Alchemer: Nearly 9 in 10 U.S. consumers say AI has hurt their experience with companies
The survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers relies on self-reported data. The two biggest complaints are being unable to reach a person when needed and having to repeat the same information.
What's happening
In the survey reported by CX Dive, the single biggest negative effect is this: 44% of customers say AI has made it harder to reach a person. Nearly a third of respondents say that, once connected to a live agent, they had to repeat information they had already provided. According to Jeannie Walters, CEO of Experience Investigators, a bot's 'scorecard' often rewards keeping customers away from live agents.
Behind the number
Alchemer's survey covered 2,000 U.S. consumers; the results are self-reported.
Whose desk it lands on
The executive responsible for customer experience and the call center. When a customer is connected to an agent, does the information the assistant collected carry over to the agent's screen, or does the customer have to explain everything all over again?
Our view
The CX Brief's interpretation, not a claim made by the source.
What customers are complaining about is less AI itself than the job it has been given. According to Walters, a bot's scorecard often rewards keeping customers away from agents, and the biggest negative effect in the survey is exactly that: agents becoming harder to reach. And the fix starts with the scorecard, not the bot: unless customer effort and repeat requests are added to the scorecard, the assistant will report the very situation customers complain about as a success.
