When was the last time you interacted with customer support via live chat? Did it feel natural? Were you at any point suspicious that it wasn’t a person? It’s not always straightforward, it could be a human, but something doesn’t add up. Their choice of words is slightly awkward, and they answer way too fast. Some of you might enjoy talking to them, and others might hate it. Regardless, they are slowly becoming more common in the online gambling world.
How Do They Work?
Chatbot technology and natural language processing are intertwined. NLP (natural language processing) is the technology used by Siri or Cortana. Chatbots analyze the text sent by the user (a process known as parsing), and they respond based on algorithms that allow them to interpret what was said. However, the current algorithms struggle to detect subtle nuances – metaphors or similes. Sarcasm and rhetorical questions are also close to impossible for chatbots to detect and respond accordingly. We know why these issues occur based on current research, but we can’t see any solutions.
Not that we know their limitations let’s try to answer the following questions. Is an online casino chatbot helping gamblers? Or are they just a nuisance that won’t let you talk to your account manager?
Response Time
Gamblers don’t like to wait around, most likely why iGaming developers decided to adopt the autoplay function. Client’s issues need to be addressed immediately so that they can resume the gambling session. Chatbots are the perfect solution for tasks hindering the player’s casino experience. They don’t need to go on holiday, and they won’t call in sick when they have nightshifts. They also answer immediately, providing solutions without having to consult a colleague or a different department.
Unsurprisingly, according to Business Wire, 18% of respondents would rather interact with a chatbot if their request is straightforward. If the tasks are simple, chatbots can be beneficial. We’re going to chalk this up as a minor advantage. However, what happens when you ask for a $20 deposit casino bonus? Unfortunately, you will receive a programmed response that makes no sense.
Technical Inquiries
We usually interact with online casino account managers when we want a better bonus match, when something goes wrong, or when we need to check the bonus wagering requirements. What if you were to ask your account manager to name all the video slots that NetEnt ever released? If the chatbot had that answer programmed, it could outperform the agent. Admittedly, the odds of somewhat asking such a question are slim to none but let’s call it a minor advantage.
Multilingual Tool
It’s no secret that online casinos are struggling to employ Swedish, Finnish, or German speakers, especially in customer support positions. Chatbots do offer a viable alternative to this issue. It might even outperform a non-native speaker using Google translate, especially if the chatbot has access to Neural Machine Translation technology. Chatbots can detect the player’s language based on the following:
- IP address – they determine the player’s location and their native language based on their device location.
- Selected by the customer – straightforward and practical, allows customers to input their desired language before the interaction begins.
- Web browser – chatbots have access to the customer’s web browser language settings and can adapt accordingly.
Current Drawbacks
Chatbots are still in their inception, and upgrades are rolled out constantly. Overall, their functionality is limited, and their failure rates are higher than acceptable. The most significant drawback of chatbots occurs when they are faced with unregistered commands. Whenever they stumble upon an inquiry that they haven’t been programmed for, they crash and burn. They provide similar results when bombarded with simultaneous questions.
Another major flaw of the currently available chatbots is their inability to recognize mistakes and typos. This can pose a significant issue for the gambling industry, especially when working in multiple jurisdictions. On top of that, gamblers might simply not want to interact with a machine or even be aware that they are talking to one. The conversation will most likely fail in the latter scenario because the customer won’t adapt to the chatbot’s programmed phrases and words. Chatbots should be deployed only after they are filled to the brim with as many communication patterns as possible to avoid such unpleasant situations.
Conclusion
There’s a reason none of the market-leading online casinos aren’t implementing chatbots. Some online casinos prefer to operate without live chat than resort to chatbots, and some have live operators ready to answer any questions in live chat, which is much more convenient.
The airline’s industry rapid, widespread chatbot adoption has shown nothing but positive results; however, the gambling industry has very different specificities and demands that cannot be satisfied by chatbots momentarily. In the future, with technology advancements and better AI/NLP adoption, they might become better suited.