As I was slowly making my way out of customer service operations, one of the biggest initiatives we were taking on was increasing automation, with a goal of rolling out chatbots within the next couple of years. The technology was finally getting to the point where a reliable solution could be implemented, and customers might not mind that they weren’t talking to a real live person.

Getting started on automation

In our eyes, the advantages of implementing automation were clear. We could deliver the same level of customer service, handle a higher volume of customer contacts, while reducing costs and reducing front line recruitment and training needs.

But implementing automation, in a company that had no history of automating anything and very little skill to apply to the task, was a daunting proposition. We felt our staff would fight back against the robots, for the fear that they would eventually lose their job.