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AI Chatbots in Customer Support: Breaking Down the Myths
All the ways tech tricks us into believing chatbots make human support redundant and save costs
I’m a Director of Scientific Support for a tech corporation that develops software for engineers and scientists. One of the aspects that makes us unique is that we deliver fantastic customer service.
We have records that confirm an impressive 98% customer satisfaction rate back-to-back for the last 14+ years. Moreover, many of our support representatives have been with us for over a decade — some even three! — and we have people retiring with us each year.
For a sector known for high employee turnover and operational costs, achieving such a feat is remarkable and a testament to their success. The worst? Support representatives are often portrayed as mindless robots repeating tasks without a deep understanding of the products and services they support.
That last assumption has spearheaded the idea that one of the best uses of AI—and Generative AI in particular—is substituting support agents with an army of chatbots.
The rationale? We’re told they are cheaper, more efficient, and improve customer satisfaction.
But is that true?
In this article, I review
- The gap between outstanding and remedial support
- Lessons from 60 years of chatbots
- The reality underneath the AI chatbot hype
- The unsustainability of support bots
Customer support: Champions vs Firefighters
I’ve delivered services all my commercial career in tech: Training, Contract Research, and now for more than a decade, Scientific Support.
I’ve found that of the three services — training customers, delivering projects, and providing support — the last one creates the deepest connection between a tech company and its clients.
However, not all support is created equal, so what does great support look like?
And more importantly, what’s disguised under the “customer support” banner, but is it a proxy for something else?
