Case Study
Ripley’s Bot Discovered Need For Resident Ticket Discount
Summary
Ripley’s Aquarium and Attractions of the Smokies, in Gatlinburg, Tennessee introduced a new and dynamic artificially intelligent virtual assistant for visitors to interact with on the associated websites and Facebook Messenger accounts. Our team built a deep knowledge base, in collaboration with the Gatlinburg marketing staff, to recognize and understand the many facets of the facility’s operations. Our platform answers thousands of visitor questions instantaneously and provides them accurate information based on their location inside the Aquarium and associated Attractions.
Since its launch, the platform began recognizing patterns of similar customer inquiries, including requests and interest about in-state discounts for Tennessee residents. We presented this data to Ripley’s, and the facility quickly responded by creating a brand new Resident Ticket Discount. The platform fielded ~2,000 questions on the intent shortly following the announcement of the new discount offering, boosting regional engagement and foot traffic.
Challenge
Ripley’s Aquarium and Attractions of the Smokies had limited resources to handle the volume of questions received by visitors – including off-hour, weekend and peak-season times, and lacked any system to track or manage inbound requests. This created a gap in its ability to serve guests according to their actual needs. The facility needed an efficient, effective, and accurate way to scale their marketing and guest service staff, as well as a manner to garner meaningful and actionable feedback from visitors.
Solution
To meet this challenge, Ripley’s launched an AI-powered virtual assistant to help answer guest questions on-demand across every experience available throughout their facility. Adoption of this technology not only reduced the strain on limited staff, but also identified a unique opportunity for Ripley’s to better serve its customers. A keen and frequent interest in resident discounts was recognized through our easy-to-use dashboard and response management system. Ripley’s was able to respond to this insight quickly, and introduce a discount for Tennessee residents, as well as communicate the new option to interested guests immediately.
Results
Ripley’s AI-powered virtual assistant has fielded questions from over 82,000 unique visitors, saving guest service staff approximately 33 hours per week of work. By capturing all of the request data, we identified the need for a Resident Ticket Discount which, as of now, has been requested more than 2,000 times through the platform.
Approximate Guest Service Hours per Week Saved in 2019
Unique Visitors to the Virtual Assistant in 2019
Requests for Resident Discount Tickets Since Created in 2019
“We have a wide variety of guests who visit our attractions every day and they are all looking for answers to their questions on different channels. In today’s fast-paced world, families have more choices than ever. When they choose to visit our attractions, it is important for us to engage with our guests instantaneously. The dynamic new AI platform Satisfi Labs created with us has saved our team approximately 20 hours per week in guest experience and customer service inquiries.”
Mary Phillips
Director of Marketing, Ripley’s Aquarium of The
Smokies and Ripley’s Tennessee Attractions