Silicon Valley airport gets new robot customer service agents

The #SJCRobots, the airport’s new customer service agents

California’s Mineta San Jose International airport (SJC) concessionaires Hudson News Group, Pacific Gateway Concessions  and HMSHost have pooled together $120,000 to fund a new robot customer services programme that will transform travel from the Silicon Valley.

SJC, which serves the San Francisco Bay area, joins other airports across the globe, including Narita in Tokyo, Edmonton in Alberta, and Schiphol in Amsterdam, which also offer robot customer service agents in their terminals.

The #SJCRobots, the airport’s new customer service agents, were unveiled on October 25.  Named Norma, Amelia, and Piper, they are the first robots to be deployed at a US airport, and are engaging and entertaining travelers while assisting them with locating dining, shopping, and other services.

”We are proud to be the first-to-market among US airports, and to join other world-class airports in Asia, Canada, and Europe, to offer robots as we re-imagine the customer experience,” said director of Aviation Kim Becker. “SJC is accomplishing its mission – to connect, serve, and inspire – with an innovative approach to customer service for our local travellers and global visitors through our successful partnership with our concessionaires, Future Robot, and 22 Miles.”

“Our #SJCRobots offer travelers who are arriving and departing through Silicon Valley’s airport with an iconic experience reflecting our region’s unique culture of innovation,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. “This is also another example of how we’re partnering with the private sector through our Smart City Vision to demonstrate new technologies that can help shape the way we live, work, play, and travel.”

Stationed on geo-fence mats and located at Gates 11, 21 and 25, the robots are immediately engaging to travellers with their avatar-friendly faces as they audibly introduce themselves by their names: Norma, Amelia, and Piper. They assist, engage, and entertain further by:

  • Offering in-terminal dining, shopping, and other airport services information on a 32-inch touch screen tablet operating on Microsoft Windows software
  • Providing a You Are Here interactive map and directory
  • Displaying information in six languages – English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish – allowing travelers to choose their preference
  • Dancing, playing music, and taking photos that can be sent to travellers’ email accounts or displayed on the robots’ faces

The #SJCRobots are made possible through the innovative Airport team and its partners:
Airport concessionaires – Hudson News Group, Pacific Gateway Concessions and HMSHost, which paid for the $120,000 robot programme through the concessions marketing fund
Future Robot, the robot designer and manufacturer based in South Korea, and – 22 Miles, located in Silicon Valley (City of Milpitas), which programmed the robots to engage tech-savvy SJC travellers.

Norma, Amelia, and Piper are aptly named for these aviation pioneers:
– Norman Y. Mineta, former San Jose mayor, congressman and US Secretary of both Transportation and Commerce, and SJC’s namesake
– Amelia M. Earhart, American author and the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and
– William T. Piper, a U.S. airplane manufacturer and founding president of the Piper Aircraft Corporation.

The robots are an addition to SJC’s customer programmes and strengthen the services offered by engaging, entertaining, and assisting travellers.

 

source: http://tinyurl.com/j65dtpq

 

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