It is programmed to read tone as well as features to communicate better. Its voice recognition capability enables it to identify different people and remember details about them.
Pepper is a customer service robot that comes equipped with voice recognition, a 12-hour battery life, and best of all the ability to read your emotions and respond accordingly.
Pepper has come a long way since June 2014 when it was first launched. Today, the humanoid robot is available all over Japan. European companies like SoftBank, Renault, Costa, Nestle, Carrefour, and Uniqlo are already working with the robot.
Pepper’s unique capabilities allow it to welcome customers and provide them with product information. The robot can also drive traffic and collect data.
What makes Pepper so ideal for customer service is that it can tell whether a customer is happy or sad by analyzing their choice of words, tone, facial expressions, as well as gestures. Pepper is wired for interpersonal communication and even changes its eye colour, choice of words, as well as gestures to show emotion. So it can empathize.
Pepper is a pioneer as the first robot that interacts with humans. It is equipped with sensors for discerning its environment. Pepper even knows when its battery is running low and will go back to its charging station before it shuts down.
Users initiate interaction it by talking to it. But Pepper is also capable of initiating conversation when people approach.
Pepper was created not just to act as programmed but to learn new information and adapt its behavior. This means that it is not as boring and predictable as you would expect a robot to be. It can surprise you on occasion much a human.
This means that customers have the opportunity to teach the robot how to better play its role. It knows people’s names, their moods, and what they look like.
Pros:
• Pepper is multilingual and capable of speaking 20 languages, which makes the robot ideal for companies that operate in a multilingual environment to meet the needs of customers.
• The robot can interpret smiles, surprised looks, frowns, as well as nonverbal cues. It knows whether you are sad or happy.
• The robot has a slender frame and looks graceful. You don’t see any screws on him and his hands look just like human hands, fully capable of gripping.
• It moves easily in any direction using three wheels at its base.
• Pepper can run for 12 hours without tiring and adjusts his movement to prevent overheating and interact better with humans.
• This humanoid robot doesn’t just wait for people to approach it. It will take the initiative to approach anyone standing 1.5m away.
• Sensors placed on the robot’s head, tablet, and hands allow it to perceive and interpret touch.
Cons:
• Even though Pepper comes preloaded with thousands of questions and answers, it can still make mistakes. With time, the robot learns to interact better humans. This means that users still have to teach Pepper how to respond to different situations.
• Pepper’s voice and manner of expression need to be adapted to fit in well with different languages and cultures.
• Believe it or not, robots sometimes face internal conflicts. What should it do when your instructions contradict prior instructions? You can turn on a feature called Inner Speech, and listen to the robot’s internal monologue. You will listen to how it thinks.
Pepper is uniquely designed for customer service because it is supposed to thrive on conversation. It likes talking to people and can do this for up to 12 hours. This is a superhuman strength.
