Forget long lines at the customer service counter or hours on hold with a phone rep. Customer gripes can now be resolved thanks to artificial intelligence.
Spanish company CogniCor Technologies, a spin-off of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, developed an automated web-based service that responds to complaints and can negotiate reimbursement so customers get compensated right away.
Customers fill out information about the nature of their complaint and proof of purchase and then they detail what they are seeking in terms of monetary compensation. The system cross references the information to make sure it is all correct and considers various other factors before reaching a resolution.
Cognicor Chief Executive Sindhu Joseph tells WSJ Blogs:
“Sentiment analysis of the complaint can determine how severe the complaint is. It also looks for context, and it looks to see who is making the complaint and their social influence,” Ms. Joseph said. “If you take the example of the lost baggage, it makes a difference if you lose your bags going out on vacation, or coming back. That is what we mean by context.”
“By influence, Ms. Joseph means either the importance of the customer to the company, or their social influence. Measures for determining social influence are being developed but include Facebook and Twitter influence.”
To help determine fair compensation, the system is able to search through existing complaints provided by the company to see how they were handled. Then the program can adapt and learn business rules based on how complaints were handled in the past.
According to WSJ, “the system can also engage in negotiations. But be warned, the AI engine is smart enough to remember your bids so it isn’t a question of chucking in bids and seeing which one gets the best response.”
