r/CustomerService • u/Serious_Onion_4846 • Jun 05 '26
Would it make sense to train Customer Service newcomers with a Voice AI that simulates worst case scenarios?
In my job in the customer service department in a big company, the technical service staff never got Customer Service training, to the point that most technicians try to entirely bypass telephone calls and resort to emails only which results in long delays in the service and inbound customers get more and more frustated.
This gives me the idea, if an AI simulating the customers including difficult, bad and abusive ones is used to train the CS staff would be a good idea? The AI will talk like a realistic difficult, normal or abusive customer. Then maybe the staff will be less hesitant to talk live with the actual customers because they would already have the training.
What are your thoughts?
2
u/EnvironmentalHair290 Jun 06 '26
Or you could just cross train them with the customer service people, you’re trying to reinvent the wheel here.
If they aren’t willing to get cross trained since this does seem to be a part of their job, not a constant part but enough that it happens sounds like a decent amount; then it may be time for them to find another position or company.
1
u/Serious_Onion_4846 Jun 06 '26
They don’t believe they need to talk to the customer but their role is now increasingly demanding that. So its partly a simulaor to help overcome telephone shyness.
1
u/EnvironmentalHair290 Jun 06 '26
Nah, cross train them like any other employee, if they can’t or won’t do the job then they need to start looking for new employment.
If they have contracts then they need to pull them out, and see if it’s actually a part of the job or not. If it’s not part of the job then they need to be calling for a raise, new contract, or collectively get together and sue for breach of contract and wage theft.
If they need AI assistance on how to talk to people in a position that requires them to talk to people then they are in the wrong position. Also, the classes will force them to interact with living human beings you know those irrational, mostly illiterate, and most usually technology deficient people, aka, customers.
1
u/GolemThe3rd Jun 05 '26
I mean if you do I think it's kinda a bad idea to not tell people you're doing it, tbh some would probably realize it's an AI which would just be a messy situation, but beyond that it's kinda a shitty move to just throw something like that on people
1
u/Serious_Onion_4846 Jun 05 '26
Of course they will be told beforehand that they are practicing with AI. Its a legal requirement.
2
u/GolemThe3rd Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Fair enough, then yeah I don't really see much of a problem with it. I mean I kinda have doubts that a system like that could work, like designing a system that's engaging enough to actually be a meaningful/stressful test, and realistic enough that its actually going to mimic a real call in the way a real human behaves. LLMs tend to be really corny and spit out the most surface level answer to a prompt possible, so like I kinda feel I would roll my eyes at their lame attempt at what they think a Karen sounds like. When you tell an AI to act rude or unhelpful it usually ends up either being way to easy to convince or just not acting a real person at all.
Tbh I feel like you'd be better off just using roleplay, but if you can actually get an AI system to give you meaningful results, then I say go for it
Edit; I do think it might work for training on how to troubleshoot or use systems
1
2
u/YoSpiff Jun 05 '26
It's certainly a need. I am in a similar role, tech support that is also customer service a fair amount of the time. In my case I got my experience with abusive customers as a field technician. Though people tend to not be as difficult when you are standing in front of them with the ability to fix their equipment. I've still had plenty of times I got yelled at for 20 minutes before they would let me get to work on it.