Despite rise of chatbots, people still prefer human customer services

Until recently, the most common way that customers interacted with a company’s customer service was via human agents on the telephone, the web or a mobile app. But increasingly, customer service is being provided by chatbots. Even though chatbots offer instant availability, 24 hours a day, more than two-thirds of people still prefer to speak with a human agent, according to research by PWC, an accounting consultancy. Most companies use chatbots as the first line of customer service, writes Prof. Vivek Astvansh in The Conversation. Many people feel that chatbots misunderstand their question, and companies would benefit from seeking to identify whether a chatbot or human agent is best suited to addressing the issue at hand.