Customer Service Chatbots Get Only One Chance

Customers say they are open to using customer service chatbots, but only 27 percent of them say they would be willing to try a chatbot again after a negative experience, according to a Gartner survey.

If chatbots previously misunderstood their issue, provided generic information, or made it harder to reach a person, customers are more likely to choose another channel, according to Eric Keller, a senior director analyst in the Gartner Customer Service and Support Practice.

To deal with this reality, Keller recommends that service leaders should prioritize reliability over reach. "A chatbot that consistently resolves a targeted set of issues will build more customer confidence than one that attempts to handle every issue but frequently fails," he states.

Gartner's research also found that 49 percent of consumers said they would have been willing to use a chatbot, but only 7 percent actually used one during their most recent service interaction.

"Stated willingness indicates potential demand, but actual adoption will depend on whether customers view the chatbot as a reliable and efficient path to resolution," Keller says.

Keller suggests that leaders should begin with targeted, thoroughly tested deployments, identify issue types with a proven high rate of successful resolution, clearly communicate what the chatbot can do, and expand its scope only after performance is reliable.

Gartner also urges companies to enable their chatbots to serve as seamless connectors to human support, not containment traps. Gartner found that 87 percent of customers say access to a human agent is essential when companies use generative artificial intelligence in customer service.

"The goal should not be to keep every interaction inside the chatbot. It should be to guide each customer to the fastest and most effective path to resolution, whether that path is AI-led, human-led, or a combination of both."