Courtesy: Raj Singh | News Source: ibm.com
Traveling can be stressful. It often involves long lines at airport security, flight delays, traffic congestion, crowded trains and juggling luggage. When you finally get to your hotel, you want your stay to be comfortable and easy.
I launched Go Moment in 2012 with the goal of helping guests get better service. To do so, we created our Ivy platform, the hotel industry’s first smart, texting concierge.
Ivy enables guests and hotels to communicate seamlessly. It uses both staff expertise and cognitive intelligence to provide superior service and readily meet guests’ needs.
A platform for superior service
Hotels in the United States alone serve about 4.8 million guests per night. When we created Ivy, we wanted to help hotels bring the friction and wait times associated with the check-ins for these stays down to zero.
We also wanted to create a system that engaged guests, getting feedback on their stay while they were still there. This feedback would enable any immediate, necessary corrections, and, consequently, help to build guest loyalty.
In order to do this, we knew we needed machine intelligence. We turned to IBM Watson. By integrating IBM Watson, IBM Cloud and application programming interfaces (APIs) like sentiment analysis and classification, our platform Ivy helps hotels control their guest experience.
The service provided by Ivy is seamless. There’s nothing to learn and no new interface. Guests receive a welcome text message from Ivy, and reply in their own words to express what they need. Ivy takes care of the rest alongside hotel staff.
A customized and responsive guest experience
When you check in to a hotel using Ivy, the front desk will let you know that Ivy is there to take care of anything that you may need at any time, from any location in the hotel. If you opt-in to use Ivy, a welcome text arrives on your mobile device when you enter the room, initiating service. It’s as simple as that.
Ivy can provide you with the wifi password within seconds. Order drinks for you while you’re by the pool. Let you know that you have a phone message. Tell housekeeping that you need new towels or want the sheets changed. Or, help you find your event ballroom.
There’s no need to wait on hold on the phone or track down hotel staff. Ivy’s always at your service.
A means for continual improvement
In hotels using Ivy, such as Caesars Palace, Treasure Island, and W Boston, guests engage 10 times more with Ivy than they do with other hotel communication channels. This has led to improved customer satisfaction levels and reduced problem resolution times.
And, since IBM Watson can be trained and learns, it means that Ivy only gets better over time. With continuous use, Ivy learns from guests and staff.
This translates into a better understanding of and response to guests’ needs and behavior through real-time analytics. Consequently, Ivy is educating hotel staff on how to improve their service as well.
With Ivy, your hotel stay just got easier and more enjoyable.
