To think this is a terrible idea?

[Netcurtainnelly]

To think this is a terrible idea. 🤔😲

www.express.co.uk/news/world/2232495/british-gas-axes-1300-call-centre-staff-job-losses-chatbots

Most call centre staff read from a script and can’t help you if you go ‘off script’ and ask a question that’s not covered on their list.

I don’t see how this is any different.

Chat bots are terrible. Most people want to speak to a person . I wonder who they asked.

The only reason I can think of for using a chat bot in preference to calling a person is if the phone lines are under-manned so you end up waiting for ever for someone to pick up the bloody phone.

I don't deal with British Gas so don't know if that is the case there, but there is one organisation in particular who I dread phoning because this always happens. Then when you do get through the front line staff can never deal with what I want to do but I still have to go through it with them so they can conclude they need to pass it to another department who can. Chat bots wouldn't help in this case but more staff answering the phone would.

Actually thinking about this more, I wonder if the people they asked are mainly Gen Z. Anecdotally one hears that they don't like using the phone for calls.

It's just used to save money. Whether it's helpful or not is another matter.

of all the things that don’t happen, this one happens the least

Any time I start off interacting with a chatbot it ends up saying it can't help me and passing me on to a human - which is what I wanted in the first place.

Chatbots are shit.

It’s sometimes difficult to know how to phrase things to a chat bot
its so much easier talking to a human

I can’t really read this fully with all the awful advert pop ups and jumping screen but I work for a company that has an automated system. With the advances in AI, it can really understand sentences and give you the information you need. There are hundreds of calls that don’t need to be picked up by a person. Checking account balances, date of your appointment, information about your account. The fact that most things can be achieved online now and the bot can send you a link to that means you no longer have to wait 40 mins in a phone queue. I understand the frustrations with the old style telephone bots that say press 1 for this, press 17 for that once you’ve listened to a 15min menu, but these days the system is so much more sophisticated it’s really heading in the right direction. There are key words you can say as well if you’re really desperately looking to speak to someone and it bypasses the menu (like speak to a manager, complaint etc)

I absolutely fucking hate chat bots and automated services that don't recognise words and then being passed to a call centre and having to go through the script. When I'm queen of the world I'm banning all that shit and insisting that actual UK based people are employed. We pay an absolute fortune for services but receive no proper service.
I'm with BG - I'd like to change tbh, but I have eco7 and no gas supply so it's not that easy.

@TY78910if companies cut workers, we will still spend 40 minutes on hold because they'll be fewer people available to take the call. Most of us will do online what we can but if companies have crappy apps that don't work properly, we are often forced to call.

Some automated services don't understand my accent so I end up putting on a faux English one.

Then you finally get through to a call centre and you can't understand their accent 🙄

They don't tell you what those key words are though. Mostly it just terminates the call when you beg for a human being.

Who’s going to have a job to earn money to buy the stuff these companies are selling?

It's just been on the news and 2 out of the e people interviewed said they didn't like talking to bots.
Hardly overwhelming.

Chatbots are useless, can hardly ever give a sensible answer to a question and really should be renamed shitbots.

I hate shitbots with a passion.

I do prefer to speak to a person, a real human being, though it does take absolutely forever to get through to one. A half hour or an hour's wait is certainly not unknown, then you find that they are often working from a script and are bewildered if your perfectly reasonable question deviates even slightly from that.

Then you will probably be transferred to another department and the whole ridiculous pantomime begins yet again.

Yes yes and yes again - British Gas have been a shit company for a long time. Looks like they have thought of a way to be even more shit!

Indian call centres are the worst. They have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about because they’re not in the UK and don’t fully understand or speak English. (Looking at you Virgin Media 😡)

I’m with BG for both fuels and I can’t recall the last time I needed to speak to anyone as everything including repairs is done online .

Oh god yes. I've often lost the will to live in conversations (if you can call it that) with Virgin.

I've had Indian call centre workers get quite angry and aggressive when I couldn't understand them
One was telling me to do something (which I did several times to no avail) and was saying, "Oh my God. Why can't you do this. This is what I'm telling you to do "

So rude and patronising.

They really can be. One kept trying to tell me my broadband couldn’t be fixed because the road outside my house was currently being dug up and it was affecting the cables. Nope, definitely no one outside digging up the road no matter how many times they insisted there was 🙄