When Will Technology Actually Improve Customer Service?

We have all kinds of technology in the customer service chain, but customer service is perceived as getting worse.

Is there a possible technology that not only will improve service, but completely revolutionize customer service?

Two Thing The Technology Must Provide

First the breakthrough technology must be more convenient than dealing with a human being, by providing instant no delay contact, and faster actions and resolution than can be provided by human beings.

Second, and more important, it must provide significant savings to businesses. That is, the cost of acquiring the technology must be low, and the costs of maintaining it low. And of course, it has to work most of time without human intervention.

Without these two elements, no breakthrough is possible, period.

The Potential Revolutionary Technology Is Artificial Intelligence

We already have an early example of the technology that will shatter how customer service is delivered in Watson, the computer hardware and software that was demonstrated on Jeopardy, where it defeated human opponents.

Extend it by having almost perfect voice recognition, improved speech output, and the ability to understand and solve customer problems, and you have a prototypical idea of how the technology would work.

Because it’s a machine, there need not be any delay on the phone, no wait time, etc, provided it’s set up that way. Imagine a machine that can understand you, your needs and the issue you are calling about, AND respond as well as a human being.

Couple this with another technology, 3-D printing, which can deliver “product” automatically, at least in theory, and you have a scenario where customer service throughout the entire buying and use cycle can be delivered by machine.

When?

Not soon. All of the pieces have actually been developed, but not to the level where it can be deployed cheaply, and actually replace human beings.

Because that’s the other requirement. To be a breakthrough technology for customer service, the technology must replace the need for human beings at the business end. That’s the only way it becomes cost effective.

So, first the technology has to improve, then it needs to be low cost for both businesses, and customers (i.e. affordable 3-d printing).

We’ll be seeing this I think. When it becomes clearly more convenient for customers to deal with such a machine, and it suits company budgets, then we’ll start to see it, despite the evolutionary aspect of humans that pushes us to face to face interactions.