Tag: customerservice

A Bit more ‘abot’ Bots

Posted on by markybrett

Three years ago, I posted about my experience with bots. The Good and the Bad. I return unenthusiastically and reluctantly.

I expected that within three years, there would be some amazing changes. There is scarcely a conversation where the two letters AI do not occur. Ginormous data centres have been constructed worldwide to cope with the demand. Throughout the world, governments are replacing all the decision-makers with AI (maybe not quite). We can all sleep safely in our beds knowing that all is good and we won’t have any more dodgy and corrupt politicians. AI has come to the rescue (or so say the likes of Thiel and Musk).

Well, today it has come all unstuck or at least for me. Having spent the entire morning in the company of 2 Bots trying to sort out a very simple problem, I am ‘gobsmacked’ by their complete inability to respond to this very straightforward issue. What made it even more ‘ gobsmacking’ was that I was dealing with two very large communications companies. I have no issue with saying who they are, as I think it is especially relevant: TalkTalk and Everymail (Open-Xchange- the world’s largest email software provider).

Very quick(ish) resume:

I wanted to delete an email address and the mailbox as it had not been used for quite some time apart from receiving mainly emails trying to sell us stuff. The Bot asked for certain details such as account name, etc and the relevant department. Great stuff, we are on the move. It then asked what we wanted to do. Having answered, it said it would direct us to the right department. All ok so far. I got through to a department which then asked what I wanted to do. I repeated our requirements. It gave us some instructions. They did not work. It gave an alternative; it did not work. The bot said it would pass us on to a customer services agent (not convinced this was not a bot either from the way the speech was framed). Anyway, I went through the whole procedure all over again.

I am now looking at the best part of forty minutes. Then I was handed over to someone else, who probably was a person, as he was called John! John suggested a couple of other ideas which, of course, failed, only to finally tell us the server for our email was no longer operated by TalkTalk, but had been transferred last August to Everymail. Thanks for telling us, John … oh, but we did send everyone an email last August. No, you didn’t, as I have the untouched inbox for the last three years in front of me. That’s the first hour flown by.

Now I am talking to an Everymail Bot. To my surprise, this one responded very quickly. However, the instructions given did not relate to the functions available on our account. Pointing this out at least twice got the Bot to change its mind (impressive- easily impressed by now) and redirected the instructions from the left-hand side of the page to the right-hand side. Still didn’t work. Finally it said …so you would like to close the account? I said yes, please. And the Bot disappeared.

So I asked the King(or Queen) of Bots- ChatGPT- if customer service Bots are frustrating.

Yes—customer service bots can be frustrating, but it depends on how they’re designed and what the customer is trying to accomplish.

People commonly find customer service bots frustrating when they:

  • Don’t understand what the user means, forcing repeated rewording.
  • Trap users in predefined options instead of allowing free-form requests.
  • Can’t solve complex problems, such as billing disputes or unusual account issues.
  • Make it difficult to reach a human agent, leaving users feeling stuck.
  • Ask for the same information multiple times, especially after transferring to a human.
  • Give generic or irrelevant answers that don’t address the actual issue.
  • Take too long by leading users through unnecessary steps.

Ticks every box for me.

However:

  • A single chatbot can handle the workload of 700 full-time agents.
  • Companies have seen profit improvements of up to $40 million in a single year.
  • Average query resolution times have dropped from 11 minutes to under 2 minutes. –Sobot.io–USA based Bot Company

With the global chatbot market projected to reach $9.56 billion, their role in transforming customer service interactions is undeniable. Companies are adopting chatbots to save up to 30% in support costs, amounting to $8 billion in savings.-Same Company

Chapter 247-Tech Co Based in India

Much of the ‘research’ as to the effectiveness and consumer acceptance currently seems to be carried out by the very companies that are selling their own ChatBot packages. Yet if you consider the responses of the three questions in the above diagram, they are hardly ringing endorsements.

Customers believe businesses will benefit most- very likely to be true, but it says little about benefiting the customer.

Customers think they are better because they reply faster. I would like to read the whole question as it does qualify what the customer thinks of the reply.

Messaging does not necessarily mean using a ChatBot.

This week I tried my luck with a Chatbot query of a major international payment company. I told the Bot my problem, and it responded very quickly and with a reasonable number of lines of text. Much of which repeated my question; none of it offered anything close to a resolution. I asked to speak to someone, and within three minutes I got a call. Within another two minutes, the problem was resolved. Yes, it was quick, but it was just quick finding me a human.

The very first Chatbot was back in the mid-1960s, called Eliza.

Today’s technology probably started with WeChat back in 2009 and has continued at a pace since then. But has it really?

Clearly Bots have a significant place within both large and small organisations. They are very efficient at collecting customer data and efficient in giving out basic stuff. What I cannot get to grips with is that after such a long period of gestation, they are not a lot more sophisticated and effective.

