A report by Opentext has revealed that Britons think robots can provide better customer service than humans, despite them not being able to communicate or respond in the same way.
Over a quarter of British consumers said they would rather robots like Pepper serve them in a restaurant or a shop. It also includes automated systems for telephone-based customer service, despite a high proportion of people getting frustrated with such telemarketing services.
“Customers today expect nothing less than exceptional customer service and will not hesitate to seek services elsewhere if they don’t get it,” said Mark Bridger, vice president at OpenText
Opentext asked 2000 British adults, asking how they would feel if they were served by a robot rather than a human in certain service and hospitality industries.
17 per cent explained they would rather interact with a robot rather than a civil servant at the government, for services like tax returns or if switching energy providers.
One in five people aged over 65 would rather deal with a robot when shopping, rather than being approached by a real person.
However, millennials said they would not be as receptive to robot-controlled customer services. Almost a third of people aged between 18 and 34 said they weren’t sure whether using robots instead of customer service staff would improve their experience.
“Businesses are fast realising that they need to alter the way in which they interact with their customers to meet their demands. The introduction of robots and AI will offer an opportunity to revolutionise this interaction process in the very near future,” added Bridger.
“Cognitive systems are self-learning systems that simulate the way a brain works using data mining, analytics, pattern recognition, and natural language processing to learn, interact, and make decisions,” he said.
“Digital enterprises of the future will incorporate cognitive tools and analytics into their infrastructure. These will then be used to amplify human capabilities, working seamlessly alongside people to uncover underlying patterns and trends, provide better insights, make decisions, and prescribe actions more efficiently.”
