A client who HATES their existing live chat function, LOVED the prototype “alt-chat*” I built! My “alt-chat” is an asynchronous self-service help/support wizard.

Why do chatbots fail?

• People expect a chatbot to be live. A human. An AI generated response is going to annoy them.
• People are often impatient before they start typing to a chatbot.
• Language is nuanced. Typing is slow, so the user doesn’t give the enough “hints”.
• If you use AI, it’s unlikely it will give useful answers for your specific products.
• You will need to write useful support articles, and also think about the keywords you use.
• Chat messages are short. Even if the right solution is identified, it doesn’t offer images, videos or screenshots.

But there’s the emails as a fallback?

Most companies no long have a human responder, and rely on the email function to get queries. It IS better than nothing, but it’s tough on your support team.

• The emails received from Chatbots don’t give a lot of information, and are difficult to answer without checking back with the sender.
• There is a lot of spam amongst the real queries. Staff dread Monday morning.
• The sender has had to suffer through many hours of waiting, especially if they are from a different time zone. Hopefully they don’t turn to social media.
• The sender will have searched further, and might find an easy-to-find wrong solution. They will blame your lack of response, rather than their search skills!

If you would like to know more about my “Alt-Chat” solution, give me a call!

* Please help me find a new name, I can’t keep putting Alt-Chat in inverted commas!