zlacker

The fact that one company had a chat bot mis-configured doesn't mean they all are useless.

There are a lot of lonely people who call companies just to have a chat with a human. There are a lot of lazy and/or stupid people who call companies for stuff that can be done online or on an app. There are a lot of people calling companies for information that is available online. Chat bots prevent a ton of time wasted for call center operators.

>>boriss+(OP)
Those are called customers

>>boriss+(OP)
Doesn’t matter. If I want to rebook a flight I don’t want to learn every detail of your maze like phone service after getting it wrong and being transferred a bunch of times. And on top of that, trying to navigate a support website or phone service requires intricate knowledge of their rebooking options and policies, which is completely insane and a huge burden to place on individuals sparingly using said services.

The cognitive load these days is pushed onto helpless consumers to the point where it is not only unethical but evil. Consumers waste hours navigating what are essentially internal systems and tailored policies and the people that work with them daily will do nothing to share that with you and purposely create walls of confusion.

Support systems that can’t just pick up a phone and direct you to the right place need to be phased right out, chat bots included. Lonely people tying up the lines are a minority. Letting the few ruin it for the many is going to need more than that kind of weak justification.

>>rkeene+83
And the cost of servicing said customers is paid by the same customers. If you're ready to pay double and triple, vote with your wallet - in many industries there are more expensive options available with better customer service.

>>heyoni+75
>> Letting the few ruin it for the many

Welcome to the real world.

>>boriss+QF
I think a lot of times customers are expecting the service provider to provide adequate customer service as part of the service they are purchasing and have no reason to suspect it will be sub-par until they are already paying for it.

This information asymmetry is not ideal.