Trapped in a Chatbot Loop

We talk about customer service day in, day out – it's what we do and what we love. But we all know that not every customer service experience is a dream come true. While all brands strive to provide their clients and their customers with the best possible experience, it's no secret that some businesses sometimes miss the mark.

We decided to gather some real-life stories from our team about less-than-stellar customer service experiences. To our surprise, we ended up with quite a few tales to tell.

From this collection, we bring you ‘Customer Service Nightmares’, where we share examples of not-so-awsome customer service and offer our thoughts on how we would handle things differently.

The Frustration of not getting a simple request resolved by a chatbot from Claire.

I needed to swap some seats for a concert, so I used the ticket seller's chat function. Initially, I interacted with a bot, but it was ineffective for my simple request to switch seats within the same section. After explaining my issue, the bot failed to assist and kept asking how it could help, ignoring my request to connect to a human representative. Instead, it repeatedly shared FAQs that didn't resolve anything.

Frustrated with the bot and the lack of progress, I had to switch channels and call the company directly. It’s incredibly frustrating to have to use different channels just to get in touch with customer service. Chatbots should be able to handle basic customer queries or at least pass off to an agent when they can’t resolve an issue.

The phone call took only two minutes to resolve my issue, in stark contrast to the time wasted with the bot. The solution was straightforward and quickly handled by a human representative, highlighting how inefficient the chatbot was in handling a simple request.

How could technology enhance this experience? We spoke to our Chief Growth Officer, Jim Mitchell, here is what he had to say.?

Initially, chatbots were designed to deflect customers by pointing them to FAQs and providing generic information. However, with the advent of generative AI technology, chatbots can now offer an experience nearly equivalent to speaking with a customer service representative.

This ticket website should consider investing in an autopilot AI solution that allows customers to sell their tickets or change their seats directly through a chatbot. Alternatively, the chatbot could gather all necessary information and then pass it on to a customer representative for finalization. What might seem like a quick fix when speaking to a person could be even quicker through an enabled chatbot, potentially resolving issues in minutes and saving frustrated consumers a lot of time.

Moreover, even if the chatbot initially struggles to understand the request, modern technology can detect changes in sentiment and automatically transfer the conversation to a human representative. The representative will have access to the entire conversation history, allowing them to quickly understand the customer’s needs without asking repetitive questions—a common frustration when being transferred between departments on the phone.

Check out this fantastic case study from our partner, Netomi, on the real business impact an effective AI chatbot can drive for a company: https://www.netomi.com/simplex-case-study?