Monday 8 February 2016

Just type your question below

You're all familiar with the idea of "live" support on websites, right? The idea that you can type your question in a box and someone, somewhere in the world will reply? It's an increasingly popular customer engagement tool, and I sort of see the point, but the idea of having a "live" experience by typing some words in a box and having someone, somewhere, typing something back on the other side of the world and under an assumed name, well, that sort of gets my goat too. I know, I know, this could be my Grumpy Old Men audition piece.

I also can't help but wonder how much of it is real too. How many questions can be answered automatically, by some swank CRM software or artificial intelligence? So much do I wonder this that sometimes I just have to ask.

Areal person, taking to me.

I especially like how all the boilerplate phrases have perfect spelling and punctuation, and as soon as "Emma" is required to go off-piste, well, all that good stuff goes to the dogs. I'm probably wrong about fancy AI behind live support chats, it's probably still cheaper to hire someone in a far-flung corner corner of the globe and call him "Emma" or "Summer" or "Kelly". But I'm probably right in thinking that they have a long list of stock phrases, ready to copy and paste into your conversation.

Something to bear in mind, next time live support leaves you feeling a beautiful and unique snowflake.

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