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Verint Research Uncovers Customer Frustration with Chatbots
So you’ve implemented a chatbot to help field customer requests. That’s enough, right?
Not according to a survey of over 1,000 American consumers commissioned by Verint (News - Alert). The study highlighted rising customer expectations for chat-based channels and found many customers are finding chatbot experiences less-than-fulfilling, and even frustrating.
Many consumers are finding their relationships with chatbots “complicated,” according to the research. Nearly one-third of customers – 32 percent – reported they rarely or never feel understood by a chatbot. More than 30 percent (30.5 percent) say a chatbot rarely or never fully answers their questions. Only 28 percent of respondents reported they always or often feel understood.
As a result, many customers are abandoning transactions, which should alarm companies using less-than-optimally designed chatbots. More than 30 percent (30.8 percent) of respondents said they always or often abandon their efforts to resolve an issue when interacting with a chatbot. As a result of the inability to resolve issues or have their questions answered via chatbots, more than half of consumers turn to human agents for help: 54.5 percent say they always or often must request to speak to a human after speaking with a chatbot. When they do reach a human agent, 60 percent of customers resent having to re-explain their situation to a human agent.
The Verint study offered critical insights for organizations to design winning digital-first experiences. Consumers were quick to list desired chatbot “work-ons” for performance improvement. These include the addition of contextual and language understanding, and the ability to recall past issues.
“Businesses rely on chatbots now more than ever and customer expectations are higher than they’ve ever been. These demands and expectations are fueling the next generation of chatbots that are more intelligent, personalized and effective,” says Verint’s Jen Snell, VP of go-to-market, Conversational AI, in a statement.
Snell noted chatbots need to move beyond micro-smarts to become intelligent systems that deliver advanced understanding, assistance, and intelligence.
“‘Beyond the bot’ conversational AI systems can carry on true contextual conversation, complete with clarifications or a subsequent choice by users,” she said. “These supercharged chatbots are supported by deep domain expertise, so their comprehension of user intent goes way beyond generic Natural Language Processing,” Snell continued. “They are also highly integrated with many systems of record to ensure effective issue resolution and the delivery of the right information. This also includes when the conversation is moved to a human agent and delivering all relevant context of the interaction, so customers don’t have to repeat themselves and agents can be successful by quickly resolving issues.”
Edited by Luke Bellos