rethinking flight shopping with conversational search... with chatbots
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Rethinking Flight Shopping with Conversational Search...
June 15th, 2017
with Chatbots
PRESENTER
Greg MushenDirector of Product Management,
Flight Shopping at Expedia, Inc.@gregmushen
PRESENTER
Misael LeonProduct Designer at Nearsoft
@misaello
HOST
Kim LantisContent Coordinator at Nearsoft
@kimlantis
I’m Emily
MisaelKim
Greg
1. How We Search for Flights
2. How Chatbots Change the Search Experience
3. Creating a Flight Concierge Chatbot Experience
4. How to Display Search Results
5. Takeaways
Our Time Together...
PLANNING BOOKING
BEFORE
AIRPORTCHECK-IN
IN-FLIGHT WHILETRAVELING
POST-TRIP
DURING
INSPIRATION
AFTER
The Travel Funnel Is Long
The typical customer searches up to 48 times before booking a flight
!!
The typical customer searches up to 48 times before booking a flight
!!
48 times
— Expedia
“For a given round trip flight search between two destinations, there can be billions of flight combinations, even when only looking at a single departure and return date.
MIAMI
SEATTLE
MIAMI
SEATTLE
MIAMI
SEATTLE
MIAMI
SEATTLE
MIAMI
SEATTLE
Flight search is a hard computational problem…also a tedious task for the user
Travelers like to think they have a trick or strategy for finding the best airfare, but in reality we are all searching for and reserving tickets in similar fashion.
— Skift
“
How We Search for Flights
~60%Websites
~35%Tools
Results onPaper
How We Search for Flights
Getaway1 mo
Weeklong3 to 6 mo
HolisticSearch
Chatbots are changingthe Flight Search Experience
What is a Chatbot?
A chatbot is a program which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods.
Designed to convincingly simulate how a human would behave as a conversational partner.
● Certain queries may be more natural in chatinterface
e.g. When is the best time to go to Mallorca?
Why use a Chatbot?
● Certain responses may be more understandablein chat.
e.g. The lowest price from Seattle to Mallorca is$1200, but if you fly out of Vancouver, BC thelowest price is $900. There is a 90% chance theprice for this route will increase at least $100 inthe next two days.
Why use a Chatbot?
SpecificProblem
Creating a Chatbot Experience
● Contact to sales agents
● Inspire about destinations
● Alarms on fare opportunities
● Search and find flights
● Info on in-trip information
● Tips on getting cheap flights
● Info on flight status
Examples...
SpecificProblem
PLANNING BOOKING
BEFORE
AIRPORTCHECK-IN
IN-FLIGHT WHILETRAVELING
POST-TRIP
DURING
INSPIRATION
AFTER
The Travel Funnel Is Long
SpecificProblem
Creating a Chatbot Experience
Multiple Scenarios
Hi! I’m Standbot
Case Study: Chatbot for Stand-ups
SoftwareDevTools.com/stand-bot
USER FLOW NAME
AVAILABLE OPTIONS
USER’S POSSIBLE ANSWERS
ERROR
PRECONDITIONS
VALIDATION
Documenting a Chatbot Workflow
HINTS / HELP
BOT’S SPEECH
Creating a Chatbot Experience
Personality through
Conversation
Multiple Scenarios
SpecificProblem
Creating a Chatbot Experience
InteractiveOptions
Creating a Chatbot Experience
InteractiveOptions
NaturalProcessingLanguage
Creating a Chatbot Experience
InteractiveOptions
NaturalProcessingLanguage
Work TowardsBeing Predictive
How do results differon Websites vs. Chatbots?
Bare Minimum Information1. Airports
2. Departure / Arrival Date and Time
3. Length of flight
4. Number of Stops
5. Price
6. Category
7. Action Item
How to Display Results
Airports
How to Display Results
Arrival / Departure Date & Time
How to Display Results
Length of Flight
How to Display Results
Number of Stops
How to Display Results
Price
How to Display Results
Category
How to Display Results
Action Items
TAKEAWAYS
Rethinking Flight Shopping with Conversational Search… withChatbots
1. Chatbots are booming Do well one touchpoint of the funnel
2. Make a friendly personality Use of Natural Processing Language
3. Cover all possible scenarios Use inline prompts and buttons as call to actions
4. Display bare minimum results Provide clear action items for each result
5. Have a graceful exit strategy Create a general statement and/or propose a next step
SoftwareDevTools.com/stand-bot
bit.ly/expedia-bot
Expedia bot for FB Messenger
Want to know more? Contact us!
Thanks!
ux.nearsoft.com
[email protected]@misaello
Misael Leon
expedia.com
[email protected]@gregmushen
Greg MushenDirector of Product Management,Flight Shopping
Product Designer