The Biden administration is calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to investigate banks’ use of chatbots as part of a broader effort to address “disaster loops” in customer service. Monday revealedto prioritize customers’ time.
“Companies often intentionally design their business processes to be time-consuming or otherwise burdensome for consumers in order to prevent them from getting a discount or refund they deserve, or from canceling a subscription or membership they no longer want – all with the goal of maximizing profits,” the White House wrote in introducing the Time Is Money initiative. “Americans are tired of being taken for fools.”
The White House said pillars of the initiative include the CFPB issuing guidelines aimed at “tackling ineffective and time-wasting chatbots used by banks and other financial institutions in lieu of customer service.”
“While chatbots can be helpful for answering simple questions, they often have limited ability to resolve more complex problems and disputes,” the White House said on Monday. “Instead, chatbots often provide inaccurate information and send customers looking for a real human in the wrong direction.”
Chatbots should “improve customer service through quick response times, not help companies avoid basic tasks like processing refunds,” the White House said.
The CFPB will determine when the use of automated chatbots or voice recordings by artificial intelligence is unlawful, including when customers believe they are speaking to a person, the White House said.
“This is not about stigmatizing big corporations,” a senior government official told reporters on Friday. according to CNBCRather, it is “a new frontier of consumer protection”.
The initiative comes about a year after the Biden administration and the CFPB doubled down on their efforts eliminate unnecessary “junk fees”“ charged by banks for basic services.
“When people request basic information about their accounts, big banks can’t charge them huge fees or trap them in endless customer service loops,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra told reporters last October.
These loops also appeared again in the news cycle on Monday. The CFPB plans to introduce a rule that would require companies to give their customers the opportunity to speak to a person by simply pressing a button.
The White House cited a recent survey in which respondents reportedly said their biggest complaint about customer service was being forced to listen to long messages before being able to speak to a live agent.
“Too often, customers seeking help from a real person are instead sent through a maze of menu options and automated records, wasting their time and not getting the support they need,” the White House said on Monday.
The CFPB is not the only agency being pushed to act. The Department of Health and Human Services will push health insurers to make it easier for customers to talk to real people, the White House said. The Federal Communications Commission will also launch an investigation into how phone, broadband and cable companies can do the same.
Time is Money’s proposals do not require congressional approval, the senior administration official said. Any bill to strengthen consumer protections — so late in the Biden administration — would have little chance of being passed because Republicans hold a majority in the House of Representatives.
However, Monday’s initiative comes at a time when Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate to succeed Biden in the White House, is preparing to outline an economic policy.
