Customer contact is becoming increasingly automated, but not everyone in the Netherlands is happy with it. Research by Conclusion Mission Critical among 1012 Dutch people reveals a striking contrast: 73% miss human contact, but 51% would rather quickly contact a chatbot than wait for a slow agent. So how do you strike the right balance between automation and human contact?

 

Text: Eveline Meijer

Digitalization itself isn't a bad thing, as many Dutch people in the survey indicated. 68% believe that automated systems, such as chatbots, work well. But at the same time, 45% miss human contact in customer service.

Bart Bruinsma, Chief Strategy Officer at Conclusion Mission Critical, has an explanation for this. “Everything moves fast these days, including the customer experience. Everyone is used to on-demand. So we want a quick answer to simple questions. But for more complex issues with a greater impact, everyone wants tailored advice and the confidence that they're making the right choice.”

The importance of empathy

Customers want to be sure that complex issues are properly understood. Moreover, chatbots aren't capable of considering things from multiple perspectives, which is often necessary for complex problems.

But empathy also plays a key role, Bruinsma believes. "People want to connect with someone who's been through this before. Someone who's seen the situation before and knows how to solve it," he explains. "If you completely remove that empathy, you might end up with a very cheap chatbot. But if people then get frustrated by a chatbot that can't solve their problem, they won't come back."

You can compare it to the 80-20 rule. AI can do 80% of the work, but that last 20% of fine-tuning to make it fit the specific context, you really still need people for that.

He compares it to the support that Conclusion Mission Critical offers itself. The company designs, builds, and manages critical IT environments. If a minor outage with little impact is reported, customers receive an automated email letting them know the report has been received and is being addressed. But if something critical goes offline, a human is immediately contacted. "You communicate with customers as quickly as possible. What's happening, what have you already seen, and what are you going to do? That's when you get the feeling: I'm being heard."

Practical implementation

"Use a human when things get complicated" and "always have a human present in case things go wrong" are perhaps the most common pieces of advice regarding customer contact and digitalization. But that's too simplistic. How do you truly strike the right balance between human contact and digitalization?

"Especially people who are skilled with chatbots and self-service portals know when they need a human. They understand pretty well what a chatbot can and can't do," says Bruinsma. He therefore advises organizations to always clearly offer the option of speaking to a human. "Trust that 80% of users know when a chatbot isn't working and will legitimately use that phone number."

But companies themselves also need to carefully map out what technology can and can't do. "I think you should always check in during the customer journey. At what point does it make sense to speak to a person?"

For example, if a customer tries to solve a problem with a chatbot: how long and how many questions does it take to get transferred to a human? Setting a standard for this eliminates a lot of frustration, Bruinsma believes. "You often see chatbots keep asking questions, the customer gets stuck, and you have no way to transfer them."

How do you want to be seen?

Ultimately, the right balance between human contact and automated support varies from company to company. "Mass workloads are much cheaper to handle with chatbots. You have to find the ideal mix between speed and empathy for each company. The question then is: how much is empathy worth?"

That depends on what kind of organization you are. "For example, there are airlines that are true budget airlines. The ticket is cheap, but the airline is barely accessible for questions. You can only use a chatbot, but you never speak to a human," Bruinsma offers as an example. "But there are also airlines that are more expensive, but they take care of everything perfectly for you. You can easily make changes to your flights, and if you have any questions, there's always an employee available."

This choice can be translated into the value framework Bruinsma uses. "Discount retailers often focus on commodity value. You can also work much more towards partnership value. That way, you build a strong affinity with a brand through a good experience." Bruinsma cites Coolblue as an example of a company that succeeds by offering partnership value. "You come back to Coolblue, precisely because of that customer service."

I think customer service is a good reflection of your value proposition. How do you want your customers to perceive you? Where does your added value lie? Is it in the "mass equals cash," or are you more focused on customer intimacy? That determines the balance between technology and people you want to achieve in your customer service.

 

Research Conclusion – Conclusion Mission Critical was conducted by Factsnapp. 1012 Dutch people aged 16 to 69 were interviewed.

The research shows that 73% of Dutch people miss human contact in an increasingly digital world. Furthermore, 92% of respondents prefer to speak with a person when making major decisions. Human contact is particularly lacking in customer service (45%), chat with customer service (21%), and self-checkout (9%).

A similar conclusion came this year from the National Voice MonitorAccording to that survey, conducted among over a thousand Dutch consumers, 48% are annoyed by poorly performing chatbots. "A common problem is that chatbots don't always respond effectively to the customer's specific question, causing conversations to get bogged down in repetitive or irrelevant answers," the survey stated.

The State of Customer Experience 2025 Earlier this year, Genesys also found that 53% of consumers prefer a human agent to resolve questions and issues.

However, there are more and more places where people are missing in customer contact, according to research by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) from August this year. Users often experience according to the ACM that they can only contact an automated contact point, while this is not allowed according to the European Digital Services Act.

(Ziptone/Eveline Meijer)

Customer Experience, Featured