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My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

azumbrunnen.me

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Re: My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

#71

Post by _5659 »

My favorite chatbot experience lately has been support directing me to the chatbot, which then informs me that I am capable of resolving the issue of cancelling/refunding or making changes to my transaction. It just happens to be the case, that I ordered the wrong thing. Simple as that.

As I travel to the appropriate link, there is none such ability or option. I relay the appropriate message to their customer service. Fast forward a day later, they were unable to reply to my message in time, they have already processed the order, and are actually begging me to accept the purchase because as a small company they are incapable of managing their customer service department.

All in all, I felt bad that they would have lost a substantial amount on my cancellation or refund. But I can't help but feel the entire situation could have been avoided if they had eschewed the "benefit" of "automating" their customer service.

I think a good reason Salesforce has been so successful is that they force users to abide by the one-reply system of following up on customers.

Re: My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

#72

Post by vincnetas »

p1necone wrote: post #19
dheera wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also very alienating. Why is this even possible?

You can get current cursor position, and you can render things at arbitrary positions on the screen. Making this not possible would probably unnecessarily restrict your ability to build even actually useful things. Although hiding the real mouse cursor probably shouldn't be allowed without a permission dialog imo.

Yes, but you can use custom cursor, including a fully transparent one.

Re: My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

#73

Post by yoz-y »

dheera wrote: post #5
Ennea wrote: post #3

I'd just like to point out how absolutely terrible that simulated mouse cursor on that site is. Feels very sluggish and weird. Please don't do this.

It's also very alienating. Why is this even possible?

Web now has full 3D engines running in it. You don’t want a mouse cursor flying around when playing Quake.

Re: My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

#74

Post by [deleted] »

dheera wrote: post #56
corobo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this gets traction please remember to allow hiding cursor if the user has full screened something! -- person trying to watch a video without a lil pointer in the way

Or maybe the browser should implement hiding the cursor after 10 seconds of inactivity if the user has full-screened something. If a website made your cursor disappear immediately upon full screen that would be freaky, as if you lost control of your machine, thus, I don't think the websites should have this capability.

[deleted]

Re: My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

#75

Post by DebtDeflation »

>"The moment you create a chat bot is the moment you allow customers to have a conversation with your brand. Not with yourself, not with your friend, but with an uber entity—a symbol—that represents everything you and your team stand for. That’s not a step to be taken lightly."

As opposed to a call center in an impoverished country staffed with subsistence wage workers with an average tenure in the job of something like 6 months or less?

Companies talk a lot about CX and CRM until it's time to spend money on the front line workers who actually interact with the customers.

Re: My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

#76

Post by piracy1 »

dheera wrote: post #8

I absolutely despise those pop-up "Can I help you" boxes on product websites (usually Intercom). It completely disrupts my flow as a reader in trying to understand the product. That attention disruption got so bad I blocked Intercom and their ilk via injected CSS rules. I really want to take it a step further and write a plug in to interface a chat bot with the human on the other end and waste their time so sites beg…

I agree that most of the time its just an annoying popup to close. But (and this was more of a thing a few years ago) when I actually want to ask someone a quick question or get a quick ballpark estimate. But They've mostly all been replaced with robots or are just a disguised contact us form for you to say what you want then enter your email.

Re: My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

#77

Post by vidarh »

dheera wrote: post #8

I absolutely despise those pop-up "Can I help you" boxes on product websites (usually Intercom). It completely disrupts my flow as a reader in trying to understand the product. That attention disruption got so bad I blocked Intercom and their ilk via injected CSS rules. I really want to take it a step further and write a plug in to interface a chat bot with the human on the other end and waste their time so sites beg…

It'd be interesting to just have it connect two chat boxes to each other, and inject just enough randomised text to each of them first to get them to start talking past each other.

Re: My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

#78

Post by vidarh »

alias_neo wrote: post #30
dheera wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I love chat support interfaces and use them all the time. If I want support, that is. But not when I hit your site for the first time and just getting acquainted with your product. I just want to see your product materials at my own pace in peace. If you want me to see something different, change those materials to whatever you want your first impression to be. But don't accost me with a "can i help you" before…

The experience is analogous to the situation of walking into a physical store and having the clerk harass you the second you walk in. It makes you very uncomfortable and doesn't give you the opportunity to browse before they jump on you. I find that stores which do this tend to be more interested in making a sale than ensuring you have something you're happy with and want/need. What should we expect from sites which…

I often walk out of stores when that happen, and have more than once stopped to tell them that is exactly why I'm leaving.

Re: My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

#79

Post by tenryuu »

draugadrotten wrote: post #9
Ennea wrote: post #3

I'd just like to point out how absolutely terrible that simulated mouse cursor on that site is. Feels very sluggish and weird. Please don't do this.

This comment also shows this UX choice distracts from the message. Now we focus on that he's grabbing the mouse from us.

Yup, I didn't even bother to read the article. I went immediately to the comment section to complain.

It's really weird that people actually spend hours and days on implementations like this because they and are seemingly the only people that actually find enjoyment in it. If you were to talk to your friends about it they would probably say "it's cool" but many of us are still going to say "Why?"

Re: My chatbot is dead – Why yours should probably be too

#80

Post by tenryuu »

LukaD wrote: post #23
Ennea wrote: post #3

I'd just like to point out how absolutely terrible that simulated mouse cursor on that site is. Feels very sluggish and weird. Please don't do this.

The site is an absolute usability nightmare. Why can't I have a scrollbar?

This one's actually a bug https://twitter.com/azumbrunnen_/status/1318493410848890880
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