Traditional Customer Service: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

Whether you consider them friend or foe, chatbots are expected to be the main customer service method for a quarter of businesses by 2027. While a useful tool for many businesses, customers are yet to warm to these invisible bots — and for good reason. In this article, SIM-only mobile provider spusu, explores the difficulty with chatbots and why customer service should keep its human touch.

Mainstream AI has been implemented in many ways throughout businesses in all sectors, from making data analysis more efficient to automating marketing efforts. The last few years has seen an increasing number of businesses adopt AI as a means to facilitate customer service without the need for a human agent.

But from a customer’s perspective, it appears chatbots aren’t doing much to improve the way they interact with a business. Research from Delineate and conversational AI consultancy Vixen Labs has shown that 48 per cent of the UK public do not trust chatbots to help them in their daily lives and 74 per cent prefer to speak to a real person.

Chatbots or chat-nots?

When using a business’s customer service tools, you’ll often find AI behind the live chatbots on a company’s website or app. They’re designed to speed up customer service enquiries by instantly providing the user with the information they seek, without them having to search a webpage and find it themselves. For businesses looking to cut costs, AI chatbots can save a business money on the labour and operational costs associated with onboarding a customer service team.

On the surface, chatbots make sense. They’re accessible 24/7, can respond faster than a human and can gather data on customer preferences, behaviours and frequently asked questions. But why is it, that even though chatbot usage is increasing, contradictory reports have shown that they only resolve 14 per cent of issues?

This is usually because many chatbot tools are only programmed to answer simple questions. They are not built to handle unique and complex requests that customers may have, and are not yet developed at a level where they can truly understand the intricacies of human language and emotion. For example, if a customer is particularly disgruntled, a chatbot won’t be able to do much about it.

A personal touch

The most recent UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) reported that customer satisfaction levels are at their lowest level since 2010. In fact, Cavell’s 2024 Voice of the Consumer Report, which surveyed over 1,000 adults across the UK, revealed that almost half of them think the quality of customer service is worse now than three years ago. With customer service perceptions becoming more negative, could the lack of human customer service be to blame?

Another survey, this time from communications provider Gamma Communications, revealed that just under 40 per cent customers still prefer to call a company than speak to a robot. The survey also revealed that 46 per cent feel better understood when communicating verbally, while another 45 per cent believe that over the phone support is of higher quality than other contact methods.

Customers still value a people-first approach, and it's easy to see why. Human connection is important, it builds trust and confidence. Establishing a human connection also enables customers to easily explain their issue or query — resulting in a smoother interaction between a customer and the business. While businesses want to improve their individual operations, it shouldn’t be to the detriment to the level of quality and service they receive.

Although spusu was founded in 2015, it firmly believes in the power of traditional, human-first customer service. This means customers can directly speak to a member of the team through email, Whatsapp or by picking up the phone, should they need to get in touch.

In a world where technology rules, it’s easy to see why chatbots are an important tool for businesses. But, if they leave customers with more questions than answers, it can do more harm than good. Even though chatbot usage is on the rise, businesses might want to put customer preferences first and remember that a human touch goes a long way.