Let customers use Alexa to send you their complaints, minister tells companies

COMPANIES should take customer complaints via voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa to make the process more “enjoyable”, the consumer minister has said. Firms including Virgin Media and Sky do not allow complaints to be sub- mitted by email, insisting instead on written letters or phone calls, which cannot easily be logged.

Now complaints website Resolver is developing a way of lodging complaints by using the voice-activated virtual assistant. It coincides with government consultations on enhancing consumer rights for the digital age as part of a green paper published earlier this year.

Andrew Griffiths, minister for small business, consumer and corporate responsibility, urged companies to allow people to complain via Alexa. He said: “In terms of the experience of complaining, products like this make it a much more pleasant, even enjoyable experience and havepotential to let consumers exercise their rights in a much more simple, straightforward way.” He added:“What we want to see from utility companies and tech providers is that they are open to complaints. It would be unthinkable for a member of parliament not to take complaints from constituents by emails, and if MPs can do it, I see no reason why large multinational businesses can’t. We need to put pressure on bigbusinesses to accept their responsibilities. Maybe there’s a concern among businesses that if you make it easier to complain then you get more complaints. But if you make it easier to complain then you make it easier to re- solve the complaint.” James Walker, chief executive at Resolver, said: “The way we communicate has transformed dramatically.

“It’s vital we pre-empt, adapt and anticipate innovations – like using Alexa to make a complaint – while never losing sight of good old-fashioned customer service and human interaction.”