Organizational Factors Affecting Successful Implementation of Chatbots for Customer Service

Figures & data

Table 1. Details of participants and participating organizations.

Organization code	Business sector	Number of participants	Participant role	Platform provider (vendor)
A	Bank and finance	4	Project lead, product owner, head of customer service, product owner, customer service advisor/ AI trainer	A
B	Media and telecom	2	Product owner, AI trainer	A
C	Public sector	3	Project lead, project team member, head of customer service,	A
D	Bank and finance	1	Technological strategist	A
E	Consultancy	2	Product owner, middle office/AI trainer	B
F	Media and telecom	2	Product owner, head of customer service	C

Table 2. Final coding template in the thematic analysis.

Themes	Second level themes	Lower-level themes
1. Participant's role and background of implementation	1.1 Participant's role in organization and project
	1.2 Chatbot implementation process
	1.3 Chatbot role in customer service	1.3.1 Complementary chat channel 1.3.2 Gatekeeper to chat channel
2. Motivations	2.1 Address high-volume repetitive questions
	2.2 Improve customer service experience
	2.3 Reduce cost and resource requirements
	2.4 Drive digitalization
3. Success criteria	3.1 Successful issue resolution
	3.2 Traffic improvements
	3.3 Feedback from customers and third parties
4. Organizational factors	4.1 Work and team organization
	4.2 Change management	4.2.1 Resistance management - employee engagement and sense of ownership 4.2.2 Leader's roles (1. granting team autonomy, 2. attitude toward innovation) 4.2.3 Organizational dimensions (1. lengthy decision process and complex organization, 2. regulatory and security concerns, 3. information to and from stakeholders)
	4.3 Competency management	4.3.1 Required experience and skill 4.3.2 Primary learning mechanism: learning by doing, workshops by vendors 4.3.3 Secondary learning mechanism: experience sharing in teams and organization
	Organizational resources	4.4.1 Human resources 4.4.2 Technology resources (1. technology readiness, 2. platform and vendor partially determine in-house resource requirements)
	Performance measures	4.5.1 Qualitative and quantitative measures 4.5.2 Challenges and implications of existing performance measures
5. Learning points	5.1. The importance of understanding the technology
	5.2 Continued need for customer service personnel
	5.3 No one-size-fits-all to chatbot implementation	5.3.1 Meticulous planning vs. trial and error 5.3.2 Single vs. multiple chatbots

Table 3. Summary of main results for each main theme in the analysis.

Themes	Summary of results
1. Participant's role and background of implementation	Approaches to chatbot implementation vary, in terms of the priority given to piloting and trials during the implementation process as well as the role of the chatbot in customer front end. The chatbot's role may be that of a gatekeeper, as the only access point to chat customer service, or that of a complementary channel to chat customer service.
2. Motivations	Four motivations for chatbot implementation were identified: (a) handle high volume of repetitive questions, (b) improve customer service experience, (c) reduce cost and resource requirements, and (d) drive digitalization. Digitalization is seen as important for added value and increased competetiveness.
3. Success criteria	All participants reported on established success criteria for their organization's chatbot. These included (a) successful resolution of customers requests, (b) improved management of traffic to customer service, and (c) positive feedback from customers and third parties. The concreteness of the success criteria varied substantially.
4. Organizational factors	Five organizational factors of particular relevance to chatbot implementation were identified: (a) work and team organization, in particular how work and teams are organized to establish and maintain chatbot content and training; (b) change management, where supportive leadership allowing for employee autonomy was seen as key to reduce resistance toward change; (c) competency management, important to acquire needed experience and skill, specifically for the new role of AI-trainers, (d) organizational resources, including the readiness of the existing technical platforms, availability of third-party resources, as well as availability of skilled personnel in-house; (e) and performance measures, which were seen as highly important but also challenging as their format and application was not yet firmly established.
5. Learning points	The participants made specific note of the following learning points: (a) the importance of understanding the technology to adequately scope the chatbot and plan for needed resources, (b) the importance of acknowledging that customer service personnel is still needed even with effective chatbots, as they take on different roles, and (c) that chatbots for customer service must be carefully tailored to meet the needs and characteristics of the organization for which it is developed and implemented – there is likely no one-size-fits-all solution.