Not only end users and average internet visitors have jumped on ChatGPT. Providers of customer contact software were also quick to announce that they had already integrated ChatGPT. We at Contact Center Live take a critical look at this. The 'Emperor's New Clothes' have not yet been fully developed, there are still many privacy and security issues that need to be resolved and the EU will probably accelerate the expansion of the planned laws and regulations in the field of AI.

 

Yes, we too have integrated ChatGPT into our contact center platform. We showed the preliminary result to our customers who were present at our last customer day. Fortunately, besides the oh's and ah's, there were many critical questions from the audience. “What about the GDPR? What happens when agents start entering customer names? Where is that entry?"

Does Chatbot 1.0 contribute significantly to customer satisfaction?

As far as I am concerned, it is clear that we are in a kind of 'no man's land' in terms of chatbot technology. Chatbot 1.0 has been running in many contact centers for quite a few years. But is it a model of successful innovation? Does Chatbot 1.0 contribute significantly to customer satisfaction?

Those who are critical admit that Chatbot 1.0 is nothing more than a variant of the even older IVR. Chatbot 1.0 is simply an interactive FAQ, but packaged as a customer-friendly avatar, often placed prominently on the homepage of the website. This raises high expectations among the customer.

But as a customer you are forced to jump through the hoop that the contact center or customer service manager is holding up for you. If you don't get it or don't jump fast enough, you run the risk of ending up in customer service hell.

Consumers aren't against chatbots, but when they come across one, they aren't particularly enthusiastic either, as virtually every survey shows over and over again. And for good reason: chatbot 1.0 just doesn't work well enough.

There is no Chatbot 1.5

Then Chatbot 2.0 which, in the form of ChatGPT, is currently in the spotlight. You could also say about ChatGPT at the moment: “not working well enough yet”. Of course, the potential of Chatbot 2.0 is promising, but Chatbot 1.0 once left that impression. In reality, the introductions of self-service and my environments have added much more value for both customer and business. Nowadays, as a customer, we first look at the app of the organization we do business with – if they already have an app. And we'll see from there.

“Anyone who sits and waits is not doing well.”

All things considered, we are in between Chatbot 1.0 and Chatbot 2.0 and there is no such thing as Chatbot 1.5. We are waiting for generative AI like ChatGPT to be safe, reliable and compliant. Undoubtedly a lot of hard work is being done on this. But anyone who sits and waits for that is not doing well. Because Chatbot 2.0 can unexpectedly show up on your doorstep. After all, the pace at which Big Tech innovations pour out on us is not always easy to predict.

Data, data, data

Anyone who wants to get started with Chatbot 2.0 can only do so if the internal data management is in order. That means: knowing which data you will need to access later, knowing which data you are allowed to access, ensuring that that data can be accessed in a secure manner. Have you already built up a knowledge base or do you still need to start one? Does it also contain information that you would rather not share with an AI solution that runs somewhere in the cloud? What will your Chatbot 2.0 be able to do with company data and personal data? Has your privacy officer already started to delve into the AI ​​regulations that are coming at us from the EU?

In short, anyone who doesn't like Chatbot 1.0 or hasn't even made any work of it, but wants to do something with generative AI in the future, has to get to work now.

 

Baldwin Chamuleau – director of Contact Center Live

Customer Experience, Featured, Opinions