Most people have encountered a chatbot on the internet, phone, or at least heard of the technology, which in fact is improving every day. More influential companies such as Google and Microsoft are putting chatbots into full drive to help grow their bottom lines. Chatbot technology has proven to be very effective in increasing company profits, which is why a war broke out in early 2018 with the emergence of the advanced chatbot. Each and every company is working to create the best, most human-like chatbot, to outdo their competition by reigning in customers and profits.
Google has been using bot technology for its call centers since July of 2018. The company calls this tool, “Contact Centre AI”, through which a customer can attach their phone number to be connected to a virtual assistant, a chatbot. Think of it as having a secretary. This artificial assistant can make appointments for you, so that you don’t waste time and focus on more important things. I have experienced chatbot telemarketers on several occasions and they sounded human-like, but it was easy to distinguish the two after a couple times. This Google tool is indistinguishable from a human voice. The bot-assistant can even throw ums and ahs into its speech to give it that authentic effect. Although most companies will not use this Google tool in the same manner, any of them can use it for their call centers. Specifically, most companies use these chatbots to answer customer questions.
Nowadays when calling a company-support line, you will most likely be speaking to a chatbot. Research suggests that these bots are efficient in that they save companies time and money when it comes to customer support. This efficiency suggests that companies need less man power in their customer support departments. Although the bots are effective, that doesn’t mean they are always effective. People may want to talk to another human being on the phone, so some of the customer support department jobs are safe.
A Swiss insurance company, Helvetia, said that employing chatbots boosted the rate at which customers bought new insurance policies. Helvetia had the help of a German based startup called Rasa to text the customers to persuade them to upgrade their policy. With these chatbots, whether they’re used to talk or text, companies have much more time on their hands, because a chatbot is never busy. Companies also have the ability to be available around the clock in terms of help services such as customer support.
Companies such as Ergo, another insurance company, are shrinking their customer support staff as a result of the effective chatbots. Case in point, these bots make companies more profitable. Chatbots, do not get salaries, so it is much cheaper to have them work for free than pay an employee to answer customer questions. This chatbot technology gives companies an edge, but it won’t be long until all the competitors have it as the inventing companies of this technology are selling more and more of it.
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2 comments:
Good afternoon Dario,
I really enjoyed reading your article about Chatbots and how they have beeen used in order to help companies improve profits because they can cut back on the cost a pay high volumes on minimum wage works at places such as call centers. The other day I read an article about how companies will be using chatbots to help with order in fast food restaurants or delivery services. Companies such as WingStop and PizzaHut are already starting to buy in on these technologies. What makes the chatbots different in this situation is that these companies are adding a chatbot text messaging feature. This means that instead of having to order a pizza through the PizzaHut app on ones phone they can simply send a message to PizzaHut via SMS or Facebook Messanger. These chatboxes would be able to than have conversations over text with the buyer when the buyer is placing their order. I thought that this was interesting because it would be yet another way that companies would be able to cut their costs. I feel that people would order more from companies that used these kinds of Chatbots because it makes it even easier to order food and illiminates the need to talk to a stranger on the phone which some people find awkward. My own concern is that these Chatbots need to be advanced enough to deciffer what is import in the text message to the order and what is just filler within the text. Great article.
-Oliver
Like the usage of AI, it is proven that chatbot technology also improves upon the company’s bottom line (profitability) and the services it provides to its customers. I think that these two particular advancements in technology will continue to evolve and help generate success to the businesses that employ them. Specifically, we see companies who have call centers, like those in the banking or insurance industry, can reduce staff in the customer service areas because the bots are able to answer questions that were once answered by only humans. Additionally, chatbots are cheaper because they can save on "talk time".... time spent talking to the customer which is then converted to dollars saved by the business. Furthermore, as you mentioned these chatbots do not receive salaries for working around the clock, which is quite nice when it comes to saving money and budgeting for salaries. Moreover, I like the fact that Helvetia, the Swiss insurance company was able to have their bots persuade customers to upgrade their insurance policy which means making more money for the business. I think for all these reasons chatbot technology is great. However, one may ask, could these "chatbots" also be an inconvenience to a business's customer? Many of us or our family members may have had some kind of frustrating experience in dealing with a chatbot when calling a company-support line. We may need to talk to a human to address our issue, but instead have to push 6 different buttons and answer 5 different questions before we get looped to a human operator/customer service person. In these situations, we end the call feeling annoyed, frustrated and that our time was wasted.
While it is being said that companies are increasing their profits by having these chatbots call our phones there is something to wonder about if there is any human discomfort in communicating with them. Some people strictly do not answer the phone if they do not recognize the caller ID and often times hang up on telemarketers. Recently I started working for Loyola's "Phonathon". Once a connection is made, my job is to speak with the alumni (both recent graduates and those who graduated over several decades ago) to inform them about updates, discuss their experiences while they were on campus, and most importantly to talk to them about the importance of donating to the Evergreen Fund (a fund that provides scholarships and grants to deserving students). To date, my results have varied from happy alumni who want to speak, listen and donate to those who hang up or do not have time to talk. While the purpose of my calls are different from the chatbots calls, I am curious as to how companies with chatbots are more successful in getting calls answered and in turn, success in achieving their goals. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from the chatbots. Who knows, maybe one day Loyola will invest in chatbot technology and I may be replaced by a chatbot?
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