Chabot's were sent to abolish customer service hours, however is our lack of humanity sending us backwards?

Firstly, this is not an anti bot article. There are obvious efficiencies & benefits around integrating chat bots into our customer service systems. However, like the old architectural saying, form needs to follow function, and we need to make sure we understand the purpose, and not just the technology. Much like social media, everyone believed this was going to save the day in the sense that we would no longer have to engage in traditional advertising, and we could socially sell through a handful of platforms. Has it helped us in marketing? You better believe it! Has it driven sales the way that we thought it might? Absolutely not!

Everything finds its own level in time, and chatbots are no different. We know from the Logmein 2018 customer experience report that ‘ more than 54% of consumers thought that AI was a positive, and over 70% of consumer agreed that brands should leverage technology.’ If this is the case, how come some brands are getting worse with service? If we look at telecommunication businesses, the wait times seem to be getting longer, not shorter, and these are….. well ‘communication & technology companies.’

We have to remember that user experience is just that. It isn’t the experience we want to have. Yes, it would be nice if we didn’t have to talk to customers, and it would also be nice if robots cold handle all of our customer complaints, however being that UX is now a hot boardroom topic, it will only be a matter of time before companies are looking at bring back personalised & human engagement. Firstly, because it works, and secondly because brands are still built on emotional engagement, whether psychological or in tangible form. It will be a race to technology and efficiency for a while, only until humanity creeps back in.

We saw this in Queensland with the taxi industry. A once robust and sustainable industry is now losing customers due to a historical focus on logistics only, and to a lesser extent, price & comfort, which based on market feedback, are the problems that rideshare is now solving. My point? Integration of technology does not need to be the abolishment of humanity, and our UX program needs to be an amalgamation of both. Robots and humans can get along together, and should. Let the form follow the function, and build your customer journey based on what is best for the customer, and don’t get distracted by the latest & coolest technology. Then, workout what resource, either human or chatbot will be able to fulfil that part of the customer journey for you.

Rudi Tartaglia