In today’s digital age, chatbots and AI are advancing at an unprecedented pace. They are becoming an integral part of customer service, making communication with businesses faster, more engaging, and more personalized than ever before. However, as technologies continue to mature, we’re left to wonder: are chatbots on a par with human intelligence and interaction? What are the pros and cons of each, and what do customers really think? In this blog post, you’ll learn more about this fascinating topic.
Chatbots are computer programs designed to mimic human conversation. A chatbot can be programmed to provide automated customer support, perform simple tasks, or assist in sales and marketing. These bots can be accessed through messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or a company’s website. On the other hand, human interactions are natural and often more empathetic. They can give customers a sense of personalized attention and engage customers on a deeper level.
Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of chatbots and humans.
Pros of Chatbots
1. Faster Response Time
One of the major advantages of chatbots is that they can respond to customers instantly, reducing response times that human agents can’t match. A faster response time is something that customers really value, and getting information instantly is often expected in the modern age.
2. 24/7 Availability
Chatbots can provide customer service around the clock, even during holidays and weekends. This is a great option for customers who need help outside of normal business hours. And in reality, many customers are looking for help outside of normal office hours.
3. Cost-Effective
Chatbots can handle a large number of customer inquiries without the need for extra staff and support costs. This means that they can provide customers with the same level of service as a human agent, but at a fraction of the cost. Many customer queries fall into quite repetitive categories, and chatbots can effectively answer easy queries again and again.
4. Multilingual Capabilities
Chatbots can converse in multiple languages to help assist and support a business’s diverse customer base. This is particularly useful for global businesses with customers from different backgrounds and cultures. Buying in translation services or hiring staff that speak different languages can be costly, so this can be a very cost effective way of broadening your customer base.
5. Scalability
Chatbots can rapidly grow with your business and can handle an unlimited number of simultaneous customer interactions. This level of scalability is something that’s almost impossible with human customer service agents. Again, the cost effectiveness of this can be profound for a business
Cons of Chatbots
1. Limited Capacity
Chatbots are only able to handle simple tasks such as providing basic answers or guiding customers through a process. When it comes to complex customer inquiries, they may not be equipped to provide an adequate solution or answer their query satisfactorily.
2. Dependence on Natural Language Processing
Chatbots rely heavily on natural language processing technology in order to understand and interpret customer inquiries accurately. This technology is still far from perfect, and as a result chatbots may sometimes misunderstand requests or be unresponsive to certain words.
3. Lack of Human Interaction
Chatbots can provide a quick and efficient service, but they lack the human empathy and connection that’s so important in customer service. This can mean customers don’t always feel their issue is given the attention it deserves, leaving them feeling frustrated and dissatisfied.
4. Lack of Empathy
Chatbots lack the ability to understand human emotions and respond in a personalized manner. This can lead to customers feeling unappreciated, and it can be difficult for them to feel heard and understood. This is why having a human customer service agent on hand is so important in order to build relationships with customers.
5. Limited Problem Solving
Chatbots are programmed with predefined responses and can only solve problems based on the limited set of instructions they were provided. This means they can find it difficult to troubleshoot when a customer has an issue that falls outside of their understanding.
Pros of Humans
1. Emotional Intelligence
Humans have the ability to understand emotions and respond in a personalized, empathetic way. In customer facing roles, this is invaluable. Human customer service agents can have meaningful conversations with customers to get to the root of their issues and provide an appropriate solution.
2. Complex Problem Solving
Humans are able to come up with creative solutions that chatbots simply cannot match. They can think outside the box and come up with solutions that aren’t simply predefined responses.
3. Flexibility
Humans can quickly adapt to changes in technology and customer needs, and they are able to adjust their responses on the fly if needed. This is something that chatbots are not able to do as easily due to their rigid programming.
4. Trust Building
Humans can work to build trust with a customer more effectively than a bot. They can have meaningful conversations and establish a relationship that builds loyalty and keeps customers coming back.
5. Personalization
Humans are able to provide more personalized service than chatbots, tailoring their responses to the individual customer. This level of personalization is something that many customers value, as it shows that the business cares about them as an individual. This is becoming more important to customers in the current day and age, when so many businesses are competing for their attention.
Cons of Humans
1. Limited Availability
Human agents can only work a limited amount of hours and thus have a limited response time. If customers need help outside of normal business hours, they will have to wait until the following day or find an alternate solution
2. Cost and Resource-Intensive
Hiring and training sufficient human agents can be a costly and time-intensive process. This means that it can be difficult to scale the team as the business grows.
3. Error Prone
Humans are fallible creatures and mistakes do happen. In customer service, this is especially concerning, as they could impact customer relationships and satisfaction levels negatively.
4. Errors in Providing Consistent Answers
Human agents may not provide consistent responses, worsening customer experience. This can be particularly problematic if there are multiple customer service agents on the team, as they may not all provide the same answer to the same query.
5. Fatigue and Burnout
Human agents may suffer from fatigue or burnout, leading to decreased effectiveness. This is especially true if they are dealing with challenging customer inquiries all day long. As a result, it is important to provide them with adequate support and rest periods.
What Customers Really Think
According to research from Forrester Consulting, customers are more satisfied with human customer service than with chatbot service. Two-thirds of customers prefer human customer service agents because they feel more understood and taken seriously. Additionally, 57% of customers say that the ability to speak to a real person is the most important factor when it comes to choosing a provider for customer service.
However, this doesn’t mean that chatbots don’t have their place in customer service. Customers also appreciate the convenience of chatbots, and many say they would use them as their first point of contact for simple inquiries or processes. This means that it could be beneficial for a business to combine both human customer service agents and automated chatbots in order to offer customers the best possible experience.
As chatbots have improved over the last few years, research is starting to show the change in customer preference towards chatbots too. Getting quick answers to questions and the time savings this brings is increasingly valuable to customers, and chatbots are able to provide this benefit to customers more and more.
Chatbots and humans each come with their own pros and cons. Chatbots bring speed, cost-effectiveness, scalability and multilingual capabilities. However, they suffer from a lack of empathy, limited problem-solving ability, and create a dependence on technology that might not be appropriate. On the other hand, human interactions bring emotional intelligence, complex problem-solving, flexibility, trust-building, and customer satisfaction. Still, they come with the drawbacks of limited availability, limited affordability, errors in providing consistent answers, fatigue, and language barriers. Knowing and choosing between the attributes of each can help a business decide what’s best for their customer service goals.