You’re having a very specific issue with a product or service and need an answer from the company’s customer service agent.
But once you begin a conversation with the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, the conversation goes nowhere. The AI bot simply doesn’t understand what you’re talking about.
Ever had that experience? Most likely you have because almost all major corporations incorporate AI into their customer service departments.
Alexander, a ConsumerAffairs reviewer from Brooklyn, N.Y., has been down that road while trying to get answers from FedEx.
“I have spent the last 30 minutes attempting to reach a customer service representative about a package,” Alexander told us. “Every time I provide the tracking number, the bot continues to provide the same updates I see online with no additional support.”
Robb Wilson, AI expert and editor-in-chief of UX Magazine, says AI’s move into customer service has generally made customer service worse.
Cutting costs, not serving customers
“By focusing automation efforts on cost-cutting measures that often deceive customers, companies are mortgaging their futures on a losing proposition,” Wilson told ConsumerAffairs. “Proper implementation requires an investment in people, the kind of long-term investment very few companies are making.”
Dr. Michael Everest is the CEO and founder of edYOU, a company dedicated to offering multifaceted paths of education using safe AI. He says most AI chatbots offer limited, canned responses to consumers’ questions, which can be frustrating.
“The intentions are good to be able to handle customer queries 24/7,” Everest said. “They handle routine inquiries, offer quick responses to common questions, and guide users through straightforward tasks. Using clear and concise language generally yields the best results when engaging with them.”
Ryan Doser, vice president of Client Services at Empathy First Media, says AI may have improved customer service in some ways, such as making it accessible 24/7. He says the chatbots can handle routine questions. The problem, he says, is when the issue is not routine.
“Personally, if I am having an issue with my internet provider, bank, or credit card, I prefer interacting with a human to resolve pressing issues,” he told us. “If my credit card was stolen and I contact customer service, the last thing I want to hear is an AI-powered customer service agent.”
Not a lot of progress
Nathan Brunner, CEO of Salarship, says technology companies were early adopters of chatbots. He says there have been improvements lately but even the newest chatbots offer very similar capabilities compared with previous generations.
“And at the end of the day, if an appropriate answer is not found in the database, there will always be an option to talk with a real human being,” Brunner said.
We’ve all been told that AI is developing at breakneck speed. Is it reasonable to assume that the industry will one day develop a better customer service chatbot?
Wilson isn’t sure companies want to improve their customer service chatbots. He suggests many of the chats were developed to keep customers from talking to live agents.
“This is a short-sighted approach to integrating technology that’s actually quite risky,” he told us. “The real wins with conversational AI in particular come when the technology becomes part of meaningful automations that elevate customer experience. In most industries, all it will take is one company getting this right to completely upend customer expectations. At this point, any organization that’s been barrelling down the cost-cutting path will have moved so far in the wrong direction that they won’t be able to catch up.”
A recent poll shows Americans are hopeful that AI will eventually get it right. The poll conducted for Infobip, a global cloud communications platform, found more than half of Americans are optimistic about the future of customer service, anticipating improvements brought about by the integration of AI.
While 40.4% of Americans believe that AI-driven customer service has made their experiences worse, the majority are hopeful AI will improve to the point there are no wait times and a reduced need to talk to a human being.
Photo Credit: Consumer Affairs News Department Images
Posted: 2023-12-06 12:10:19