A baby learns to crawl, walk, and then run.  We are in the crawling stage when it comes to applying machine learning.” —  Dave Waters (The founder of Deeplearning.ai) 

So I have found.

The Most Important Person who works for your Customer (and it ain’t who you think it is )….

Posted on by markybrett

Many years ago, in a time when a Telex machine sat in the corner of the office and we all sat around it waiting for the magic to occur (once a day if you were lucky- the company may have not been busy but boy was it Hi-Tec) a colleague, good friend and much respected Salesman once said to me …

Mark, do you know who the most important person is , to me, in any of our customers ?

No, Reginald (not his real name , I would never have worked for anyone called Reginald, least of all Reggie , as he would have frightened me- for those who don’t know any 60’s London gangsters he was a nasty one. I was too young to know him but my Dad did). Do tell.

Well, it was not who you think it is . It is not the Boss, it is not their assistant , it is not the buyer …

Reginald get to the point , the telex machine might kick off.

It’s the geezer (and then it was invariably male) who takes our delivery in at the back(metaphorical back, it could be front sometimes) door .

None of this is true. Or at least the only true part is what Reginald said (and he was a very highly respected salesman) and the Telex bit . He qualified it by saying that with every customer if you did not treat everyone within the customer’s organisation with equal respect then you should not expect it in return . He used the Guy at the back door as an example of being the very first person who actually comes into contact with the product you have sold to the customer. If he can relate your inanimate cartons to a good experience then there is a very good chance they would be treated well, counted properly , stored nicely, recorded accurately and perhaps a little more patient if the delivery driver has turned up late .

It’s all about customer service . It does not stop and start with being nice to the Buyer/Boss. It’s a lot more holistic. Yet still very simple. If you are able to have relationship with all the relevant colleagues (especially with the one at Goods In) it will ultimately smooth the path from your product going in the metaphoric back door and out through the front door.

Of course the same is true in reverse . You can be the best and most liked salesperson in your market place. You maybe selling a terrific product at an amazing price but if the courier your company uses always arrives late at the customer , is very grumpy or awkward and your accounts department starts chasing payment before you have had the delivery. Or your Sales office never picks the phone up or answers emails. You will soon loose that customer. I don’t want to start on The Buyers. To be quite clear, the majority are great even if they do not become customers. That, after all, is their job , to select from whom and what they buy. And No, I don’t expect them to always return your calls. But a few are just rude or very forgetful. Missing apointments happens for a variety of reasons but not getting any acknowledgment of that is not on and I suspect that is not conducive to that company getting the best service from that supplier. Ignoring information that has been requested . Being down right rude in meetings. That happened to me in a virtual meeting when discussing possible price increase when the immediate response by the said buyer was as follows ….

If you continue in that vein ( the vein was the initial suggestion that we may need a price increase) I shall terminate this meeting now .

How is that helpful ?

We have all had the experience of going into a Retail Store, been looked after by an excellent salesperson and made a purchase. When getting home you have a query and ring Head Office, and find they are very unhelpful , don’t have an answer, or can’t be bothered find out, don’t follow up on your query and try pass it onto another colleague. Not only do you seriously consider never going into that shop, it also tarnishes the Brand of product you have bought .

It does not matter whether in a commercial or consumer environment, there should be seamless good customer service. The principles are very simple in my book. Yet many organisations consistently fail the test from all angles. That includes …..

We are sorry our phone lines are extremely busy right now ….

Lucky old you …

  • Treat every individual (within a specific organisation), you react with , with respect
  • Clarity and understanding in expectations. By that I mean understand what are the limits of that colleague , within the organisation, is able to achieve within their brief. An example would be that I would not necessarily ask the receptionist how many missing cartons there were on a specific delivery. However, if your relationship with that customer is very good the Receptionist may say I will find out for you . In the same way, as a consumer, I went back to my retail store and asked some detail about my new Smart TV, and the Salesperson said Sorry I don’t anything about that model but I will find someone who can . I would be just as disposed to that store as if that same Salesperson was doing the assisting.

Life is short, relationships come in and out of your life at high speed, and sometimes you get only one chance to make it work. Showing kindness means that when you look back at your career, you’ll be proud not just of your achievements but how you went about them. Wherever you sit within an organisation, it matters. There’s kudos in kindness.

Richard Harpin is founder and chairman of HomeServe and Growth Partner, and owner of Business Leader magazine

None of this is rocket science. Yet most days most of us will receive from one organisation or other (big or small) a transaction of some form or other that is well below par. There can be many reasons for this , some of which can be excused because of personal situations, such as, not well, had an argument before leaving for work, recent bad news ….. but most can’t.

A short post but I don’t hink there is a need to say a lot, as a very famous Meerkat keeps saying …

The Rules are Simples …..

Sorry the Meerkat only says SImples . And for overseas readers see link for Meerkat explanation ( albeit he is Russian) https://www.comparethemarket.com