Leeds City Council has been warned not to allow ‘t*sspot’ robots to staff its customer service centres at the expense of human beings.
Conservative councillor Billy Flynn used the term as he said he was “terrified” by the prospect of automated webchats being used to answer queries from the public.
It came after the council’s deputy leader, Councillor Debra Coupar, suggested an online “self-service” system could be introduced to help cut waiting times.
It was claimed earlier this year that some members of the public were on hold to the council for up to 90 minutes.
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The local authority managed to significantly cut call queues last month to an average waiting time of just under 10 minutes, having recently recruited extra staff to beef up its call centre.
The council has admitted, however, that it still has more to do to improve this.
Speaking at a scrutiny meeting on Monday morning, councillor Coupar said: “The issue is about moving towards more digital access for residents – and not necessarily email, because email isn’t instant. There’s not someone sat there waiting for an email to ping so they can answer it.
“Whereas we could move towards more digital robotics and artificial intelligence in terms of responding on the website and being able to self-serve if you can.”
Coun Coupar insisted she was not proposing to “close channels down”, but suggested robot-led webchats “could be a really good option” for some people.
Such automated chats, which typically use human names, are widely used elsewhere across industry by the likes of businesses and banks.
But Councillor Flynn, who represents Leeds’ Adel and Wharfedale ward, was scathing about their effectiveness.
He said: “What terrifies me about this mention of robots, is that by definition, it is a robot.
“There’s nothing more annoying than when you try to live chat and some t***pot called ‘Mickey’ or ‘Arthur’ comes on and hasn’t got a clue what you’re talking about.
“Eventually you disappear somewhere. It drives me up the wall.
“What I want to be certain of, is that whatever system we introduce, there’s a human being within the system at some stage who can answer what you’ve rung up about.”
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