One of the ironies of the last decade is that while mobile phones have become ever more important, the phone call, as a method of communication, has fallen out of fashion.
According to a study into mobile phone use, actually making a call has fallen way down the list of uses for the devices; it’s now just the sixth most popular. Sending and receiving messages rank first and second, with reading emails in third.
If the habits of younger users are any guide to the future, this trend for messaging instead of calling seems set to become even more important, especially when it comes to business.
For Generation Y, web chat ranks jointly with social media as the cohort’s most favoured method of contacting a business, according to the a 2016 Internet Trends report from venture capitalist Mary Meeker.
Perhaps as a response to this, and perhaps as an effort to cut costs, many companies have begun to experiment with automated ‘chat bots’ which use AI to respond to customers’ queries and requests. However, for the moment, many AI-powered systems are not sophisticated enough to process ‘natural language’ with the degree of consistency required to be truly useful and reliable. Facebook Messenger bots were recently found to have an unimpressive 30 percent success rate in responding to requests without help from real people.
While many of us might now prefer to avoid phone calls where possible, most people do still value human interaction on some level. According to a Pegasystems survey, almost two thirds (65%) prefer online chat conversations to be with a human agent rather than an AI.
At Gett, we constantly strive to provide a best-in-class service in every department, and that means developing what we do to meet the needs and behaviours of our customers. So, we’ve recently released an in-app live chat feature that is 100% manned by real people in our contact centre. They’re on hand 24/7 to help with any request; whether that’s finding out when your taxi is expected to arrive, enquiring about a refund, or anything else.
You can access the chat through the Customer Care tab on your Gett app and will be instantly connected with one of our highly skilled and friendly agents (just make sure you’ve updated to the latest version of Gett).
You don’t even have to stay in the app, as you’ll get an on-screen notification once our agent has responded and they’ll give you notice if they need to investigate something that will take longer than a few minutes.
And, if you still prefer to speak over the phone, that’s fine too. You can give us a call the old-fashioned way on 0207 788 8987.
We look forward to chatting with you soon!
