Samenvatting

A lot of trends and developments are happening within facility management (FM). From using cleaning and caring robots till changing the workplace to a wellness destination (Sodexo, 2017; CBRE, 2017).
Another trend involves around buildings, which are becoming more intelligent than their users (ISS, 2013) with the use of smart sensors (Facto, 2018). Facility management is currently applying these trends to satisfy end-users, the customers of facility management. The general change that appears from all these trends is that personal service is changing into self-service with less human contact from an FM staff member (ISS, n.d.). A trend that started more than twenty years ago was the rise of Facility Management Information System (FMIS) software. This software provides service information, based on the offered facilities that help the operational processes and the supervision by the management team (Maas & Pleunis, 2006). Nowadays it is possible to fill in Complaints, Wishes, Information, and Faults (CWIF) in FMIS-software on a computer, tablet or smartphone, in a web browser or in an application (Axxerion, 2014).
 
Another trend that has been acknowledged by many commercial organisations, is the use of chatbots for client contact. They are used by organisations such as, insurance companies (Nguyen, 2017) and web shops (Kokoszka, 2018). According to Allianz Worldwide Partners (2018), chatbots are used to enhance the customer experience and are active in social applications, such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, and also in applications provided by hotels. According to a market study from the researcher, chatbots are currently not applied within facility management. The increasing amount of chatbots, the increasing use of self-service, and the increasing usage of mobiles phones could create cold robotic environments and experiences (Weissenberg & Langford, 2018). Nevertheless, the usage of mobile phones will likely increase even more in the near future and chatbots may give organisations the opportunity to further digitalise the way how services or information are requested and eventually the way how they are being delivered. From a facility management perspective, the combination of facility management and chatbots may improve the satisfaction of end-users by enabling them to give complaints, wishes, information, and faults via a chatbot, besides common communication channels. End-users do not have to be dependent on opening hours of offices, personnel costs could be lower since less personnel is needed, and the risk of communication faults can possibly be lower. Therefore, the following main research question was developed: “What is the applicability of chatbots in facility management within the service desk in offices?”. The research objective was to gain insight into the applicability of chatbots in facility management, especially within the service desk in offices.
 
The data was collected by performing focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews with chatbot developers, managers from organisations who use chatbots in their communication with their external customers (consumers and organisations), with people who are active in facility management (FMIS-suppliers, consultancy, FM-suppliers), and with facility managers who could add a chatbot to their communication channels. The results show that chatbots can be added to the communication channels to receive and react 24/7 on CWIF-process requests and reports from end-users. Facility management related example situations, of when a chatbot can be used, relate to space & building management, catering, cleaning, and facility management related administration. The CWIF-process related requests and reports can be handled by a chatbot to as long&