquiries that the bots cannot answer.
To start the dialogue with one of the digital helpers, the customer only needs the Facebook Messenger. If this is already present on the smartphone, it is sufficient to enter lh.com/bot, swiss.com/bot or austrian.com/bot in the browser. The Facebook Messenger can also be used without a Facebook profile using your own mobile phone number. The flight status can be queried as well as information about delayed or cancelled flights. If a flight is cancelled or the customer misses his connecting flight, the passenger can use the chatbots to make their own rebookings. Either he is shown a rebooking that has already been made automatically or he selects a new flight to his destination from the alternatives offered. The chatbots of the Lufthansa Group’s network airlines are the first bots in the world to enable rebooking.
The chatbots can be used by all Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines customers. If the digital assistants do not know what to do, the chat can be forwarded directly to a service center employee. The dialog language is English. In the future, they should also provide specific answers on free baggage allowances, the whereabouts of baggage or push notifications in the event of delays, cancellations or gate changes. The bots are constantly being developed and will also be made available on other channels such as airline apps, airline websites or other messenger services such as Whatsapp.
Self-services will play an increasingly important role in the future. In addition to automated solutions, Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines will continue to be personally accessible to their customers via their service staff.
