Customer service is suppose to be a key pillar when it comes to building a successful brand, but in recent months, my customer service experiences have left much to be desired.

I write this having experienced three instances in the space of a week regarding one logistics company operating locally – Aramex.

I should preface all this by mentioning the fact that I do not have an axe to grind, but hope that Aramex can use this feedback from a frustrated customer as a learning experience. I am also aware of the fact that as the editor of Hypertext, I have a platform that few regular customers do, so I aim to wield what little modicum of power I have cautiously.

With that in mind, here are my thoughts about customer service in South Africa and how the implementation of chatbots might seem like a step in the right direction, but without a more nuanced approach, will only serve to further frustrate and alien customers.

Allow me to set the scene. At the beginning of the month I placed an order on Nike’s South African website for three items (one pair of trousers and two t-shirts). After 48 hours to process the order, I was advised that delivery would be handled by Aramex and to expect my package on 12th December.

Hi, we are sorry to hear of your dissatisfaction with our service. We aim to provide a satisfactory experience for our clients and would like to assist in ensuring that you get nothing less. If you have a parcel with us at the moment, please DM us so that we can assist.

— Aramex South Africa (@AramexSA) December 13, 2021

Fast forward to this week and after three separate calls lasting 20-plus minutes each to escalate delivery status, I eventually took to Twitter to vent my frustrations, tagging both Nike and Aramex South Africa in the process. 72 hours later I received an automated reply to my tweet asking me to direct message the Aramex account to resolve my issues.

This is where the bot comes into play, offering me only three options to address an issue – Track my parcel, Find my nearest Store-to-Door location, Chat to an agent. With previous phone calls proving fruitless, I shared my tracking number and only received an update on where the package had been up until the previous week Friday.

When I replied that, “I need to know when my shipment would be delivered?”, the bot informed me that it was not a valid response, highlighting just how limited the functionality is. This as the aforementioned options made available to me via direct message also exist on the Aramex website and app.

Where the bot is designed to alleviate frustration, it only served to exacerbate it by virtue of not having enough functionality built in.

Am I expecting too much from a simple web-based application designed to handle a handful of actions? Perhaps, but it is not the first time that a bot has been unable to handle a nuanced query that I have had.

It ultimately means that after exhausting all available channels, I am once again on the phone talking to flesh and blood person to try to get my delivery sorted.

The experiences dealing with Aramex have proven so frustrating that I’ve even considered not ordering from Nike at all, but seeing as how I am a rotund man and the online portal has greater availability of larger sizes, not to mention Aramex being the only logistics firm handling deliveries from Nike currently, I am left at an impasse.

We have covered the advent of chatbots and the potential of their use in revitalising a company’s level of customer service, handling simple queries to yield greater convenience so staff have more time to handle tougher tasks, but for now, bots only seem to work in principle.

The real-world application to date is still mired in ineptitude and if companies wish to truly deliver of great customer service with a chatbot, make sure it can do more than the existing channels made available to customers, otherwise it becomes another dead end.

As we have seen from SA telcos and banks, failure to properly address customer concerns on social media can quickly lead to lasting negative sentiment.

With the proliferation of ecommerce in South Africa set to continue into the coming years, chatbots will become part and parcel of the customer service experience, but those firms which utilise middling or mediocre technology, could suffer losing customers in the long run.

Since penning this quasi-rant, my package has been delivered, but I’m seriously second guessing whether to ever order with Nike again.

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THIS OPINION PIECE HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY A PERSON WHO HAS HAD THREE FRUSTRATING CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCES IN THE SPACE OF A WEEK.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]