Why Live Chat Works Better Than a Chatbot

Live customer contact by telephone or chat stands for empathy, understanding and emotion; automated customer contact, for example via chatbots, especially for speed and saving on personnel costs. The rise of chatbots in today's customer contact is partly understandable. However, the fact is that eighty percent of consumers still prefer to receive information from a person rather than from a computer system.

 

Today, customer service is increasingly focused on self-service. In 2014, 36% of all customer contacts still consisted of forms of self-service such as digital 'mine environments', FAQs and forums where consumers help each other; last year that share had already risen to more than half. The expectation is that this share will only increase further in the coming years.

 

 

Another trend is that the nature of self-service is also changing. With the rise of chatbots, there is currently a shift from 'assisted' to automated customer service. As a result, in more and more cases, the consumer communicates with a computer system instead of with a fellow human.

Last year, a study by Accenture showed that American consumers are not happy with that at all. More than eighty percent of the respondents said they would instead communicate with people than through digital channels. If information via the computer is the only option, 77% want that computer not to be served by a robot, but by a person of flesh and blood like with live chat.

 

 

That kite also applies to entrepreneurs. Research shows that the preference of entrepreneurs when contacting suppliers is also based on personal meetings, closely followed by live chat. According to the researchers, the fact that live chat in the field of customer service is also the most popular digital alternative among entrepreneurs is mainly due to the low threshold and the fact that they immediately get an answer to their questions.

 

 

Companies and organizations that base their business model more and more emphatically on self-service through chatbots, therefore, miss out on more and more interactions with their customers. This is undesirable for several reasons. Finally, they kill not only the significant sales opportunities (up and cross-selling!), but also the possibilities to respond adequately to complaints or cancellations. That is, of course, a shame because experience shows that customers who cancelled via self-service almost never return to their decision.

 

No matter how you look at it; customer experiences are primarily determined by emotion. Whether by telephone or via chat; personal contact with a customer service representative is and therefore remains of the utmost importance. The first chatbot that shows any emotion has yet to be invented.

 

 

Kalo Bagijn, director of online pension bank Brand New Day, knows how to articulate the subject perfectly: “The automation and digitization of our services are continually increasing. In this way, our customers will already receive advice from a pension robot within one year. However, there is one department where everything revolves around personal contact: our customer service. And that is precisely the department where the quality of our product is determined to a large extent. "

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