In the past 10 years, live chat widgets have become ubiquitous tools for communicating with customers. Initially, many were concerned that replacing phone agents with chat agents would turn off guests and brands would lose that personal touch. Turns out, in a world of texting vs phone calls, people - especially young people, prefer chat over voice. Since one chat agent could triple or quadruple the number of engagements with chat, brands were quite happy as well. 

Live chat offers:

• Quick and efficient responses to inquiries
• Increase customer loyalty when making a personalized connection
• Boost conversions by influencing purchase decisions and upsellling
• Reduce cost by enabling one agent to simultaneously chat with multiple guests
• And as my old friend Bill Quigley at Gunstock would say, “Chat is my closer.”

Today, AI is being added to varying degrees to replace human chat agents. And this raises a number of questions. 

AI powered chat to provide fast, accurate and even personalized responses to customers, plus handle more complex and diverse queries. AI can also reduce the workload and cost of human agents, and may improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

However, AI is not a perfect substitute for human agents, as it may still have some limitations and drawbacks, such as the lack of empathy, emotion, and creativity, the potential for errors and misunderstandings, the ethical and legal implications, and the resistance and distrust from some customers.

Therefore, hospitality businesses need to weigh the pros and cons of shifting from human agents to AI, and consider their specific goals, needs, and preferences. Some possible options are:

• Continue using only human agents: This option may be suitable for businesses that want to provide a high level of personalization, trust, and rapport with their customers, and that have enough resources and expertise to manage a team of qualified and trained human agents.
• Using only AI: This option may be suitable for brands that want to provide a fast, efficient, and consistent service to their customers, and that have access to advanced and reliable AI technology that can handle a wide range of queries and tasks.
• Taking a hybrid approach: This option may be suitable for companies that want to leverage the best of both human agents and AI, and that can balance the trade-offs between them. A hybrid approach may involve using AI to handle simple and repetitive queries and tasks, while escalating complex and sensitive ones to human agents; or using AI to assist human agents with suggestions and information; or using AI to offer an option for customers to choose whether they want to chat with a human agent or an AI agent.

In the hospitality industry, we tend to value the human touch. AI does not have empathy and cannot convey the caring that a human has for guests. So I would expect that an all-AI approach would not be wise for most destinations. I think the hybrid approach is most practical and offers the best of both worlds.

Additional Considerations : Omnichannel 

Some live chat platforms have expanded to provide a centralized hub for communications through additional channels such as SMS, blog post responses, and messaging across social media channels. 

Here are a few that Bing’s AI found:

• Arena: Arena is a platform that enables businesses to add features from popular social media apps to any platform they manage, such as live chat, live blog, polls, Q&A, and more. Arena offers a hybrid approach of human agents and AI technology to provide personalized and engaging conversations with website visitors. Arena also integrates with various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and more, and allows businesses to manage all their interactions from a single dashboard.
• Talkative: Talkative is a solution that allows businesses to connect with their website visitors through live chat, video chat, cobrowsing, chatbot, web callbacks, and social messaging. Talkative offers a hybrid approach of human agents and AI technology to provide fast and efficient customer service and sales. Talkative also integrates with various social media channels such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, WhatsApp, SMS/MMS, Google Business Messages, and more, and allows businesses to handle all their interactions from a single inbox.
• LiveAgent: LiveAgent is a help desk software that combines multiple communication channels into one platform, such as live chat, email, phone, social media, chatbot, knowledge base, and more. LiveAgent offers a hybrid approach of human agents and AI technology to provide omnichannel customer support and engagement. LiveAgent also integrates with various social media channels such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Viber, WhatsApp, and more, and allows businesses to manage all their interactions from a unified ticket stream.

Don’t forget about Accessibility and ADA compliance

Remember, that the website owner shoulders the liability for the compliance of every component of their website - to include 3rd party elements such as chat widgets.

Accessibility compliance can help hospitality businesses reach more customers, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and avoid lawsuits.

One of the most widely recognized standards for web accessibility is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which provide guidelines and success criteria for making web content accessible to people with various disabilities. 

According to WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards, live chat features should include:

• Be keyboard-accessible: All functionality of live chat should be operable through a keyboard interface alone.
• Use proper ARIA attributes: ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) language helps assistive technology software interpret certain types of web elements. Live chat should use ARIA attributes or alternatives to label its elements and communicate their function.
• Allow turning off timestamps: Timestamps tell users when the last chat message was received, but they can also cause confusion or distraction for some users. Live chat should provide an option to turn off timestamps or adjust their frequency.
• Provide text alternatives: Text alternatives are textual descriptions of non-text content such as images or audio. Live chat should provide text alternatives for any non-text content that conveys information or functionality.
• Use sufficient color contrast: Color contrast is the difference in brightness between the foreground and background colors. Live chat should use colors that have enough contrast to make the text readable by most users.

