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Verizon has turned to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to automate phone calls

theregister.com

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Re: Verizon has turned to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to automate phone calls

#61

Post by saagarjha »

Bjartr wrote: post #56
Scoundreller wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is, the second they have my email address, they start spamming you. When they have to pay $0.62/message, it cuts down on the crap. I’m a member of a profession where you’re supposed to read all of their comms. Now that they’ve switched to email, they send way more crap that I have to sift through and I can’t block them.

> The problem is, the second they have my email address, they start spamming you. Being (arguably) legitimate companies, their unsubscribe links actually do work.

Thank you for unsubscribing from promotional notifications! However, next week we will be rolling out sales notifications, which are completely different and you are opted into them by default.

Re: Verizon has turned to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to automate phone calls

#62

Post by agustif »

jerrysievert wrote: post #8
bastardoperator wrote: post #4

I just say "f king human please" and AI seems to understand that pretty well in most cases.

I find that a couple of choice swear words get me transferred to a human very quickly. typically, a human answers the call and is rather tentative (I'm guessing my call gets flagged due to the swearing?), and after my cheerful response back to them it becomes a pleasant interaction.

and then the algo tags you as bipolar lol

Will try the swear words, kinda did it anyway but didn't notice any improvements...

Re: Verizon has turned to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to automate phone calls

#63

Post by QuercusMax »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #53
QuercusMax wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% accuracy is probably too much to hope for, as there will of course be poor-quality phone calls. Of course, maybe Google could encode an alternate data stream inside the generated voice, which would enable perfect transcription. Now I'm imagining a future where robots communicate with each other over audio channels....

What's wrong with that? We've preferred programs communicate with each other in human-parsable formats for decades.

Nothing wrong with it at all, necessarily. Just seems... a bit too on-the-nose.

Re: Verizon has turned to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to automate phone calls

#64

Post by cosmojg »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #21
KMnO4 wrote: post #12

I'm sure the telcos have statistics to validate this system, but it seems to completely oppose my own personal experiences. I have never phoned customer support to: - View my account details (available online) - Find out about new plans and promos (available online) - Pay my bill (available online) - etc (available online) I have only phoned customer support to: - Negotiate a better rate (requires a human) - Argue ab…

>(available online) Try loading a modern web form over 3g. Try loading a modern web form on an Android <6.x device. Try loading a web form on a feature phone. Try loading a modern web form in BFE over a landline. For any transaction where you don't need a human and it's painful to use the internet walking through phone menus is a pretty good alternative. They only make it painful to speak to a human. For routine tran…

Sounds like we need to build better websites, and maybe cut back on the JavaScript.

Re: Verizon has turned to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to automate phone calls

#65

Post by mc32 »

KMnO4 wrote: post #12

I'm sure the telcos have statistics to validate this system, but it seems to completely oppose my own personal experiences. I have never phoned customer support to: - View my account details (available online) - Find out about new plans and promos (available online) - Pay my bill (available online) - etc (available online) I have only phoned customer support to: - Negotiate a better rate (requires a human) - Argue ab…

If you want a person, say the magic words, “I want to terminate the contract”. They’ll more often than not send you to a customer retention representative who has agency within the system.

Re: Verizon has turned to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to automate phone calls

#66

Post by jackson1442 »

sys_64738 wrote: post #45

I don't talk to computers other than to demand a human. I doubt very much I ever will. It's why stuff like Alexa and Siri is doomed to fail. People don't want to communicate that way.

On the other hand, Amazon's chatbot for order issues is actually one of the best customer support experiences I've had.

Me: "I need to get a refund"

Bot: "Which order do you need refunded?"

Me: select order

Bot: "What's your reason for requesting a refund?"

Me: "Item did not arrive"

Bot: "Alright, I've credited your payment method x#### used on this order."

Fastest refund I've ever gotten-- the product never arrived at the door and usually a refund like that requires an escalation to prevent fraud; I'm assuming this system uses some sort of risk analysis score to determine if it can refund without a return.

Re: Verizon has turned to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to automate phone calls

#67

Post by cortesoft »

KMnO4 wrote: post #12

I'm sure the telcos have statistics to validate this system, but it seems to completely oppose my own personal experiences. I have never phoned customer support to: - View my account details (available online) - Find out about new plans and promos (available online) - Pay my bill (available online) - etc (available online) I have only phoned customer support to: - Negotiate a better rate (requires a human) - Argue ab…

Of course a HN reader is comfortable online. Everyone commenting here is comfortable online (a very clear selection bias)

There are a lot of people in this world (especially older people) who are used to doing everything over the phone, and don't know how to use the internet and don't want to learn.

You are never going to encounter those people on an online forum, but they exist.

Re: Verizon has turned to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to automate phone calls

#69

Post by cameronbrown »

canadianwriter wrote: post #33
KMnO4 wrote: post #12

I'm sure the telcos have statistics to validate this system, but it seems to completely oppose my own personal experiences. I have never phoned customer support to: - View my account details (available online) - Find out about new plans and promos (available online) - Pay my bill (available online) - etc (available online) I have only phoned customer support to: - Negotiate a better rate (requires a human) - Argue ab…

As someone who in a past life worked at a telco..... its insane how common those are. A HUGE part of my job was getting people to use the dang website! They work REALLY REALLY hard to get people to use the website. It's mostly older generations, they refuse to use a website for many of those basic things. A lot of it is an issue of trust, they just don't trust websites.

> It's mostly older generations, they refuse to use a website for many of those basic things. A lot of it is an issue of trust, they just don't trust websites.

I don't trust websites. Websites from regulated industries (banking, finance, telecom) are especially slow, confusing and poorly built. Totally understand why people avoid them when they know a better alternative.

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