Can we admit yet that Frankie the chat bot is pretty redundant.
It’s giving the wizard of oz - click your heels and say three times there’s no place like home Whenever I open Frankie I have to chant three times speak to a human
I’m getting fairly suspicious that his only real purpose is to run me around in pointless circles so that I reach breaking point and just give up trying to get help with my query.
if I’m activating a chat feature then I almost certainly need to speak to an actual human otherwise I’d be able to follow FAQ advice which is all Frankie can offer.
With the no overlapping rule I’m having to get in touch with the team more than ever to adjust dates for homeowners to reflect the actual agreed upon dates rather than the flexible ones they advertised and Frankie is literally useless and can never help.
Another fairly basic thing Frankie can’t deal with is reporting an ad that violates terms of sits like third parties being mentioned in the ad.
I don’t really see the point of it and constantly see people posting on the forum unable to get help from THS because they couldn’t get around Frankie and his unhelpful basic responses
@Enjaybee Yes, THS keeps the work-arounds secret, so unless a member happens to come to this forum and happens to read the right post, they will never know the magic password is to type “Speak to a human” in Frankie’s chat.
They will also never know that this magic password only works during UK business hours.
Likewise, the other magic entry point, emailing support@trustedhousesitters.com, is also hidden from members. Again, there is no clue that this email access exists unless you happen to read the rare community post that mentions it.
THS people, if you’re not trying to block access to human customer service agents, why don’t you add an option inside the Frankie bot that says, “Speak to a human” ? And why don’t you list your live working hours, when human beings are actually available? And why isn’t your support email address prominently displayed? And why doesn’t Frankie disclose that email address automatically?
Since all of these are hidden, it’s hard to imagine THS has any other motivation besides reducing access to customer service.
Frankie does nothing except act as a sort of index to your published FAQ stuff. That’s not customer service!!
Hello, @Enjaybee & @Betsy The forum team is always happy to pass feedback onto Membership Services as they own Frankie.
We have recently passed on similar feedback and will share any updates here, but probably the best thing to do is to reach out directly to the Membership Services team and share your feedback with them so they have first-hand feedback from members and can answer any questions directly. @Betsy Thank you for sharing the email address so you can do this
Outside of that, I saw this LinkedIn article which also might be interesting on why companies are using chatbots.
While the Forum team might not be able to answer your questions, feel free to carry on the chat about Frankie @Enjaybee I enjoyed your Wizard of Oz moment and shoe emoji!
Whenever I open Frankie I have to chant three times speak to a human
