In mid-August, the Biden Administration gave a name to a series of initiatives by regulatory bodies to encourage businesses to do right by their customers. One was to eliminate so called “junk fees” that surprise customers when they buy airline or concert tickets, and pay monthly bills from telephone carriers or cable companies, or their banks. Efforts to act on the customers’ behalf falls under the umbrella term “Time is Money.”

While they were considering the value of an individual’s time, up popped the image of customers suffering through hours of on-hold music while waiting to talk to an agent to challenge a fee or terminate service. Working initially through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), they intend to make rules requiring companies under their jurisdiction to enable customers to reach a live agent at the touch of a single button, instead of getting stuck in what administration spokespeople call “doom loops” where they have to bark at IVR or press multiple buttons without an escape. Presumably, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will join the fray as enforcement spreads to other verticals.

Not a Dis on Chatbots, Per Se

“There’s nothing here that says you can’t have a chatbot,” explained Neera Tanden, the White House administrator taking lead on the Time is Money initiative, in this interview on NPR. She added, “…We’re just saying, you know, you should be able to get to a human, you know, press a button, zero, and get to a human quickly.” Although regulators have received numerous complaints about “chatbots” that often fail to understand a customer’s intent, or provide inaccurate information, they have concluded that the source of customer frustration that deserves immediate attention is the inability to reach a live agent when interactions over an IVR system or conversations with a voicebot have reached an impasse. One-button access to a live agent is seen as a “silver bullet” to vanquish this monster.

Yet, immediate access to live agents on every call is a mathematic impossibility. Large companies have millions of customers, compared to thousands of agents or representatives to handle incoming queries. ACDs (Automated Call Distributors) that are the front end to every contact center from the beginning, taking in calls by the trunkful and distributing them over internal phone lines. Introduction of digital technologies (SIP Trunks and VoIP) has changed some of the math, but the most likely outcome when a weather event causes a large percentage of a major airline’s customers to press the “ring an agent” button to re-book their flights will either be a busy signal (when was the last time you heard one of those?) or an unavoidable wait (dare I say “Doom Loop Redux”).

A Call to Action for Generative AI

Implementation of the CFPB’s rules, and the regulations to follow will be years in the making. The government must publish its proposed rules, seek feedback from interested parties, hold hearings, and eventually issue its final report. Consider the White House “Fact Sheet” (issued August 12^th) as a wake-up call to start evaluating and implementing viable ways to banish the “Doom Loop.” The next generation of GenAI-infused chatbots or voicebots hold great potential to address the problems the White House is trying to address.

Start with GenAI-infused, self-service. Chatbots and voicebots powered by GenAI have superhuman abilities. In the ideal, they can rapidly recognize the intent of a call and respond with highly personalized information, recommendation, and actions. The ability for automated systems to handle a high-percentage of calls without requiring human intervention is a big step to eliminating the Doom Loop.

Current technology is already capable of providing human-like user interfaces that can carry out multi-turn, conversational interactions and transactions on behalf of customers. When they recognize that they’ve reached a point where they cannot complete a request, they can bring in another automated agent or… drum roll… see if the customer wants to press the ‘Get Human’ button.

We Humans are Still In the Drivers’ Seat

Today customers remain skeptical of a bot’s ability to handle their specific set of problems. Past experience leads to low expectations. For decades, our prime objective has been to “get to a human.” Efforts to exceed low expectations for automated, self-service must begin now. It starts with building better bots and encouraging customers to use them. Changing human behavior is hard and time-consuming. So are regulatory processes. The clock is ticking for both. Businesses are well-advised to invest both in technologies that employ GenAI to provide better self-service, and in marketing (customer education) programs that raise awareness of those new, improved customer care resources.

Time is money.

Categories: Intelligent Assistants