Customer Service Heaven Is Just a Virtual Personal Assistant Away

Almost every smartphone user in the US -- 97 percent, to be exact -- sent a text at least once a day, according to a survey by Pew Research Center in late 2014. Humans strive for efficiency and economy, and text messaging fits right in: it's faster than a phone call, as well as more convenient, more reliable and less disruptive ... whether it's via messaging apps like Facebook's Messenger or WhatsApp, iMessage or good old SMS. But customer needs and desires do not always overlap with business objectives: for example, cutting costs as a corporate goal does not benefit the consumer directly. As for customer service in the past, cutting costs often meant the introduction of automation in the form of Interactive Voice Response (IVR). While these systems promised 24/7 access to information and no waiting on hold, many poorly designed systems did nothing to improve the better service hopes of consumers.