Thought AI customer service chat was just hype until I saw it handle 200 angry returns in one day

I've been a store manager for 12 years. When corporate said they were rolling out an AI chatbot for customer complaints I rolled my eyes. Figured it would be another useless program that irritated customers and dumped work on me. But last Black Friday our store got slammed. 200 returns for defective paint sprayers. The chatbot handled all the initial contact, issued return labels, and logged serial numbers before they ever got to me. I only had to deal with 3 escalations. Totally changed my mind. Has anyone else actually seen one of these systems work in a real chaotic retail environment?

3 comments

3 Comments

willowg881mo ago

Yeah it shut down like 80% of my refund calls before they even reached my desk.

logan_mitchell1mo ago

Guess I should be glad my job is already obsolete then.

the_hayden1mo ago

Our paint sprayer returns hit 157 last holiday season. The bot handled the refunds before I even clocked in. Had me feeling like a skeptic who got proven dead wrong.