“Has anyone ever actually had their problem solved by a company’s chatbot?”

It’s a question that seems to be asked all too frequently these days. But is this “new normal” approach to customer support really that bad?

What does the evidence suggest?

A recent study on behalf of Citizens Advice found that only 20% of UK adults polled preferred chatbots as a way to communicate, with the majority opting rather for phone, email and instant messaging assistance.

Of the people who found it difficult or impossible to talk to a human to resolve their issue:

• 49% felt stress or frustration
• 27% felt powerless
• 44% experienced delays to resolution
• 14% gave up altogether

That these experiences make it feel like chatbots never work is, according to Google AI Overview, down to a psychological phenomenon called salience bias.

Salience bias refers to our tendency to focus on information that stands out, whether due to its prominence, emotional impact, or vividness, often at the expense of other less noticeable or less emotionally charged details.

Supporting its argument Google AI Overview contends that:

“When a chatbot works perfectly, you get your answer in 30 seconds and forget about the interaction. When a chatbot fails, loops, or refuses to connect you to a human, it causes high frustration, making those negative experiences much more memorable.”

And while acknowledging that “chatbots are a frequent source of frustration’ it maintained that “millions of people have their problems solved by chatbots every day, though success heavily depends on the complexity of the issue”.

Why do people get frustrated with AI customer support?

Customer frustration with AI support largely comes down to companies using poorly designed chatbots as a means of cutting costs and blocking access to human agents.

A bot that simply points a user to a help page on the company's website or provides an answer that any Google search could return adds little value, worse still if it struggles to even get you to that point.

The top chatbot frustrations include:

• Repetitive Loops: Users are often stuck in a loop repeating the same phrases or personal details over and over again because the bot doesn't properly interpret the information given.
• Misunderstanding Requests: Chatbots frequently misinterpret natural language or fixate on exact keywords, leading to irrelevant, repetitive, or generic responses.
• Inaccurate Information and Hallucinations: Bots can present false, fabricated or outdated information with complete confidence causing users to be misled.
• Lack of Empathy: Rigid, scripted replies fail to handle emotionally charged, urgent, or high-stress situations appropriately.
• Rigid Decision Trees: Inflexible decision trees can cause bots to break if a user inputs an unexpected response or question outside pre-programmed parameters.
• Difficulty Reaching a Human: Many systems act as an intentionally impenetrable wall, making it nearly impossible for a user to get transferred to a live support agent when the AI fails.

Not being able to easily transfer across to an actual human when all other options are exhausted is probably the biggest frustration of them all. And in some situations this can have serious consequences.

“Going round in circles with a chatbot isn’t just annoying, it can be a blockade to essential services,” explained Tom MacInnes, policy director at Citizens Advice. “We’ve seen organisation’s overreliance on chatbots and online forms leaving people unable to fix billing problems, sort out their debt or even access homelessness prevention services. There’s a role for chatbots, but the quiet erosion of face-to-face and telephone services is letting too many people fall through the cracks.”

Love them or hate them AI chatbots are here to stay.

But while more and more companies move towards this model GlobalWebPay have intentionally chosen to provide their customers with hands-on, human only support for both telephonic and email assistance. It’s one of the many reasons GlobalWebPay have a 5-Star Rating on Trustpilot.

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