# Chatots in Airport Customer Service--Exploring Use Cases and Technology Acceptance
## 3 An Initial Exploration of Chatbots in Airport Customer Service  
In order to gain some inspiration for potential use cases for using chatbot applications at airports, we arranged for an interview with the PR representative of a small local airport. The airport can be considered small, since it offers only one terminal, which processes both domestic and international flights. The interview was semi-structured and lasted for approx. 25 min. Questions revolved around the current customer service process at the airport, including touch points for customers, typical process times, and travelers' common inquiries. Furthermore, we asked about potential use cases for chatbots and possible factors that may influence travelers' acceptance of using such a technology in customer service scenarios. Feedback from this interview shows that travelers contact the airport predominantly by phone or email. There is a respective contact form on the airport's website, which acts as a typical entry point. Alternatively, there is a receptionist who takes calls and handles inquiries during office hours. Inquiries outside office hours are forwarded to the passenger service. If, in exceptional cases, an inquiry cannot be answered on the same day, a traveler receives a message confirming that his/her question has been noticed and will be processed as soon as possible. Interestingly, it was found that the airport currently does not run any statistics on the number and/or success rate of received customer service inquiries. Yet, the airport knows typical questions that a traveler would send to the airport customer service department, of which the PR representative named the following as the most frequent ones:  
* _When can I check in?_
* _Can I check in the evening before?_
* _Is there luggage storage?_
* _What are the opening hours of the visitor terrace?_
* _Is the visitor terrace open to the public?_
* _How can I get to the airport?_
* _Can I take my cat?_
* _Can my dog enter the airport?_
* _When will the airport festival take place?_  
Questions about pets and airport events (i.e., in our case, the airport festival) seemed rather surprising to us, as they were not mentioned in any of the literature that we screened before the interview (e.g., [13; 36; 37; 14]). Also, inquiries concerning the visitor terrace seemed to be unique to the investigated airport. To validate these questions, we thus screened the FAQ lists of other airports. We found examples for both pets (e.g., [38; 39; 40]) and visitor terrace inquiries (e.g., [41; 42; 43]), confirming these aspects as being relevant in airport customer service. Asked about solution strategies, the PR representative claimed that most, if not all, of the information in question would be provided by the airport website. When asked about the potential implementation of a chatbot, however, she raised some concerns, highlighting that, in her opinion, travelers would rather appreciate the personal interaction with employees, so a techno-centric interaction with a chatbot would probably put them off. The situation could be different at larger airports, though, for travelers may be more understanding toward standardized answers to questions. Another factor mentioned by the PR representative, which may speak against the use of a chatbot, concerns the topic of the inquiry, where more general questions could probably be handled by a chatbot, whereas questions that hold some emotional bearing would certainly require the attention of a human. And, finally, the PR representative highlighted that, from her point of view, the level of trust travelers put into chatbot technology and the reliability they attach to the provided information represent needs to be considered as well, and that this could definitely impact the eventual adoption of such a chatbot. Based on this rather dismissive opinion on the use of chatbots for customer service inquiries at airports provided by the PR representative, our goal was also to evaluate the travelers' perspectives.