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AI, chatbots, and apps improve service and gameday fan experience

This is an excerpt from Sport Marketing 6th Edition With HKPropel Access by Windy Dees,Patrick Walsh,Chad D McEvoy,Steve McKelvey.

By Melissa Davies

Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have allowed teams to use automated natural language processing and natural language generation to communicate with fans through various applications (e.g., Facebook) or text messaging. Natural language processing and generation involve training algorithms so that computers can recognize and produce the human language. Whether you realize it or not, you have encountered this technology. If you click on a website and a dialogue box pops up, it is most likely a trained chatbot—a computer program that is fueled by machine learning and meant to simulate natural human conversation. A human customer service representative can be trained to interact with customers through the onboarding process. Chatbots, on the other hand, are trained to recognize patterns of conversation in a history of chat logs and also through engaging with customers. Has a chatbot asked you, “Did I answer your question correctly?” This is the algorithm’s way of continually training. When you answer “yes” or “no,” the chatbot adds this repetition to pattern generation. When a chatbot gets asked a question for which it does not have an answer, the human operator can step in and help the chatbot recognize a meaningful response for this question in future interactions. Over time, the chatbot “learns” and improves its efficiency in communicating with the public. “Learning in this case means automated and continually precise pattern recognition.

Like a virtual assistant, teams are able to employ chatbots to communicate with fans throughout the sales cycle (targeting, retention, and upsell) as well as to off-load the general consumer helpline. Chatbots help teams answer fan questions, sell tickets and merchandise, and increase engagement with fans. One customer representative can handle one conversation, email, or phone call at a time. Chatbots can handle an unlimited number of chats. Related with market research, the chatbots can be used to engage with fans about a given topic to gather feedback through direct questions about a topic, but more importantly, the questions fans are asking within the chatbot platform can help the team understand what fans are interested in knowing more about. If fans continually ask questions about which concession stands are gluten-free, for example, the team might consider its gluten-free offerings and find a way to either better provide gluten-free options or more clearly communicate where fans can find them. In the past, questions like this about where to find various elements within an arena may have been asked of game-day employees. Fans may have heard a range of answers depending on the knowledge of that single employee, but with the consistent knowledge and responses from the chatbot, fans might receive a more consistent answer. In addition, the teams also learn more about the questions fans have and can in turn resolve or improve operations accordingly.

Beyond AI-related solutions, fans can also give teams plenty of data via engagement on the team or stadium app. The Sacramento Kings call their app the “remote control” to their stadium, the Golden 1 Center. At the time that it opened and with its proximity to Silicon Valley, the Golden 1 Center was the most advanced arena around. The app, which was powered by Xfinity, enabled fans access to real-time and on-demand information regarding every aspect of their experience, from the closest and shortest bathroom line to advanced game metrics and exclusive video angles to even controlling the temperature in one of the lower bowl sections by reporting that it is “too cold” or “too hot.”11 In addition to the direct feedback teams could use from feedback about the temperature, the engagement on the stadium app also helps again to show teams what fans are interested in within the stadium, from which concessions see the longest lines to the times during the game when app engagement is highest and on which pages and so forth.

More Excerpts From Sport Marketing 6th Edition With HKPropel Access

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