How BotForge Built a Rider Assistant for the Fred Whitton Challenge

The Fred Whitton Challenge is a 112-mile charity sportive around the Lake District, and its organisers were overwhelmed by questions on Messenger. BotForge built a chatbot that answers them around the clock.

BotForge for Fred Whitton Challenge

Fred Whitton Challenge

Client: Fred Whitton Challenge
Agency: BotForge, part of Cohaesus
Type of work: AI & chatbots
Sector: Sport & Entertainment
Scope: Conversation design, natural language processing, Facebook Messenger, data integrations, human escalation

The Fred Whitton Challenge is a 112-mile charity sportive around the Lake District in honour of Fred Whitton. It attracts more than 2,000 riders a year and is consistently oversubscribed.

The Challenge

The organisers faced overwhelming numbers of enquiries through Facebook Messenger. Answering routine questions about logistics, taking part, registration, safety and procedures by hand took up a great deal of staff time, and the volume was growing. They needed 24/7 answers to frequently asked questions, while riders could still reach the organisers directly when they needed to.

The Approach

BotForge built a Facebook Messenger chatbot on a natural language processing engine, trained on FAQ data and past enquiries so it matched what riders actually ask from day one.

90+ intents covering rider requests and bot actions
Nine entity types to pick up each rider's context
Nine external data integrations for live information
Past results lookup for previous years
Weather reports for planning
Safety information for the demanding 112-mile route
Escalation to the organisers when the chatbot cannot answer

The chatbot uses Messenger's rich interface elements, and ongoing training improves its accuracy over time.

I am impressed with the chatbot, it seemed to work well. I think it is a good source of help.

Carolyn Brown, Fred Whitton Challenge Steering Group

The Outcome

The chatbot took routine questions off the customer service team and gave riders instant answers at any hour, from registration to safety and past results. It also showed the organisers what information riders look for, which let them improve the website and social media ahead of questions.