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Budget Costa Rica Uses Chatbot to Improve Digital Experience

With the help of EDNA, a technology startup focused on artificial intelligence, Budget Costa Rica has incorporated a Chatbot, which uses artificial intelligence to answer questions and take reservations in real time.

by Staff
October 12, 2017
2 min to read


Budget Car Rental Costa Rica, with the help of EDNA, has developed an artificial intelligence startup. The Chatbot will improve the digital experience by providing customers with a series of services related to frequent questions, reservations, and quotes in real time, according to the company.

Named Franco, the Chatbot will be available both on the webpage of Budge Costa Rica as well as in its Facebook Messenger. Initially, Franco will allow clients to make any frequent questions related to car rentals, and in a second phase, it will also permit car rental reservations through this chat platform.

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Starting this month, Franco is available in English and Spanish.

“In Budget, our main objective is to use artificial intelligence technology to solve the needs of clients in real time, at any hour, and any day of the year by means of an automated knowledge that will allow them to find the answers to their needs in an interactive manner,” said Paulo Vargas, general manager of Budget Costa Rica.

Franco can answer several types of questions on rentals, recommend and show the available car fleet, and provide information on locations and coverages.

“With Budget we executed a special job, as there was no other Chatbot in the Costa Rican car rental industry,” said Kenneth Calderon, CEO of EDNA. “This allowed us to innovate and provide a solution that we know will improve the experience of the client. By creating a Chatbot for Facebook Messenger and its webpage, Budget will have instant access to its clients by means of a widely used and familiar platform. We built Franco using the latest artificial intelligence technology.”

With its amicable tone, instant answers, and the capacity to answer frequently asked questions, Franco sounds like a real person that is available 24/7.

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“For Budget, the project aligns with the innovation initiatives portfolio that we have been working on that seeks to improve the experience of our clients with immediate answers to their questions and requests, and we are the first car rental to offer this type of solutions,” said Vargas.

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