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Perhaps instead of replacing the call center itself, it could eliminate long IVR sequences, gather better and more pertinent data from the customer and make the

by sseth 8y ago

Perhaps instead of replacing the call center itself, it could eliminate long IVR sequences, gather better and more pertinent data from the customer and make the humans on either side more productive. As an example, in India you are often asked to press 1 for language X, 2 for language Y. But a smart assistant can just listen to the customer and decide this automatically. This can be a huge win by itself.

jakecopp 8y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if that language question is already automated then google's AI wouldn't reduce labour costs correct? What would the benefit be? Of course the customer will gain a few seconds but I don't see a large improvement.
- perfmode 8y ago
  reduces labor on the customers side. it’s a small improvement, but one that drops hints about a new class of optimization that is often neglected.
kranner 8y ago
> But a smart assistant can just listen to the customer and decide this automatically. But the customer will not start speaking before the system prompts them to speak or asks them a question. And since it has to do that in one fixed language, the choice of that language will usually determine what language the customer responds in; this is in the Indian context where most people calling into an IVR will be bilingual at least, speaking English and one regional language.
VLM 8y ago
Many call center calls have a negative or zero financial value to the company, which is why the experience can be so horrible now. In the future, rather than wearing down the patience of a human in India to cancel service, you'll have to wear down the patience of "ok google" or "alexa"... good luck with that. A not entirely sci fi book plot would revolve around indentured servitude (to put it nicely) what does society and the economy look like after a few generations of only being able to cancel a service if you have more patience and more computing cycles than "the cloud"? As a sci fi plot, what does the world look like when its easier and more likely to kick a heroin addiction than to cancel an old gym membership or cut the cable TV service, or request a credit card chargeback?
- kaybe 8y ago
  That would require forbidding "cloud" use for private parties, otherwise you'll have an arms race.
- tomjen3 8y ago
  In that scenario people wouldn't sign up for recurring services, or it would end up being like the new law in Cali where they have to let you unsubscribe on the internet. Also having a robot repeating: "my customer number is blabla and I would like to cancel my account", "has my account been canceled yet" doesn't exactly take a lot of cycles. In fact it might be worth it to create cancelation as a service bot, where for a small fee, you can get the bot to call and cancel for you.
paulie_a 8y ago
Why do IVRs universally suck? They seem incapable of transferring information you already entered and blare obnoxious advertisements every 12 seconds while on hold. It's like the designers of these systems had "make it as painful as possible" in the requirements.

by sseth 8y ago

jakecopp 8y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if that language question is already automated then google's AI wouldn't reduce labour costs correct? What would the benefit be? Of course the customer will gain a few seconds but I don't see a large improvement.

perfmode 8y ago
reduces labor on the customers side. it’s a small improvement, but one that drops hints about a new class of optimization that is often neglected.

kranner 8y ago

> But a smart assistant can just listen to the customer and decide this automatically. But the customer will not start speaking before the system prompts them to speak or asks them a question. And since it has to do that in one fixed language, the choice of that language will usually determine what language the customer responds in; this is in the Indian context where most people calling into an IVR will be bilingual at least, speaking English and one regional language.

VLM 8y ago

Many call center calls have a negative or zero financial value to the company, which is why the experience can be so horrible now. In the future, rather than wearing down the patience of a human in India to cancel service, you'll have to wear down the patience of "ok google" or "alexa"... good luck with that. A not entirely sci fi book plot would revolve around indentured servitude (to put it nicely) what does society and the economy look like after a few generations of only being able to cancel a service if you have more patience and more computing cycles than "the cloud"? As a sci fi plot, what does the world look like when its easier and more likely to kick a heroin addiction than to cancel an old gym membership or cut the cable TV service, or request a credit card chargeback?

kaybe 8y ago
That would require forbidding "cloud" use for private parties, otherwise you'll have an arms race.
tomjen3 8y ago
In that scenario people wouldn't sign up for recurring services, or it would end up being like the new law in Cali where they have to let you unsubscribe on the internet. Also having a robot repeating: "my customer number is blabla and I would like to cancel my account", "has my account been canceled yet" doesn't exactly take a lot of cycles. In fact it might be worth it to create cancelation as a service bot, where for a small fee, you can get the bot to call and cancel for you.

paulie_a 8y ago

Why do IVRs universally suck? They seem incapable of transferring information you already entered and blare obnoxious advertisements every 12 seconds while on hold. It's like the designers of these systems had "make it as painful as possible" in the requirements.