The Challenges with AI Customer Service
Technology is advancing at a furious pace. One result is that people are being replaced in certain jobs by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Customer service is no exception to this rule as chatbots have become more popular and prevalent. However, when you have an issue and need help from a company’s customer service function, there are challenges when you have to go through a machine instead of a person.
Pressing Issues When Contacting Customer Service
When you contact customer service, no matter what the industry, you have a pressing issue that needs to be resolved. For example, if you notice discrepancies in your checking account like purchases you did not make, you would contact customer service to fix the problem. In this kind of situation, a typical customer wants to speak with a real human being and not a robot.
The Contact Us Situation
Sometimes, the company will pick up on a problem of which you are not yet aware of. A good example of this is when one of your email or other online accounts has been hacked or is compromised by a hacking attempt. You are urged to contact customer service at your earliest convenience.
However, if navigating through the company’s website or app is complicated, you may find it difficult to access the channel you need. There may be a set of options for searching through an FAQ that is incomplete for your specific problem. Even if you do manage to find the topic that is closest to your situation, with AI, you might end up getting a message saying that your email will be answered within 24 hours or longer instead of immediately. This is a frustrating situation that customers should not have to endure. In some cases, you might be so frustrated that you call a customer service number instead. Hopefully, you ultimately get a live person on the other end.
A Limited Problem
While AI customer service is quickly being implemented in more and more industries, it still leaves much to be desired. As previously mentioned, it can be good for answering commonly asked questions through FAQs, but it is limited. Another serious issue that bothers customers is the lack of personalization. A chatbot is a machine, which makes it frustrating for some when they may better appreciate a human emotion in response to their problem.
Customer Trust in Customer Service
Customers are losing trust in customer service in a variety of industries. Companies may believe implementing AI into their customer service is a vast improvement over having human beings handling it, but there is a growing trend of frustration and mistrust among customers instead. Chatbots have a long way to go before they are advanced enough to truly understand a customer’s needs. Banks, in particular, are a good example of this statistic. For instance, in Europe, Swedbank has made AI customer service available. However, when customers were surveyed about their satisfaction, only a small number of customers indicated they were satisfied.
Overall, most customers prefer to speak to a living person when accessing customer service. AI customer service is still fairly immature and needs a lot of work before it can effectively replace human representatives.
At Medallion Bank, we use real people for customer service. You can be assured that if you ever need to contact us, your inquiry will be answered promptly and be personalized to you.