Hello Who Am I Speaking To?

Blog (Part 1)

“Hello, who am I speaking to?” This might remind you of picking up your home telephone back
in the 90s, a phrase your parents would drill into you as a polite and mannerly thing to say when
answering the phone (ignoring the fact that it gave them the perfect opportunity not to speak to
the person, once they found out it was Aunt Margret ringing for the 30 th time that week). The
increase in digital technology has changed the way we now communicate in the world. But
despite this ‘Hello, who am I speaking to’ is still a regular and common expression in today’s
world. Regardless of the vast number of developments happening in technology, we have all
been subjected to the hour long “have you tried switching it off and on again” or the never
ending “and we just need the date of birth of your great, great, grandfathers, mothers, cousin,
before processing that for you” or the classic “please hold an operator will be with you shortly
(insert annoying jingle)”. Nearly everyone has experienced that anguish and torment, leaving
you with an intense anger for the company that you have been dealing with. However, the
development in artificial intelligence has seen an impact on digital marketing and how
organisations now communicate with their consumers. Chatbots have become one of the fastest
growing forms of artificial intelligence that interacts with consumers and mimics human
conversation (Yen, C. & Chiang, M.C., 2020). Today Chatbots are being used in digital
marketing to assist in enhancing customers experiences and e-commerce satisfaction (Yen, C. &
Chiang, M.C., 2020).

The introduction of artificial intelligence has seen the rise in companies using chatbots to
interact with their consumers instead of humans. They are now being used “frequently in
business to facilitate various processes, particularly those related to customer service”
(Przegalinska et al., 2019). However, how beneficial are they to consumers and are they
providing better customer services then what we have experienced before? Are the days of
“Hello who am I speaking to” slowly coming to an end and artificial intelligence becoming the
dream customer service advisor?

This series will explore how AI is changing digital marketing communications and the impact
this has on customer satisfaction.

References
Przegalinska, A., Ciechanowski, L., Stroz, A., Gloor, P. and Mazurek, G., 2019. In bot we trust: A new
methodology of chatbot performance measures. Business Horizons, 62(6), pp.785-797.

Yen, C. and Chiang, M.C., 2020. Trust me, if you can: a study on the factors that influence consumers’
purchase intention triggered by chatbots based on brain image evidence and self-reported assessments.
Behaviour & Information Technology, pp.1-18.