Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Automated Online Help vs. A Live Person

It's rather humorous, depending on the responses you get, but it's also rather frustrating. Have you ever tried "Live Automated Help" on-line with any website? Does it seem to you that the answers and responses are a little "robotic"?

I was dealing with a Magic Jack problem today and when I could not figure it out I noticed this "Live Help 24/7" link, so I started that up. From the beginning of the conversation it seemed they were not responding to anything I said, at least not appropriately, like they might if there was a live human at the other end?

At first I thought, okay, maybe they are in another country struggling with English. But then when they started asking me questions I had already answered I began to wonder. On top of that, it took like a minute or more for them to send a reply back to me, almost like some software program was processing the question, calculating the right answer.

Then, when the problem seemed to "solve itself" and I told them about that, they completely ignored it and asked if my Magic Jack was plugged in. It was becoming clearer that I must be talking to an automated machine. That thought was confirmed with the next sentence when I typed "Thanks for not caring about my loss of service or offering an apology." and the reply I received was "Your welcome."

I decided to look into automated "live" help. Turns out it is so very cost effective many companies use it. The "typical cost of a transaction via a call center is $8 to $20, and via human chat is $3 to $10, while the same transaction via automated online channel costs $0.10 to $0.80." Hmmm... guess that explains things.

There have been times when I've used "live chat" and I know for sure I'm speaking to a human because their response, sentence structure and vocabulary are a lot more relaxed. It feels like a conversation. When the automated chat help eventually offered an apology, the wording was "I do apologize but the inconvenience."

For real!!? It gets to me that these companies, in the name of the almighty dollar, sacrifice quality to their paying customers. When we need support it would be nice to know we are talking with someone intelligent enough to comprehend our situation.

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