Apple Chat - do they have buttons rather than typing?

[ssmed]

I have had a very frustrating delivery situation recently and have been on the Apple Store Chat a couple of times so that I can try to get resolution and generally moan about the very poor service.

Do the 'specialists' have buttons which produce those dreadful soothing answers or are they trained to write such annoying rubbish! They seem so instantaneous I can imagine them pressing a combination of pre-scripted responses

· Okay, I can certainly have a look at this for you today.
· I can understand this may be concerning for you but not to worry, I will do everything I can to point you in the right direction and try to get this issue resolved!​

Just curious if anyone knows.

Also being told that 'Because we try to make the best products possible' when I have a 2017 MBP with a dodgy keyboard didn't exactly engage me!

For information in the UK:
If you specify a delivery time / date, the courier will sometimes try to deliver on a different day before this and then because they have attempted at the correct time on the wrong day they feel they only need to turn up at any old time thereafter when you are obviously not available!

Despite arranging to miss work, Apple will only refund the delivery cost and you still don't have your item. Unless you are house bound I would recommend opting for a pick-up if there are any available local to you. I was offered the opportunity of driving for over an hour during the times I was unavailable to pickup the item. Unbelievable!

 

[techwarrior]

Sure, call center agents have a slew of tools to automate chat and voice routines. Their CRM apps integrate with phone systems and desktop apps to provide context sensitive shortcuts to help them speed up their service and get to the issue.

Have not seen Apple's implementation, but have seen many call center apps over my career as a telephony engineer. Integrating chat and voice controls into a desktop app that automatically pulls customer records up enables them to know who you are before you even speak the first word or send the first chat message. A 30 second jumpstart on a typical 5 minute call or chat is a 10% productivity improvement and enables them to get to calls faster, and with fewer agents.

The company I work for even has phones that allow agents to record greetings to ensure consistent opening dialogs. Something like Hi, this is [name], thank you for calling Apple Care [today\tonight] about your [product\type of inquiry]. Can I have you verify [name\account number\other] to ensure I am looking at the correct account. They even tailor greetings to specific inputs you make during the setup, such as if calling for iPhone help, something like "thank you for calling Apple Care about your iPhone".

Any common tasks that can be automated enables the rep to multitask more efficiently. If done well, we hardly notice. If done poorly, it can get really awkward. But in the end, if it reduces wait time to talk or chat with a rep, that is generally a good thing. They real differentiator is how empathetic and helpful the rep is once you get past the canned parts of the conversation, something Apple tends to do really well in my experience.