Does talking to a robot with an endless stream of irrelevant questions reduce you to a frustrated wreck screaming “I want to speak to a human” down the telephone? Well, if central government has its way the robots are out and humans are in!
A new draft law, The Customer Services Law, would require all companies, including the services such as telephone, gas, water and electricity, to provide customer service helplines free of charge, to employ staff “trained and capable” in customer services and restricts the use of robotic answering services to one minute.
Currently only 19% of customer service helplines are free of charge to the consumer and customers spend an average of 10 minutes accessing the assistance they require.
The draft law envisages an external audit of all Customer Service helplines by the Institute of Consumers and the regional government.
