There is a significant mismatch between customer expectations for service, the experiences brands think they offer, and the experiences they actually offer. To understand the actions to be taken to close this gap, we interviewed 6,000 consumers and 800 decision-makers in companies from different sectors, across Europe.
How brands perceive service levels
How AI is reshaping the way we interact with businesses
The impact that ineffective chatbots will have on your brand
How to effectively leverage AI to meet customer expectations
Freshworks has conducted AI research in Customer Service, gathering information from over 6,055 consumers and 812 decision makers in Customer Support services in several European markets. This research analyzes both the behavior of businesses and consumers with regard to the use of AI, chatbots, and automatic assistants in customer service.
In this study, Freshworks identified that consumers tended to use a different language with chatbots than with human agents. According to the companies surveyed, European customers are prone to using coarser language, or even insults, when speaking with a chatbot than when speaking with a human.
The results of this study also showed that users turn to chatbots to discuss the most sensitive topics. They favor these interlocutors for subjects that they would be embarrassed to discuss with a human.
Decision makers surveyed who use AI in their customer support journey report that 83% of chatbot support interactions involve some degree of abusive language or profanity .
This proportion is lower in the United Kingdom (52%) but higher in the Netherlands (92%), Germany (92%) and France (87%)
Europeans are more rude to their virtual assistants than to humans . The decision-makers interviewed also affirm that these profanities decrease to 75% with support agents.
Respondents aged 18 to 34 are the segment of the population that most admits being more rude with virtual support agents than with humans (33% of 18-24 year olds and 36% of 24-34 year olds).
This figure decreases to 11% for respondents aged over 55.
Consumers might turn to chatbots to discuss embarrassing issues. 21% of respondents say that one of the benefits of interacting with a chatbot is the ability to ask questions that they would be embarrassed to ask a human. (Germany 27%, Netherlands 21%, France 19%, UK 17%)
This increases to 33% for respondents aged 18 to 24.
Almost a quarter of those surveyed (24%) say they had difficulty resolving a customer service issue with a chatbot . This shows that companies have yet to successfully deploy chatbots in their Customer Service operations. But it also indicates that chatbot technology needs to become more sophisticated in order to meet customer expectations.
Depuis un certain temps, il existait un écart important entre la perception de la marque et celle du client concernant le type de service fourni et reçu. À bien des égards, le développement de nouvelles technologies et de nouveaux canaux exacerbe la situation, alors que les attentes des clients augmentent et que les entreprises doivent gérer plus de moyens de communication que jamais auparavant.
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