Surface Ripples

Telephone Queues

A posting appeared in LinkedIn about the newly installed ATM on the island of Tuvalu. Whilst the author could imagine delighted bank customers no longer having to queue for cash at the bank’s counters, she highlighted one of the problems of technology’s impact on our society.

Her concern revolved around “customer service” and how, in an effort to save costs, companies are turning more and more to technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide for customer needs.  I’ve been using ATMs for longer than I can remember; supermarkets now have self-service checkouts (which often seem to have a problem one way or the other, requiring a supervisor to still be in attendance) and other organisations are now "training up" AI to answer customer telephone queries.

The point?  Face-to-face, human interaction is becoming less frequent.  For some, their weekly trip to the supermarket may be the only chance they have to talk to a “real person” when they pay for their goods at checkout. 

More frustrating however, were the author’s experiences of calling a “customer helpline” only to be faced with a myriad of button press choices in order to locate the service they wanted and then either waiting “on hold“ for ages, being cut off or forced to go back to stage one to repeat a menu which didn’t seem to cater for their particular issue.

Despite the hype, human interaction is still critical and AI is not the solution to a business’ financial woes. 

Despite the efforts of technology companies, humans still need human interaction and the intuitive leaps that only a human can make to solve their problems.

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. 

Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Social

posted by William Martin @ 08:15