A solution to the human resource shortage? Customer service robot example

The appeal of working robots “customer service robots”

“Customer service robot” refers to a machine that provides customer service to people, and is used for the purpose of providing information about facilities and products and responding to questions and requests from users in an interactive manner. Their appearance is not uniform, and there are many variations such as humanoid, dinosaur-shaped, and digital signage (2D) shapes.

A robot is originally defined as a “soft machine with seven characteristics: mobility, individuality, intelligence, versatility, half-machine/half-humanity, automaticity, and servitude,” and there is no definition regarding appearance. However, because they are used for customer service, many designs are modeled after characters, animals, humans, etc., so that the people being served can feel familiar and stress-free.

Another feature is that it is equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) so that it can smoothly respond to various conversations. Although it may not be possible to provide perfect responses, we train the robot to provide appropriate responses to anticipated conversations. This article also treats “chatbots”, which are programs that automatically communicate with each other through voice and text, as a form of customer service robot.

Utilize AI technology! Understand the advantages and disadvantages of customer service robots

When considering whether to introduce a customer service robot in your company, it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages in advance. Below are the advantages and disadvantages of implementing it.

Advantages of implementation

The advantage of introducing customer service robots is that they work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. As the labor shortage becomes more serious year by year, work style reforms are making it difficult to work long hours and even late at night. If robots can replace tasks that have traditionally been handled by humans, it will not only create a working environment that places less strain on humans, but it can also be expected to have significant effects in terms of labor savings and efficiency.

Another advantage is that it supports multiple languages. In recent years, the number of foreign customers, including Chinese, has been increasing, and there are concerns that there may be cases where the desired information cannot be conveyed in Japanese alone. Even if it is difficult to hire staff who can speak foreign languages, by deploying customer service robots that can speak multiple languages ​​such as English and Chinese, you can smoothly provide product explanations and store information to foreign customers. .

Disadvantages of introduction

On the other hand, the disadvantage is that it requires a large amount of cost to implement. When introducing a customer service robot, many services require a monthly operating fee in addition to the initial investment.

Although it can be seen as being cheaper than labor costs, it still seems like a high cost burden for small and medium-sized companies to implement it. Another bottleneck is that since it is a machine, it requires a manager who can deal with defects and errors.

High expectations for the human resources shortage! Introducing case studies of customer service robots

If you understand how other companies use customer service robots, it will be easier to imagine how they could be used at your company. Below, we will introduce three examples of companies that have achieved great results by introducing customer service robots.

Yamada Denki｜Pepper

Many people may have seen Pepper, a humanoid robot developed by SoftBank Group, in TV commercials. We started a corporate rental service in 2015, and can now be found in general businesses and stores.

In 2016, Yamada Denki, a major electronics retailer, conducted test marketing using Pepper at some of its stores. When Pepper booths installed in the dryer and rice cooker sections explained the products and distributed coupons, more than half of the customers (approximately 56%) responded that they were more willing to make a purchase.

By the way , it was announced that Pepper has adopted the AI ​​engine “Rinna Character Platform” provided by Microsoft and the platform “Dialogflow Enterprise Edition” provided by Google since 2019 . While typical customer service robots focus on conversation based on scenarios, Pepper is capable of more natural conversation.

Maxvalu West Japan｜AI Sakura-san

“AI Sakura-san” is an AI customer service system developed and provided by Tijuana.com, a web production company. It is a cute female character, and is a type commonly referred to as a chatbot.

Maxvalu Nishinippon, a supermarket operating company affiliated with Aeon Group, announced that it has introduced AI Sakura as an in-house help desk in 2020. When employees ask Sakura-san questions on their computers, she will guide them regarding internal regulations and operations, such as human resources, general affairs, accounting, and inventory.

What is unique is that the chatbot works together within the group. The Aeon Group pre-introduced AI Sakura-san at its IT solutions subsidiary, Aeon Ibis, in 2019, making it possible to transfer questions that have not been learned on the Maxvalu West Japan side to Aeon Ibis. Training a chatbot would be a huge burden in terms of time and man-hours if one company were to do it all, so being able to pass on the answers to group companies is a big advantage in terms of efficiency.

Parco｜Siriusbot

“Siriusbot” is a purely domestic self-propelled guide robot jointly developed by system development companies Nihon Unisys, Parco, and 08 Works in 2017, and is a customer service robot that is not humanoid. It is based on the autonomous mobile guide robot “Libra” developed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Technology Research Center.

In a demonstration experiment conducted at Ikebukuro Parco in 2017, the robot provided facility information to customers through conversation or touch panel operations during business hours, and guided them to their destinations by themselves. Furthermore, after store closures, we read RFID tags attached to products inside tenant stores and checked inventory unattended, reducing the burden on staff.

This Siriusbot was also used as a guide robot in a demonstration experiment conducted by Tokyo Big Sight at the end of 2019. Since it supports Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean, it is also expected to be used for providing guidance to foreign customers.

Other robots based on Libra have also been developed, such as the guide robot at Kasai Rinkai Aquarium, which was developed based on Planex’s autonomous mobile, multilingual guide robot for art museums and museums, “Oi”. “Perrin” etc.

Ichigo Plaza｜CORON

“CORON” is a humanoid customer support robot developed and provided by iWiz, and is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, with a total length of 30 cm.

Nakahara Shoji, which operates the drive-in “Ichigo Plaza” in Shizuoka Prefecture, needed to provide foreign language support for the increasing number of inbound tourists, so they installed three CORON units using the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s IT introduction subsidy. By installing the system in the strawberry daifuku section, which sells the main product, and communicating information such as expiry dates, we have seen some positive effects, such as allowing sales staff to focus on other tasks.

The example of Nakahara Shoji, which introduced customer service robots using government subsidies, can serve as a reference for other small and medium-sized companies.

summary

The introduction of customer service robots can reduce the work burden on each employee, which can be expected to bring various benefits such as increased work efficiency and productivity. Of course, the implementation cost is not cheap, but if you take labor costs into consideration, it may actually lead to cost reductions. Why not consider introducing customer service robots based on the case studies introduced this time?