The Contact Center industry sees great potential in bots and has high hopes for their use, counting on cost reduction and improved service. However, customers have a different opinion about the usefulness of bots, as confirmed by subsequent studies – this time by the company UJET. It showed that as many as 80% of customers feel frustrated due to contact with a bot in customer service.
The UJET study was conducted on a global sample of 1,700 consumers over the last 12 months. It revealed that the use of ineffective automation technology, such as chatbots, causes brands to lose credibility in the eyes of customers. This is primarily due to customer frustration with contact with a bot (80% of indications) and the ineffectiveness of bots in solving problems. This is evidenced by the fact that as many as 78% of customers were forced to contact a human after a failed attempt to solve a problem through an automated service channel.
“Additionally, as many as 72% of respondents in the UJET study considered the use of chatbots in customer service a waste of time. More than half of consumers (54%) also admitted that a phone call with a live agent provides the fastest problem resolution and the best overall customer experience. Additionally, as many as 73% of respondents believe that brands could significantly improve the customer experience by providing a solution to the problem at the first point of contact,” says Krzysztof Lewiński, Country Manager at Armatis Polska, which is one of the largest customer service and sales outsourcers operating in Poland.
It is similar in Poland
According to the Armatis Customer Experience Index research from October last year, voice bots are definitely not among the favorite service methods in Poland. In the Armatis study, only 1% of respondents indicated contact with a bot as their favorite, and the highest scores were obtained by a phone conversation with a human (30%), face-to-face contact (20%), chat (13%), or e-mail (11%). According to the Armatis representative, this clearly shows that thoughtless implementation of bots in Contact Centers can do more harm than good.
– The key to success is achieving the right mix between virtual and human agents in managing customer interactions. When implementing automation, brands should primarily strive to reduce customer wait times and improve the first-contact resolution rate. Only then will it be possible to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty – comments Krzysztof Lewiński.
Huge potential for bots in contact centers?
Among contact center companies, there is a prevailing belief that automation in the voice channel has the greatest value, as indicated by 87% of industry representatives in a recent study by Replicant. For this reason, as many as 83% of all investments in automation in contact and call centers concern voice service, and 76% of managers in the industry define this channel as a priority for automation implementations. Contact center managers are also very excited about the possibilities offered by automation (66%) and expect revolutionary effects from this technology (54%).
However, according to Krzysztof Lewiński from Armatis, these revolutionary effects are not yet visible, and subsequent studies show very clearly that customers do not perceive the mass introduction of AI-based bots into service channels well.
– We are watching the development of AI and its potential application in customer service very carefully, but for now, we see greater opportunities in using bots to automate selected processes so as to support the work of agents and relieve them of performing repetitive tasks. This technology is, of course, developing very quickly and a lot may change here soon, but for now, brands should listen closely to the voice of their customers and take it into account – says Krzysztof Lewiński from Armatis.
IDC and the EU on AI in customer service and sales
According to a recent IDC study, corporate spending on AI will reach $300 billion in 2026, which means an increase of almost 100% compared to the $154 billion projected for the end of 2023. Three of the leading AI use cases in terms of spending are focused on sales and customer service. These are: customer service agent augmentation, sales process recommendations and augmentation, and program advisors and recommendation systems. According to IDC, spending in these areas will consume more than a quarter of all AI expenditures in 2023.
Currently, there are no specific legal regulations that would govern the use of AI-based tools in customer service and sales. However, this issue is currently the subject of debate and will most likely be regulated soon in the “EU AI Act”. The planned solutions are primarily aimed at ensuring that consumers have transparent information that they are interacting with a bot, not a human. Numerous restrictions are also to be introduced on the use of AI bots in marketing and sales activities.
Source: Armatis