Got a query or complaint? Trying to contact customer service via a company website is almost impossible these days.
There appears a growing movement away from having a ‘contact us’ page, instead being replaced by ‘visit our FaceBook or Instagram page’ – even needing to sign up to a newsletter before being able to make contact.
Then there’s the annoying chat bot – which has no way of answering any query outside a narrowly-defined box.
A website should not only inform someone what the business or service is about, but also be a point of contact.
Are businesses automating themselves to the point of deterring customers?
The chat bot is not going away
Ofer Mintz, associate professor of marketing at the UTS Business School and author of The Post-Pandemic Business Playbook, says the use of AI chat bots is a trend that is going to continue, and if not managed correctly, could turn away customers.
Prof Mintz said that after the pandemic, the number of people who worked in customer service declined. This triggered an increase in AI chat bots taking over these roles.
“Customer service has gone down and those willing to work here became less available. For the past 20 years, call-centres were outsourced, notably to countries like India. Some companies had some backlash against this.”
A major issue turning companies away from using real people is the sheer volume of enquiries.
“Companies, like Google, FaceBook, Alibaba and Amazon have millions of people trying to reach them each day. Think about how many people they need to hire to answer calls? With staff numbers declining and nobody to hire, how do they keep up? They’ve scaled up, which means they had to automate,” adds Prof Mintz.
Another issue is the advancement and cost effectiveness of AI.
“While AI is not perfect; if it’s a basic customer enquiry, many issues can be solved. It becomes an easier way to solve customer’s issues when you don’t have talent, and it’s cheaper and…
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