The author argues that customers do not actually want chat bots for customer service, contrary to what companies claim. Chat bots can only handle simple, routine queries, but for complicated issues customers want to speak to a human representative. Companies are pushing chat bots to reduce costs and increase profits, without considering the negative impact on customer experience. The author only sees chat bots as useful for customers when used to cancel subscriptions that require contacting customer service, showing how frustrating the current system is. The author believes we should build technology that customers actually want and would appreciate, rather than focusing on bad experiences or defending against them.
You know, if they just marketed the chatbots as a natural language way to engage with written product documentation (“what does error d80 mean and how do I fix it?”) I think that’s attractive to customers. It’s when they are presented as a replacement for a human and a barrier to getting real answers that they are a real pain.