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Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

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Re: Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

#21

Post by d--b »

olavgg wrote: post #13

Chatbots do work, those who say it doesn't work have just tried the really bad ones. Examples of chatbots that do work Nuance's Nina https://www.windstream.com/Support/ Jenn (unknown who is behind it) https://www.alaskaair.com/ Our James https://master.boost.ai/

James: Hi!

James: My name is James and I can help you with bank and insurance questions. Write to me in either Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish or English.

Me: Hey, I am French, and am living half in the US and half in France, do I need to purchase insurance in the US?

James: We offer a full range of insurances to meet all your needs.

James: Select an option: Cars other vehicles Home insurance Travel insurance Health insurance File insurance claim

Re: Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

#22

Post by ysavir »

pavlov wrote: post #17

Chatbots offer a state-of-the-art user experience brought through a timewarp from the text adventure games of 1981. "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. There is a CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE on the ground."

Maybe you're on to something. Perhaps chatbots would be easier to work with if we were able to examine inventory and see a list of available commands?

Re: Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

#23

Post by ucarion »

ysavir wrote: post #22
pavlov wrote: post #17

Chatbots offer a state-of-the-art user experience brought through a timewarp from the text adventure games of 1981. "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. There is a CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE on the ground."

Maybe you're on to something. Perhaps chatbots would be easier to work with if we were able to examine inventory and see a list of available commands?

It's considered good style to support user messages like "what can I say?" or "where was I?" for precisely this reason.

Re: Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

#24

Post by freehunter »

dyeje wrote: post #20

Funny to read these comments when not so many months ago chatbots and conversational UI were all the rage.

It still is "all the rage" for a lot of companies who have invested a lot of money to push this UI. What you're seeing here is backlash from people who are forced to use it and found it lacking. The only people who like it are businesses who paid for it and want to force people to use it.

Re: Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

#25

Post by jaclaz »

Going a little sideways it's not like at any Call Center you usually get to talk (without having first gone through all their standard "script" and possibly become upset and manage to escalate to a higher level of support) with someone that actually can provide you with assistance beyond what is already on the FAQ of the correspondent site.

(provided the site FAQ's are actually frequently asked questions and not - as often happens - a bunch of questions that the original website developer jolted down because he/she imagined they will be asked and that noone actually updates with "real" questions asked by customers).

So you get to talk with a human, but very often this human is either clueless or cannot really do anything about the issue at hand. (not of course fault of the human, but rather of the way he/she was mis-trained or because of directives coming from the company)

Re: Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

#26

Post by computator »

> When you're filling a signup form, you instantly know what information they'll need from you. You can decide if you're comfortable sharing them before you engage in filling it.

If only that were true! The trend is to ask for a little bit info at a time, then take you to the next page where it asks for other info, and so on. You don't see at a glance the whole form anymore.

I resort to filling in fake info on sign-up forms, order pages, employment applications, airline/hotel reservations, etc., just to find out what questions they'll ask so I can decide whether to refuse before I tell them anything.

And also to find out key information they tell you only at the end (sales tax, shipping cost, etc.).

Re: Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

#27

Post by nerdponx »

olavgg wrote: post #13

Chatbots do work, those who say it doesn't work have just tried the really bad ones. Examples of chatbots that do work Nuance's Nina https://www.windstream.com/Support/ Jenn (unknown who is behind it) https://www.alaskaair.com/ Our James https://master.boost.ai/

James didn't do so great: http://i65.tinypic.com/10ojr52.jpg

It's just a search engine with a worse user experience. Reminds me of Ask Jeeves, but more patronizing.

Re: Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

#28

Post by binarymax »

olavgg wrote: post #13

Chatbots do work, those who say it doesn't work have just tried the really bad ones. Examples of chatbots that do work Nuance's Nina https://www.windstream.com/Support/ Jenn (unknown who is behind it) https://www.alaskaair.com/ Our James https://master.boost.ai/

Wendy: Hello, I am Wendy our Virtual Agent. I am here to help you with your support questions on High-Speed Internet, Digital TV and Home Phone.

You: Can I get cheap internet without tv and phone?

Wendy: To inquire about or change your current service plan, please contact a customer service representative at (800) 347-1991, or find us at your local retail store.

To locate a Windstream store near you click here.

Re: Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

#29

Post by radarsat1 »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #3

Yet. Chat bots don't deliver good customer service yet. They will get better and eventually get better than humans. It's a new use of technology, give it time to improve. I already know of companies using AI to adapt to customers like this article says chat bots don't do. It's cutting edge but it is out there.

> It's a new use of technology, give it time to improve.

Why is it a new use of technology? I seem to remember chatbots being around in the 90's... or am I imagining things?

Of course, they sucked, and people said "they will get better and eventually get better than humans." I don't see what has changed in that regard.

Maybe the assertion is still true, but despite advances in NLP and other areas of ML, it hasn't seem to have improved the bots, or their associated customer experience.

Re: Chatbots Don't Deliver Good Customer Service

#30

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

jaclaz wrote: post #25

Going a little sideways it's not like at any Call Center you usually get to talk (without having first gone through all their standard "script" and possibly become upset and manage to escalate to a higher level of support) with someone that actually can provide you with assistance beyond what is already on the FAQ of the correspondent site. (provided the site FAQ's are actually frequently asked questions and not - as…

Just ask for their supervisor.
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