Human or Robot? The Customer Service Debate

Artificial intelligence removes humanity from hospitality. But it does provide convenience to guests humans can’t.

In the last few years, largely as a result of the pandemic, many businesses have faced pressures to digitize their customer service experiences. Due to staffing shortages, some companies have scaled back their customer service representatives and replaced them with tools like chatbots or automated messages. As businesses continue their move toward normalcy, they must examine whether or not these changes, which may have been necessary at the time, should continue to be instated in the future.

Last week, Protocol Magazine commissioned and published the results of a new Harris poll that analyzed “consumer sentiment around customer experience” in order to better understand this shift in the hospitality industry. Here are the most important takeaways:

• 70% of people prefer to speak to a customer service representative in real-time, as opposed to 17% preferring to speak to chatbots, and 7% preferring asynchronous communications like email.
• When polled about the most useful tools, video conferences and phone calls were ranked as “very useful” or “somewhat useful” at 89% and 91%, respectively. Chatbots and surveys were the options most considered “not useful” or “not useful at all” at 37% and 29%, respectively. The majority of those polled about “feedback mechanisms” (the details of this method are not specified) are considered “somewhat useful” at 44%.
• When polled about what factor most strongly contributes to a positive customer experience, 67% indicated “ability to speak to a customer service representative” or “availability of customer service representative.” The friendliness and response time of customer service agents were also ranked highly at 63% and 62%. The availability of a chatbot was only ranked at 20%, and the availability of automated customer assistance systems was only 16%.
• 94% indicated that phone calls are useful, and 74% indicated that chatbots are useful.
• When asked to compare their customer service experiences with their pre-pandemic counterparts, 50% said their experiences were about the same, 21% said they were better, and 27% said they were worse.

This poll indicates that, generally, customers prefer to speak with a person, rather than a robot, directly when reaching out to customer service.

However, this is not the case in all demographics. Of adults aged 18-25 polled, only 45% considered the availability of customer service agents to be an important factor in their customer experience, as opposed to 67% of all adults in general.

Perhaps younger people, who have spent a much larger portion of their lives online than older adults, are more comfortable using online options. When analyzing the results of this poll and considering its value for your business, you should consider your target demographic before determining what changes you may want to implement.

You may be asking yourself: why do people prefer talking to a person, rather than using something automated? AI may be preferable from a business standpoint because it’s more cost-effective than hiring employees. And shouldn’t AI be better? After all, it is engineered to maximize speed and efficiency. Perhaps, though, that is the problem itself.

According to an article by QSR magazine, a “frictionless” experience at a business, although it may sound optimal, may not be preferred by customers. They state that “in a digitally enabled world, frictionless experiences are accepted to be the primary objective. But faster does not equal better…The more seamless the experience, the less opportunities there are to differentiate from competitors.” According to Aisera, people prefer speaking to human representatives because it makes the brand seem more responsive, and even the best-engineered chatbot simply does not have the capability for empathy and kindness in the way a human does.

I’ll give a personal example of a customer service experience I had recently: I ordered pet supplies from Chewy.com and there was an issue with my credit card that necessitated my calling their customer service line. The person I spoke to answered promptly, resolved my issues with ease, and was incredibly kind and efficient.

I was so appreciative of her service that I now consider myself a Chewy customer for life, as I feel confident that any issue I have in the future will be easily resolved. Although it’s an enormous company, I did not feel like a faceless customer; I felt valued. Conversely, I’ve spoken with dozens of chatbots over the years, and I definitely haven’t had that same connection, and none have convinced me to shift my loyalties to their company.

There are certainly benefits and drawbacks to using both human and automated customer service agents, so it’s important to consider the specifics of your business and your target demographic when considering what’s best for you. Regardless of whatever option you choose, be sure that it’s well-executed, effective, and pleasant.