Any company that did this did not have customer service, they merely replaced the people they hired to give you a run-around and gaslight you and not actually handle the problem... with a cleverly written program that can be easily mistaken for a human.
At such companies, chat bots and the people that were formerly employed there have no functional difference: they are forbidden to help you, cannot effect the situation in any way, and are not given the ability to change anything.
So yeah, in that incredibly narrow use, they have found an effective way to screw customers more inexpensively.
L1 support is mainly for filtering out PEBKAC cases. Using chatbots as a force multiplier makes total sense. 1 outsourced agent can now handle Xx more cases, by monitoring chatbot flows and intervening/escalating where necessary.
Any company that did this did not have customer service, they merely replaced the people they hired to give you a run-around and gaslight you and not actually handle the problem... with a cleverly written program that can be easily mistaken for a human.
At such companies, chat bots and the people that were formerly employed there have no functional difference: they are forbidden to help you, cannot effect the situation in any way, and are not given the ability to change anything.
So yeah, in that incredibly narrow use, they have found an effective way to screw customers more inexpensively.