As promised, 4 cons that businesses are experiencing with chatbots.

  1. Limited Responses

Although using chatbots may provide faster customer service overall, they aren’t perfect. Simple ones may have only limited responses for customers. Therefore, not all customers will get the answers they are searching for.

  1. Customers Could Become Frustrated

Because many chatbots work from a limited database, they can’t improvise. In other words, if they get confused, the conversation could go nowhere. That leads to frustrated customers.

Slang and sarcasm are lost on a chatbot. Customers may not get the results they were hoping for or needing. This can be offensive to those who realize that a confused chatbot is substituting for a human. Not that real people can’t get confused too, but if a chatbot is not performing well it can give off the impression that a business is cutting corners with customer service.  One big example is the auto attendants you get when you call a credit card company. Many times they cannot tell if you said “What’s my balance,” or “I need to talk to an operator!”

  1. They Can Cost More

Complex chatbots that solve some of the problems described above can cost more than simple ones. In some cases, these artificial intelligence chatbots cost thousands more. That defeats part of the purpose of a chatbot, which is to save money.

Setting up AI is expensive due to the hours of work and testing involved. Sure, they can learn, but it still takes time.

  1. They’re Not for Everyone

Some businesses are far too complex for chatbots to be practical. Trying to program all of the different questions or possible scenarios in such a circumstance would be costly. Additionally, the hours it would take would make such an undertaking unfeasible.

It’s true that using chatbots in some businesses is a good way to lower costs and increase profits. But you should consider all of the pros and cons before adding them to your own.

Did you miss our first blog on the pros of chatbots? No worries! Click the link to see if chatbots are what you need in your business: http://209.188.93.46/~stewartcivilproc/2019/08/28/to-bot-or-not-to-bot-part-1-pros/

 

By Vince Vitale