Stop blaming the Bot !!

I'm so bored of blaming chatbots! Seriously I Am!! Let’s be really honest, a chatbot is an algorithm. A function of human inputs and outputs that are (usually) fundamentally flawed. I was lucky enough to be asked to present a keynote at #cxoutsourcers in Las Vegas last week and was asked several times why bot's have such a bad reputation and why they often simply don't work. The reality is we are very quick to blame the bot when we have a poor experience with it, but give the poor bot a break! The bot is only doing exactly as it has been told, by us, its designers and implementation teams. The bot is not AI. It’s not your 'Digital CX Solution', or the answer to a whole bunch of operational or commercial problems you haven't got round to solving yet. The chatbot is a tiny component of a much larger customer strategy.

There are no ' Bad Chatbots', but there is bad decision making that goes into the choice of automation you choose for your organisation. Different businesses and organisations are under different pressures, particularly in times of economic and political uncertainty. Your business drivers are your own. If the difference between an organisation surviving the next year or not is to cut costs then by all means look for maximum call deflection at minimum cost to your organisation but do it making the absolute conscious decision to sacrifice customer experience to achieve your goal. I'm not being critical of that decision; it may be the only dice you have left to roll but make the decision and stand by it. Do not, in 2 months’ time, look at your CSAT and 'blame the bot' - it's doing the job you asked of it.

In the same way, if your driver is to get to more customers, interact with more people, find and help your most vulnerable (or important) customers, then choose your automation carefully. Accept this is a bigger investment that won't deliver an ROI in year. To make this type of process work you need to ensure that your bot has access to the data it needs to interact with consumers or clients with purpose. To do that you will have to give it time to learn, time to integrate. You will have to be patient while systems learn to talk to each other. you will have to restructure parts of your business to support new journeys that factor in conversational AI and technology to agent handoffs. Again, this is a conscious decision to invest and take time. Do not, in 2 months’ time, look at your numbers and your results and 'blame the bot' - it's doing the job you asked of it.

At Tayma I spend almost all of my time helping clients understand what needs to be done to develop a customer strategy that incorporates existing constraints, new technology, human agents, and 'across the board' business needs to develop a path through that gives the best customer experience possible. It's not always perfect, and its not always easy or seamless. Conversational AI and technology can't fix fundamentally flawed processes. Compromises have to be made. But for what it’s worth I haven't spoken to a single business yet who hasn't made the conscious decision to try to do the right thing.

If you want a chat just shout !

Lian