Chatbots & Co.: How Customer Service DOESN’T Work
Voice assistants already understand us better than we understand ourselves, they say.
Chatbots are THE REVOLUTION in customer service, they proclaim.
We are not quite there yet, I must notice.
The automatic voice assistant on the service hotline recently:
“You can talk to me now. What is your concern?” “My modem is broken.” “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that. What is your concern?” “MODEM.” “I’m sorry, I didn’t get that, what’s your concern?” Ok, I think to myself, maybe modem is too specific, let’s try a more general category, “INTERNET.” “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that, can you please repeat it again?”
“I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T!”
“So you want to lock your phone. I’ll refer you to a service representative for that.” — -???
What sounds like a cabaret has actually happened and is often touted as THE FUTURE of modern customer communication.
Maybe the chat with automatic speech recognition will actually work some time in the distant future.
But as a customer, I usually don’t want to wait that long.
After multiple fruitless attempts with the customer chat, Q&As, the online contact form, and countless futile phone calls I decided enough was enough and cancelled my contract with the respective provider after many years of customer loyalty.
And guess what?
A well-trained sales professional contacted me out of nowhere.
So the pros are sitting at the cancellation desk!
A young lady with exceptional communication skills was able to reclaim my business by understanding my worries and providing me an appealing offer. Compliments to the staff. That was a strong performance in stark contrast to voice assistants, chat, contact forms, and all of the other techniques of preventing clients from contacting you.
Technology: 0/10.
Human staff: 10/10.
This piece was originally published in the Austrian technology magazine e-media in a longer edition.
