Humans vs Robots: Who will win?

Peyton Duplechien • 06 May 2020 • 3 min read

The digital world is rapidly expanding. With the rise of chatbots, automated customer service, artificial intelligence – it feels as though human engagement is becoming a thing of the past. In fact, Gartner estimated that currently 85 percent of customer interactions with a business will be handled without any human involvement. But there’s a lot to still be said about the power of voice. 

Business is built on relationships 

True customer engagement and interaction is human to human. While automation provides easy, quick solutions to customers, businesses aren’t built on the backs of robots. Real-time customer service can be provided through automation and AI, but even then, there are shortcomings to technology. Empathy, friendliness and confidence lie in face-to-face or voice-to-voice interactions.  

Robots have limitations 

Let’s take chatbots for instance. While they are powered with AI that generally has the ability to become smarter with the more communication it has with humans, that’s something that takes time and customers may not have the patience to “groom” the chatbot in order to truly be able to help with queries and issues. Imagine wanting answers from a chatbot only to be met with an error message indicating the chatbot is not understanding what you’re asking. 

AI is still too rudimentary 

Artificial intelligence is still computer and human programmed. It will always feel robotic as long as it doesn’t mimic human’s general intelligence. To have a chatbot truly mimic human behavior is something that technology is incredibly far away from doing and a big ethical question mark. The fear that AI will eventually win out against humans – specifically in the workforce – is unfounded, because the demand for human interaction still exists. 

Humans interaction is still favored 

While consumers do want quick answers and help from businesses, they also want their problems or issues to be solved. If a chatbot can’t troubleshoot for them, the first thing they’ll do is reach for the phone and seek out a live person to talk to – someone who can better intuit the problem and provide the callers with answers.  

Blend your customer support 

If you want to give customers the opportunity to speak with a chatbot for customer support, it’s a great element to add to your website. But don’t let it become the only channel through which your customers can connect with your business. Dissolving your customer support or customer experience department is shortsighted. While a chatbot may seem like a great solution to customer support on a shoestring budget, your business does have other options. 

Answering services remain a popular choice 

For a fraction of the cost of hiring customer support specialists, your business can hire an answering service. You’ll get a team of live operators ready and waiting to answer all the calls that come into your business. They’ll be able to forward calls to the right person or department (versus an automated interactive voice response system) or take messages when no one is available to speak.  

VoiceNation is the most comprehensive answering service 

We’re in the business of providing the best human-to-human customer support and experience for your business. Our (human) intelligent operators are professionally trained to handle all types of calls that come into your business. Want to learn more? Give us a call at 877.679.3777 or give us a try for free.