Organizations benefit from savings by automating customer contact. And increasingly, consumers must first engage in a conversation with chatbots and overcome other hurdles. Is something growing out of balance?

 

“A problem that could have been solved within a few minutes, I had now spent well over an hour on. Without result. That is what we call 'progress'." grumbled Thijs Launspach a while ago in the AD.

NRC columnist Rosanne Herzberger was also pissed off because some underpaid, unmotivated assistant started checking her self-scanned groceries. She could therefore imagine that anger in society is rising. We are being screwed over by the business world!

Herzberger naturally has the choice to go to another supermarket, but I do recognize the feeling to some extent. I myself had to go to the chatbot at that other Ahold subsidiary first to look up a customer service phone number. Once that group provides the new KSF chairman, things will of course be completely different afterwards.

Time well saved, but with whom?

The prevailing sentiment is and remains that the digitalization of customer contact is primarily for the benefit of the company, even though it is often presented differently in our field. The minutes and seconds saved by the contact center are unscrupulously passed on to the customer. In exchange for that investment, strangely enough, prices are not going down. And also remarkable: customers are not yet drawing any conclusions from this. Apparently, they base their choice on the convenience offered by the happy flow. And switching is a hassle.

Following Herzberger's anger, I was also reminded of an email I recently received from PostNL: “How did receiving your package go? We’d love to hear!” That question feels not only excessive, but also a bit asynchronous, out of balance, uneven.

PostNL actually *does* have a direct line to me, but if I want a similar line to PostNL, I have to move heaven and earth. Only chatbot Daan is available, and he isn't exactly cooperative when you need the customer service phone number. But wait! You can also reach PostNL customer service by letter – you might almost start thinking of perverse incentives. Yes, I can imagine customers getting frustrated by these two options. If you remove the letters PostNL from the word 'monopolist', you are left with 'mooi'. No idea what that refers to. The company says it aims for a “structurally better NPS”, but the company doesn't say what that NPS is or should be. I can do that too: free beer tomorrow.

Ultimately, you just want to speak to a human being.

Bernard Steenbergen of Vattenfall said in the Financial Telegraph From May 15: “If someone is in trouble, you don’t want a chatbot. Technology can provide support, but ultimately you just want to speak to a human who understands your situation and helps you move forward.” But that same company is only reachable by phone on workdays between 8 a.m. and 15 p.m. Anyone working during those hours because they have a job gets nowhere in the evening or on weekends other than the chat and the chatbot. So much for 'speaking to a human'?

A colleague of Steenbergen, Ruud Huigsloot of Eneco, expects that by 2030 70% of customer interactions can be automatedThose kinds of percentages are as high as they are tricky: what exactly is in that 70%? Here, too, it is the company that determines that the remaining 30% consists of more complex cases that continue to require human intervention. But sometimes you just want someone on the line. Urgent isn't always complex, either. Just like 'customer need' and 'customer preference'.

Eliminate inaccessibility

Of course, there are also consultants and companies (and the occasional manager) who argue that we shouldn't automate customer service to death. After all, that would simply shift even more time, work, and effort to the customer. It would be nice if, in response to automation, we simply maintained telephone accessibility. Or should we start by improving it? Because that seems to be necessary again these days. Any half-decent contact center manager who has invested in AI will solve that accessibility problem in a week. After all, didn't the use of AI create headroom?

(Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

Customer Experience, Featured, Opinions