When chat bots are engaging and or funny I really like them!
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@abadesi I think some places are starting to realize consumers feel that way. I've seen a few recently that are really engaging and it made me more likely to try chatting with more in the future.
@jessica_tedrick that’s encouraging; especially since we’ve all had sub par experiences with humans in these kind of interactions, would be great to see bots improve over time
I don't mind either way - I particularly like testing my banter skills with the bot. I only get annoyed when I have a question the bot can't answer and there is no clear path to chatting to human who can help.
Feel like they are a lot better nowadays, having used a few I find Facebook Messenger bots to be mostly well put together.
However, I’d ALWAYS choose a real person over a bot if I could.
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@de It's hard to replace an actual human interaction, for sure.
the bots i have had to deal with are very poor quality - the response are very generic.
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@paroma Yes! There isn't a lot of personality behind most of them.
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I think it depends on the context. I don't mind chatbots in onboarding (single time event). Beyond that, it just 'feels' too slow and ineffective.
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@behzad_behrouzi Onboarding is such a great application for them. They can be ineffective. If they don't understand your question you can't just further explain it like you could to a person.
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I mean, I don't _hate talking to people_, but I enjoy seeing how others build bots and leverage all the different capabilities. The more unique, the better!
The bot should have purpose, tho. And response times are critical - would expect it to have responses at the ready 24/7. At least for a "FAQ" type of interaction.
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@ohdubz yes! I think they are best utilized as a customer service aid that can be there when the real live agents can't be or to help get customers to the right people. Being quick and available is key.
A couple of things from a UX POV:
1. Most chatbots are just decision trees, which means I need to answer multiple questions to get the context of my issue across. I can explain much quicker and easier to a human.
2. Imitating human interactions is a confusing / dishonest / annoying and disappointing.
- Why aren't responses instant and instead I have to wait until the bot is "typing"
- Why do I need to waste time on formalities with a bot
- Why is answering fixed questions in a chat format easier than me filling in a form?
- After trying to sell friendliness and "intelligence", down the line I find out that it doesn't really GET what I'm asking, so I just wasted a good chunk of time playing the "real conversation" game with a dumb algorithm.
At the same time they make total sense from a business POV.
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@kaolti It's always that double edged sword, from a business perspective its great but from a customer perspective its irritating! Totally get that!
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