Accessible Omnichannel Hybrid Live Chat Platforms

The best of all worlds. With some help from Bing AI, here is a set of hybrid live chat platforms that provide omnichannel enagement and are also WCAG compliant: 

• ReveChat: ReveChat is a cloud-based live chat platform that enables businesses to engage with their customers across multiple channels such as website, mobile app, social media, messaging apps, and voice call. ReveChat offers a hybrid approach of human agents and AI chatbots to provide personalized and efficient customer service and sales. ReveChat also claims to be WCAG 2.1 AA compliant, as its live chat widget is keyboard-accessible, uses proper ARIA attributes, allows turning off timestamps, provides text alternatives for non-text content, and uses sufficient color contrast.
• Intercom: Intercom is a customer messaging platform that helps businesses connect with their customers across their entire lifecycle, from acquisition to retention. Intercom offers a hybrid approach of human agents and AI chatbots to provide conversational support, marketing, and sales. Intercom also integrates with various communication channels such as email, social media, messaging apps, video call, and more. Intercom also claims to be WCAG 2.1 AA compliant, as its live chat widget is keyboard-accessible, uses proper ARIA attributes, allows turning off timestamps, provides text alternatives for non-text content, and uses sufficient color contrast.
• Arena: Arena is a platform that enables businesses to add features from popular social media apps to any platform they manage, such as live chat, live blog, polls, Q&A, and more. Arena offers a hybrid approach of human agents and AI technology to provide personalized and engaging conversations with website visitors. Arena also integrates with various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and more. Arena also claims to be WCAG 2.1 AA compliant, as its live chat widget is keyboard-accessible, uses proper ARIA attributes, allows turning off timestamps, provides text alternatives for non-text content, and uses sufficient color contrast.
• Talkative: Talkative is a solution that allows businesses to connect with their website visitors through live chat, video chat, cobrowsing, chatbot, web callbacks, and social messaging. Talkative offers a hybrid approach of human agents and AI technology to provide fast and efficient customer service and sales. Talkative also integrates with various social media channels such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, WhatsApp, SMS/MMS, Google Business Messages, and more, and allows businesses to handle all their interactions from a single inbox.
• LiveAgent: LiveAgent is a help desk software that combines multiple communication channels into one platform, such as live chat, email, phone, social media, chatbot, knowledge base, and more. LiveAgent offers a hybrid approach of human agents and AI technology to provide omnichannel customer support and engagement. LiveAgent also integrates with various social media channels such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Viber, WhatsApp, and more, and allows businesses to manage all their interactions from a unified ticket stream.
• Satifi Labs: Satifi Labs is a company that provides conversational AI solutions for various industries, including sports, entertainment, and tourism. Satifi Labs offers a two-way chat feature that uses a combination of human agents and AI technology to provide personalized and engaging conversations with website visitors. Satifi Labs also integrates with various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and more, and allows businesses to manage all their interactions from a single dashboard. Satifi Labs also claims to be WCAG 2.1 AA compliant, as its live chat widget is keyboard-accessible, uses proper ARIA attributes, allows turning off timestamps, provides text alternatives for images or audio messages, and uses sufficient color contrast.
  
  Of note: Satifi Labs is used by a number of ski resorts. The family of Powdr Corp resorts as well as Snow Partners use Satifi. Hugh Reynolds of Snow Partners managing Mountain Creek Resort and Big Snow reports that they've recently shifted completely away from voice calls in their call center. Using Satifi in a hybrid approach, they use humans as a backup to AI responses to guests. Having only converted about two weeks ago, he reports that 75% of interactions are handled by AI, and they've been able to reduce their staffing by 20%.

Wrap Up

In practically any hospitality scenario, live chat is an essential communication and sales tool. The degree to which you balance AI vs Human is really going to depend on the scale of your operation, the tone of your brand, and of course cost and human resources available. And I expect a hybrid that utilizes AI to answer basic repetitive questions with human monitoring looking for value-add opportunities to close the deal and answer those more sensitive questions makes the most sense. 

It also makes a lot of sense to consolidate these communications channels through one system.

Every property is as different as its audience, and the best solution will be unique to each. Love to hear any feedback and approaches that your property has taken.