How Valk Digital automatically resolves more than 80% of customer conversations in under 2 mins.

Valk Digital manages the Valk Exclusief group, which includes 43 Van der Valk hotels across the Netherlands. Valk Exclusief is about creating a high-end experience, ensuring every guest has a great time, even before check-in.

In the hospitality industry, top-notch support is everything and every second counts.

Challenge: implement AI while keeping 100% control of the quality

By 2019, digitalisation and social media had changed things, with more guests reaching out via WhatsApp and social media instead of email and phone calls. And as a consequence, the system and process that the support team was running their day-to-day by, wasn't working for them anymore. This was when Valk Digital tried Trengo for the first time.

With Trengo’s previous automation, about 70% of incoming messages were automated. But then they realised they wanted to fully automate the communication flow without losing the accuracy of the responses. The goal was to resolve questions faster so guests would be happy and the team could focus on more complex issues.

They were already considering AI but were hesitant to give it full control. They were concerned that AI might provide incorrect answers to customers, overpromise additional services, issue refunds unnecessarily, and more. That’s why the accuracy of the responses was critical for them.

💡The challenge was clear: fully automate the conversation, maintain precise accuracy, and help Valk Exclusief deliver a great customer experience.

Solution: AI developed for customer service and support

Trengo’s AI HelpMate is perfect for Valk Digital because it uses their own documentation to answer repetitive questions. It doesn’t generate responses from anything other than the uploaded documents. This means the team has full control through concise rules, prompting, and managing the uploaded content.

Valk Digital then joined Trengo’s AI HelpMate BETA program, becoming one of the first adopters to test AI HelpMate. They went through the full onboarding process with the Trengo team to ensure everything was set up correctly and they could monitor their progress toward reaching their goals.

'Trengo AI is simple and easy to use, with a quick and straightforward setup. It’s fantastic to have full control over how we experience and leverage AI.'

During this time, they gained many valuable insights. With the number of hotels under their management, they found that Trengo AI works better with multiple documents uploaded to improve response accuracy. They also noticed that, due to the user-friendly nature of the product, the whole process could be handled by just a few team members.

At Valk Digital, Trengo AI reporting is used extensively to track progress and results. The overview is important for the team lead to monitor how impactful AI HelpMate is daily.

Result: Fast, automated 24/7 support

While using AI HelpMate, they noticed that over 80% of customer conversations were answered by AI HelpMate with an average resolution time of 2 minutes, much faster than a human agent manually answering customers.

It also helps boost the team’s morale because they can focus on complex conversations and upskilling.

'With AI HelpMate, we've seen over 80% of customer conversations answered in just 2 minutes, significantly faster than a human agent. This efficiency has boosted our team's morale as they can focus on more complex conversations and upskilling. Plus, we can now provide 24/7 support, instantly handling straightforward questions and promptly addressing more complicated inquiries.'

They are now finally able to provide 24/7 support throughout the week, as any questions that HelpMate can answer are addressed instantly. For more complex questions, they instantly inform customers their inquiries have been received and and answer will be provided during business hours.

Valk Digital has achieved an average assistance time of around 54 seconds (almost instantly).

'The onboarding service provided dedicated help from start to finish, which was incredibly valuable. Now, we can maintain Trengo AI with just a few team members — it's user-friendly.'