64% of people not happy about idea of AI-generated customer service
- Reference: 1720537868
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/09/gartner_simply_replacing_hold_music/
- Source link:
In a December 2023 [1]survey of 5,728 customers by industry watcher Gartner, 64 percent of respondents said they would prefer it if companies didn't use artificial intelligence in customer service. Sixty percent worried that it would make it even harder to reach a human being, while 42 percent were concerned that AI would provide the wrong answers.
The results will not surprise anyone who has spent quality time on hold, being told repeatedly that their call was important, but due to "unprecedented" call volumes, getting through to a human would take a while.
[2]
Gartner's survey comes a week after another, from business inventory platform Katana, that [3]found half the customers in a much smaller study - 250 respondents - preferred talking to a human rather than an AI-powered chatbot.
Many customers fear that GenAI will simply become another obstacle between them and an agent
Taken as a less expensive option than hiring more humans to answer telephones or respond to messages, the allure of AI for business leaders is easy to understand.
"Sixty percent of customer service and support leaders are under pressure to adopt AI in their function," said Keith McIntosh, Senior Principal, Research, in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice.
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"But they can't ignore concerns about AI use, especially when it could mean losing customers."
Last year, telecoms giant BT [6]announced 55,000 positions were to be axed by 2030, with thousands likely to come from customer services due to "digitization and automation of processes."
[7]
BT, and companies like it, would do well to ponder Gartner's findings. According to the survey, 53 percent of customers would consider switching to a competitor if they found out AI was being used for customer service.
Many companies already direct customers to self-service options, such as a web portal. However, a customer who cannot resolve their issue that way is usually more keen to speak to a human than deal with yet more layers of obfuscation. McIntosh said, "Many customers fear that GenAI will simply become another obstacle between them and an agent.
"The onus is on service and support leaders to show customers that AI can streamline the service experience."
[8]
Therefore customers must feel that an AI-powered service is there to help rather than hinder. McIntosh went on: "AI-infused chatbots must communicate to the customer that they will connect them to an agent in the event that the AI cannot provide a solution.
"It must then seamlessly transform into an agent chat that picks up where the chatbot left off. This way, the customer can trust that they will be able to efficiently find their solution while using the AI-infused channel."
[9]BT is ditching workers faster than your internet connection with 55,000 for chop by 2030
[10]That call center tech scammer could be a human trafficking victim
[11]The number's up for 999. And 911. And 000. And 111
[12]Robocall scammers sentenced in US after netting $1.2M via India-based call centers
Good customer service is vital to maintaining customer loyalty, and anyone who has had to endure endless hold music in a futile attempt to get through to a human able to resolve an issue will attest to that.
However simply replacing a perky message repeatedly telling the customer how important they are with a GenAI assistant serves only to emphasize how unimportant the company considers customer service personnel, and is unlikely to inspire that loyalty. ®
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[1] https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-07-09-gartner-survey-finds-64-percent-of-customers-would-prefer-that-companies-didnt-use-ai-for-customer-service
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zo1el2QCbcKSTUTMu2ARAgAAARI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://katanamrp.com/blog/customers-prefer-a-real-human-over-an-ai-chatbot/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zo1el2QCbcKSTUTMu2ARAgAAARI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zo1el2QCbcKSTUTMu2ARAgAAARI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/18/bt_redundancies_2030/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zo1el2QCbcKSTUTMu2ARAgAAARI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zo1el2QCbcKSTUTMu2ARAgAAARI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/18/bt_redundancies_2030/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/human_trafficking_for_cyber_scam/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/03/the_numbers_up_for_999/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/20/court_sentences_two_to_41/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Of course it's Gartner.
Gartner analysts could be replaced by AI before customer service is....Becasue you only need the "Artificial" part, "Intelligence" is not necessary.
A major tech vendor recently shared with me they are moving that way for tech support, since most of the "Call drivers" are well understood, and similar enough, that they can offer faster time to resolution with an AI approach.
My response was, and is: "Well, if the issues are well understood, repeated often, and similar, perhaps addressing the underlying call driver issues would be a better ROI, and you'd have a better product"
For me, if I phone up ANY organisation it is because I want to talk to a REAL LIVE PERSON.
Every time I get through instead to some labyrinthian automated phone menu, chat bot or, worst of all effing "A.I.", all that tells me is the organisation's attitude is "f*ck off, go away, we don't care and don't want to have anything to do with you."
Fine - instant lost business.
The problem is that increasingly there is no other option, given that nowadays almost all big companies do the same.
Not to mention the situation when it's a manglement decision to use a certain provider (that of course has those "a"."i". things in place), but it's the low-end wage worker who has to deal with their "support".
The problem with automating customer support is that the agent *is* the customer support. I don't think there was a single time an automated system helped me with anything, in fact I felt kind of belittled that the only options the automated system had were brain-dead options/solutions that any numbskill would attempt when troubleshooting an issue, especially before attempting to get support because trying to get support is the most painful and time-consuming last resort one can come to.
Human agents have intuition and skills that are not taught to them. Like any other job, the real "job" is the intuition that gets non-verbally handed down, sifted between the cracks of human awareness, *especially* the awareness of the upper management and people who actually model support systems who have no idea what it's like to work in the field. I believe there was even a lot of discussion about how Windows Recall can be used by bosses to record exactly what employees do and vacuum up that very non-verbal intuition the staff learn on their own in order to feed it to a model. That's the only potential way to make automated support systems work. If they can get that to work, I actually would be in favor of automating support systems, since it's not only a menial and grueling job that involves taking a lot of abuse, but it would be the end of waiting on hold for hours just to get a guy with a thick accent using the cheapest Logitech headset the company could afford. But it would have to be rigorously tested, by real customers who have had real issues that never got resolved, not designed by committee.
Oh, side note, if you can manage to find it, there's a really good indie movie called Infinity Chamber that's basically just having to deal with automated customer support and getting nowhere. It's actually one of my favorite movies, I should rewatch it.
AI support?
As it is with excessive advertising, I will shun and completely ignore any business that advertises too much or replaces humans with ai. Not only do they deprive meatsacks of jobs in times of global hardship, they use software that they think can function properly but which destroys yet another part of the communication that once made us a socially functional society.
I want no part of it and will fight it as strongly as I have the power companies trying to force smart meters on us. Bastards.