Chatbots can’t solve everything and the importance of human contact should not be underestimated, especially when an issue may be causing real frustration for a user.
There is a strong emotional intelligence within a good service desk; the ability to infer through someone’s voice the impact and urgency of the problem they are coming to you to solve.
It’s a skill, it cannot be underrated, and chatbots may never be a replacement.
However, where they can provide real value with more complex incidents is by providing an intelligent handoff to the most appropriately skilled person on the desk, be it first, second or third line.
The chatbot can not only route the user to the best person to help them but pass on the data it’s already gathered so the user doesn’t have to explain their problem again from scratch. The service desk personnel can then begin supporting them immediately.
In the service desk of the future, the voice channel absolutely still has a vital purpose, but it’s about giving users the choice.
Increasingly the preferred option for many customers is to go to a one-stop-shop portal where they can self-serve if they’re confident, get engagement when they need it, and talk to a human when the really want to.
Right channel, right time, and a service desk they are using because they genuinely want to, not because they have to.