How to beat the customer service chatbots
Customer Service Week is organised by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) Monday’s theme is Evolving Customer Needs.
Many companies believe that customer service chatbots can help make their business more efficient. However, they would do well to heed the research from ServiceNow’s Consumer Voice Report 2024 which shows that the number of consumers preferring human interaction is increasing.
How can you get to speak to a human?
@thecomplainingcow How to speak to a human on chat bots #chatbots #customerserviceproblems #Automation#Automated#OnlineChat
1) When faced with a customer service chatbot, the first thing to try is typing “Speak to a human”. This can work on live chat, automated chatbots and social media. Or use phrases like “This is urgent”, “This is an emergency”, “Escalate”, “Speak to a manager”, etc.
2) Deliberately put in wrong information! Systems are set up to ask for your account number etc. and then search but if you confuse it, then it may kick the next stage in of needing to speak to a human. In a similar way, type rubbish or a long complicated sentence to confuse the chatbot. You might as well amuse yourself whilst being annoyed with the chatbot!
3) If the chatbot asks you if it can help or do more, repeat “no”, it might get the message to ask a human! No problem with giving it negative feedback. Remember, it doesn’t have feelings!
4) If you are on a site for a service, such as broadband, tell the chatbot that you want to “cancel” the service. This tactic may take you to a human to try to convince you not to leave. Or say you have a payment issue, as businesses want to resolve these types of issues more than anything else!
5) Try using the chatbot during normal office hours, as some companies may have a human available during this time.
6) Try a different platform, some companies will have different systems for their website, app and social media.
7) Simply refuse to use it. Write an email to customer service and if the site does not provide a customer service email address, obtain the CEO’s email address from ceoemail.com The CEO may not respond personally but it does get your escalated complaint into the system.
8) On the phone, if you are struggling to speak to a human, press “0” straight away. This sometimes gets you directly through to a human, bypassing all the other options.
9) If you have listened to all the options and none of them fit, or one seems more likely to have a human, choose that one.
10) Hold on the phone and don’t enter any information it requests. When the system doesn’t get a number inputted it will often say “I will transfer you to someone who can help”. Bingo, a human.
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