Can a chatbot handle customer complaints?

A chatbot can handle the initial stages of a complaint - acknowledging the issue, gathering details, and showing empathy - but complex or emotionally charged complaints should be escalated to a human. Well-designed chatbots can: acknowledge the customer's frustration, collect specific information about the issue, offer immediate solutions for common problems (refund status, reschedule, etc.), and create a support ticket with full context for your team. The key is fast, smooth escalation - when the chatbot recognizes it can't resolve an issue, it should hand off to a human agent with full conversation context so the customer doesn't have to repeat themselves.