Humans Vs. Chatbots

Have you ever been frustrated when the live chat on a website is simply an AI chatbot and no matter how many times you ask the question the response is very much on par with ‘computer says no’.? And no matter how hard you try you cannot be put through to a human.? That’s likely to be because there’s no humans manning up the live chat portal, as so many businesses are now moving towards chatbot AI, eliminating a lot of, if not all the human elements.?

Even more frustratingly you then look for a customer service telephone number on the company’s website to call them and you cannot find one.? That’s because there’s unlikely to be one!? Businesses are also moving away from having this readily available on their websites.?

Many businesses worldwide are moving to this approach but at what cost…...?

So, firstly let’s consider the pros of chatbots.? They reduce customer waiting time, they address the end customer personally (albeit an algorithm behind the scenes after the customer has entered their name in the name field!), they can bring a business customer insight into the type of queries raised, they reduce the resource needed for a ‘manned’ live chat system and they can answer (simple) queries.?

But that’s really where their functionality ends.? Despite reducing customer waiting time, chatbots can only answer the simplest of queries (for example, provide an order delivery update), they do not understand emotion and are unable to resolve complex customer queries.? The problem this then brings is customers become frustrated.? And normally when a query tends to be complex, it is likely to be of a negative nature and a chatbot’s inability to resolve the query can amplify a customer’s frustration further!

Ultimately, customers prefer human support.? Businesses moving away from that human element can lead to a significant risk of drastically compromising customer service.? The best approach is to use a combination of both.? AI technology is taking hold whether we as a customer like it or not.? But what companies should do is let the chatbot AI deal with the simple queries PLUS have human customer service representatives ready to step in for the more complex enquiries.?