Humans under valued, chatbots over rated
Telcos, mobile operators and comms service providers (CSPs) are wasting their money and their customers’ time on self service tools, because people still prefer talking to people, according to a survey of 10,000 of them. However, CSPs should not give up on DIY tools because they are on the verge of solving the riddle of why users refuse to help themselves when it means they could jump the customer service queue. According to the feedback from CSP customers, they are desperately keen to embark on the ‘digital journey’ to self support, it’s just that the signposts are baffling.
Only 13% of CSP customers use chatbots, apps, websites and other so-called digital self-service tools. Younger consumers are most likely to use the tools and there is a clear divide between demand for self service and adoption of it, which indicates that CSPs are not making self-service easy enough. The issue is critical because 42% of consumers said they might defect to a rival that offered a significantly better self-service experience. Most (65%) customer journeys are digitised, however, which indicates that CSPs have not made their support tools user friendly enough.
It could be that people like speaking to human operators and don’t want to lose the qualities of reassurance and trust that are exuded by the human voice. Despite the fact that many human operators are forced to stick to a script, they are still deemed to be more helpful than a machine. Ultimately, CSPs are not getting the most out of their self-service tools and, by reining in their human operators with robotic scripts, they are not getting the most out of their human resources either.
“While service providers report high levels of digitalisation and automation, the reality is that it’s rare for a consumer to complete a journey end-to-end digitally. A frictionless digital customer experience is vital today and will only continue to grow in importance as consumer demand for self-service channels increases and new technologies like AI allow for innovation,” said Gil Rosen, Chief Marketing Officer at Amdocs, “the clear take-away from these findings is that CSPs should refine and refocus their customer engagement strategy, while continuing to invest in upskilling their human agents.”
The problem is that 63% of CSP decision makers surveyed said that implementation of AI and ML is a major challenge. As a result, this technology is not yet having a significant impact on their customers’ engagement with digital channels. In the meantime, however there is nothing to stop the communications service providers from communicating their services better, by giving their human operators more creative license.
Amdocs is at Mobile World Congress Barcelona, February 27-March 2, 2023 with its 5G Experience Lab. Other discussions include That’s My Slice! on Monday, February 27 and Enabling The Next Phase Of The Un-Carrier: The T-Mobile & Amdocs Story on March 1.