[freedomben]

I don't doubt you, but if that's the case why not make it easy to get to a human? I'm fine explaining my problem to a robot, but if (when) they don't understand what I'm saying, hand me off to a human! For example, it's maddening to call the pharmacy and go through something like this:

    Pharmacy Robot:  Hello, thanks for calling <pharmacy>.  What can I do for you?  You can say anything like, "Check pharmacy hours" or "order a refill".

    Me:  Hi, I have a refill for <specific medication with rules around it> that is due next week but I'll be traveling out of the country to <other country> for a couple of weeks.  I need to know what my options are.

    Pharmacy Robot:  Ok, you want a refill.  Please enter the prescription number now.

    Me:  No, if we try to refill it, the automated system will just reject it.  I need to talk to a h...<cut off by robot>

Pharmacy Robot: Sorry, I didn't get that number. Using your phone's keypad, enter the number of your prescription refill.

Me: Jesus Christ, do I have to hang up and go through this whole thing ag... <cut off by robot>

Pharmacy Robot: Sorry, I didn't get that number. Using...<cut off by human hanging up>

That's just the most recent one I had. There are often better examples of madness...

[mike_hearn]

Because unless the chatbot is both better than a human in every way, and everyone knows that, the first thing people will do is push the button to reach the human. Why wouldn't they? They're calling in the first place because they don't want to make an effort to use the available tools to answer their question. They want a human.

[freedomben]

> They're calling in the first place because they don't want to make an effort to use the available tools to answer their question.

That's not correct. I NEVER call without first exhausting every available source because I despise the phone system and it's inefficiencies. Most companies may think they have resources available, but they really don't. And no, just throwing up a zendesk or equivalent "knowledge base" isn't the same as providing tools and manuals/guides/etc.

That said, there is definitely a subset of people for whom calling is step 1 (before even googling). They tend to be older and/or on the tech illiterate side. But if you design and build for the worst-case scenario, you're really screwing over your more self-help customers and even driving them away.

[ahzhou]

To be fair, LLM-based chatbots are much better about this because you don't need to discover the magic incantation to talk to a human. It's a trade-off because that same property introduces the possibility of hallucination.