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Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

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Re: Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My last experience with a chatbot wasn't terrible. It asked me all the relevant information about the problem, even follow up questions, and all required reference numbers, and then passed me off to a human support person. A human would have done the same thing but it would be a waste of time for them. It was actually nice that I wasn't stuck in chatbot hell, I didn't have to ask for human, it just did it at the righ…

Did that person make you repeat all the same information? If not I think we are heading for a golden era.

Nope.

Re: Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

#112
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My last experience with a chatbot wasn't terrible. It asked me all the relevant information about the problem, even follow up questions, and all required reference numbers, and then passed me off to a human support person. A human would have done the same thing but it would be a waste of time for them. It was actually nice that I wasn't stuck in chatbot hell, I didn't have to ask for human, it just did it at the righ…

You what is even less of a waste of time for everyone? A simple form for that data. Just good the company knows a chatbot can not actually handle anything beyond taking some data.

I don't think that was in any way slower. You assume a simple form is enough to cover all possible situations in a non-frustrating way.

Re: Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

#113
post #3

How many times has a chatbot successfully taken care of a customer support problem you had? I have had success, but the success rate is less than 5%. Maybe even way less than 5%. Companies need to stop looking at customer support as an expense, but rather as an opportunity to build trust and strengthen your business relationship. They warn against assessing someone when everything is going well for them - the true me…

[deleted]

Re: Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should Xfinity make any changes if you still send them money every month?

i'll try to assume this isn't a snarky response! but it kinda sounds like it. unfortunately, there are no "good" ISPs in my area. xfinity and the other big ones killed most of the competition via undercutting, lobbying and the legal system (ie, tying up municipal fiber/wifi initiatives in bureaucratic hell). since i no longer work from home, it's mostly just a convenience to have internet service for personal use. i…

No snark, I just don’t see why Xfinity would have any motivation to change their process if it doesn’t have an impact on the bottom line.

Re: Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The few times I've let a company sucker me into engaging with a chatbot, it was nothing but a worse interface to searching their support website. It was capable of nothing but directing me to pages which could not help me, because what I needed was not more information about the problem I already knew I had, but someone to fix the damn problem .

xfinity is absolutely lousy for this. at least with a human representative, i can let them know right out of the gate that, yes, i've power cycled my CPE, and yes, i've bypassed my own network to confirm the problem is not with my equipment. every single time i've had to go through this dance, they acknowledge that the problem is on their end and can fix it right away or put in a work order. every time i've had to in…

I moved states, and changed my service to the new address. They started billing me for both addresses for several months.

Several calls and many, many hours later, I was finally able to get the double-billing resolved. But they didn't remove the charges that had accrued. Several calls later I was able to get someone who assured me they could deal with the issue. I demanded a $50 statement credit as compensation for my time.

They flipped the sign on the statement credit, and it was an additional $50 charge.

I got called by their collections department. I patiently explained the issue, and they were very sympathetic. Then they asked why don't I just settle up the outstanding balance now and then we can sort out the billing issue later. For the first time in this ordeal I lost my cool and flatly told them to go fuck themselves.

Several calls later it was finally resolved, but this entire experience was astounding. There was nobody qualified to escalate to. I was completely at the mercy of the random humans the system picked for me to interact with, and there were seemingly zero knobs I could turn or buttons to push to summon someone who could actually assist. To their credit, many of the support staff seemed just as frustrated as I was, but were equally hamstrung by the system they were interacting with.

Re: Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'll try to assume this isn't a snarky response! but it kinda sounds like it. unfortunately, there are no "good" ISPs in my area. xfinity and the other big ones killed most of the competition via undercutting, lobbying and the legal system (ie, tying up municipal fiber/wifi initiatives in bureaucratic hell). since i no longer work from home, it's mostly just a convenience to have internet service for personal use. i…

No snark, I just don’t see why Xfinity would have any motivation to change their process if it doesn’t have an impact on the bottom line.

ah well, we're dealing with economies of scale far greater than individual subscribers. and trust me, i've weighed going offline-only at home (not including mobile data), but for what relatively-little i do pay, i'm not ready to unplug just yet.

Re: Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The few times I've let a company sucker me into engaging with a chatbot, it was nothing but a worse interface to searching their support website. It was capable of nothing but directing me to pages which could not help me, because what I needed was not more information about the problem I already knew I had, but someone to fix the damn problem .

This doesn’t work for technical people, but it works for the other 90% of people who’d rather call and waste not only support’s time, but their own time even if their problem can be resolved by common sense or the first page of the knowledge base. Companies need to offer an “advanced support” option - a separate number with big scary warnings where every call whose resolution is due to your own fault or something fin…

Because "customer support" is supposed to be, at least on its face, friendly and supportive. It's not good business to actively antagonize or challenge your customers.

Re: Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

#118
post #3

How many times has a chatbot successfully taken care of a customer support problem you had? I have had success, but the success rate is less than 5%. Maybe even way less than 5%. Companies need to stop looking at customer support as an expense, but rather as an opportunity to build trust and strengthen your business relationship. They warn against assessing someone when everything is going well for them - the true me…

Its slightly more useful than a static "choose this number to direct you to X".

What really grinds my gears is when they pass the bot off as a human. inevitably you discover its not and thats almost always right about the same time you realize that they cant help you. I would rather not have wasted my time and been told up front "sorry we dont have anyone available to help you right now"

Re: Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

#119
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only time a chatbot worked for me is Amazon's, of all things. It auto approved my return after I answered a few questions. I haven't had any chatbot outside that be useful to me. I always end up getting to the end of all the prompts only to be told I need to speak to a human or the chatbot going in a circle, in which I have to reach out to a different layer of support.

I think that's partially because Amazon returns are the most happy path support interaction I've ever seen. They basically always grant the refund/return (in my experience if it's soonish after purchase) and it's mostly about gathering the info to get it going rather than actually resolving an issue. The main decision on Amazon's side seems to be if they want you to bother sending the item back or not.

> The main decision on Amazon's side seems to be if they want you to bother sending the item back or not.

Hah. I had to argue with a chatbot and representatives when a bottle of shampoo arrived shattered and the Amazon package was filled with shampoo.

They literally said "put what remains of the product into a bag and return to UPS Store". I explained the absurdity, but no. So I duly show up at UPS who, to no-one's surprise but Amazon's, didn't particularly want a zip lock bag with 16 oz of shampoo in it.

And then they sent me a replacement bottle that broke similarly.

They didn't try that route again, but similarly, explaining that the "free replacement we sent you" was also delivered damaged, and I was still out money with no shampoo to show for it, also took a lot of effort. "But I see we sent you a replacement item, so you can't also get a refund." "Your replacement is also broken." "Oh, I thought that was the first bottle." "It was, too."

Re: Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t work for technical people, but it works for the other 90% of people who’d rather call and waste not only support’s time, but their own time even if their problem can be resolved by common sense or the first page of the knowledge base. Companies need to offer an “advanced support” option - a separate number with big scary warnings where every call whose resolution is due to your own fault or something fin…

Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/806/

An oldie, but goodie.

This may even be from the turn of the century: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI2xK6zbaoI

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