I was thinking again today about the decision that held Air Canada responsible for the garbage spewed by its “customer service” chatbot, as I tried repeatedly to explain a very precise question to a call-centre agent. Likely under-paid. Definitely under-supported.
I asked to be transferred to either her “superior” (her word) or to legal. I said in these actual literal words “this question could end up in court and is beyond your pay grade” but her “superiors” still refused to take the transfer.
She was very pleasant, even as the call went on and on and on and I kept repeating that the question she was answering was not the one I was asking.
I’m sure she could barely hear me; there were many people talking in the room she was working from. (Likely under-ventilated.)
Even where audio is good, it is frustratingly common for a questionee to register only a few key words before hitting play on a pre-packaged response.
Maybe this is sufficient / efficient most of the time, for most customers, for most questions.
But I had already:
- Logged in to get as much information as I could on my own,
- Checked out (1) the FAQs and (2) the community, and
- Attempted to find / generate an answer using their online “assistant.”
This phone call was my last step, not my first. But it honestly sounded like their “customer service” model is to cram people into a room to type the same obvious keywords into the “assistant” and then read the (inapplicable) answers (inaudibly). It was frustrating.
When I asked again to be escalated, the same agent came back to tell me something wasn’t possible because of privacy. I had to explain that doesn’t even make sense to say to the customer who has the privacy interest to waive. Still her “superiors” would not let her pass the call on.
Eventually it seemed my actual question was being understood. The answer still came back no. “No” feels legally incorrect.
And I have no doubt that if this does indeed get to court and the answer is actually yes, their corporate and legal will again try to dump the problem on the minimum-wage employee reading the chatbot aloud.
(Are server rooms better ventilated than call centres?)
“This question could end up in court and is beyond your pay grade”
I was thinking again today about the decision that held Air Canada responsible for the garbage spewed by its “customer service” chatbot, as I tried repeatedly to explain a very precise question to a call-centre agent. Likely under-paid. Definitely under-supported.
I asked to be transferred to either her “superior” (her word) or to legal. I said in these actual literal words “this question could end up in court and is beyond your pay grade” but her “superiors” still refused to take the transfer.
She was very pleasant, even as the call went on and on and on and I kept repeating that the question she was answering was not the one I was asking.
I’m sure she could barely hear me; there were many people talking in the room she was working from. (Likely under-ventilated.)
Even where audio is good, it is frustratingly common for a questionee to register only a few key words before hitting play on a pre-packaged response.
Maybe this is sufficient / efficient most of the time, for most customers, for most questions.
But I had already:
This phone call was my last step, not my first. But it honestly sounded like their “customer service” model is to cram people into a room to type the same obvious keywords into the “assistant” and then read the (inapplicable) answers (inaudibly). It was frustrating.
When I asked again to be escalated, the same agent came back to tell me something wasn’t possible because of privacy. I had to explain that doesn’t even make sense to say to the customer who has the privacy interest to waive. Still her “superiors” would not let her pass the call on.
Eventually it seemed my actual question was being understood. The answer still came back no. “No” feels legally incorrect.
And I have no doubt that if this does indeed get to court and the answer is actually yes, their corporate and legal will again try to dump the problem on the minimum-wage employee reading the chatbot aloud.
(Are server rooms better ventilated than call centres?)