Customer Service Has Left the Building

There was a time when "customer service" meant exactly what the words implied. You had a problem, you phoned the company, a human being answered, listened to your issue, and tried to solve it. It wasn't perfect, but at least everyone involved understood the purpose of the exercise.

Today, customer service has evolved.

Unfortunately, it has evolved in the same direction as the dodo.

Recently I had to contact the service centre of a large telecommunications company because my internet service wasn't behaving itself. I approached the task with the same enthusiasm I reserve for dental appointments. Experience has taught me that dealing with large organisations can be a test of patience, endurance and occasionally blood pressure.

The phone rang.

A cheerful robotic voice welcomed me warmly.

"Your call is important to us."

Excellent, I thought. That's encouraging.

Then came the conditions.

Before speaking to anyone, I was reminded that I must treat the company's staff with courtesy and respect, and that abusive behaviour would result in my call being terminated.

Fair enough. Nobody should abuse customer service staff.

But it struck me that the relationship seemed a little one-sided.

They could keep me waiting for an hour, but heaven help me if I sighed too loudly.

Next came the reassuring announcement that my call would be recorded for training purposes.

Given some of my previous experiences, I couldn't help wondering exactly who was being trained.

Then the helpful robot explained that, to connect me to the right person more quickly, it would ask why I was calling.

I explained.

It repeated my explanation.

I confirmed that, yes, that was indeed why I was calling.

Progress!

Next it requested my customer number.

Then my account details.

Then my telephone password.

Then it asked me to finish by pressing the hash key.

Surely now I was about to reach the promised land...

No.

"Your call is important to us..."

...followed immediately by...

"Have you considered visiting our website where many common questions can be answered online?"

An interesting suggestion.

If my internet service had been working properly, I probably wouldn't have been calling about my internet service.

Back to the queue.

Every minute or so I received another comforting reminder that my call was extremely important.

This message gradually lost its emotional impact after hearing it for the fifteenth time.

Apparently my call was very important indeed...

...just not important enough for anyone to answer it.

Eventually I became convinced that modern customer service departments have redefined the word service.

Their primary objective no longer seems to be helping customers.

Instead, it appears to be preventing customers from ever reaching anyone capable of helping them.

The irony is that these systems are invariably introduced in the name of efficiency.

Efficient for whom?

Certainly not for the customer who has already spent forty minutes talking to a robot, listening to recorded messages, and hearing smooth jazz loop endlessly while contemplating life's poor decisions.

In my case, the problem eventually became serious enough that I wrote directly to the company's Managing Director.

Something remarkable happened.

A real human being telephoned me.

He introduced himself.

He gave me his direct telephone number.

He told me he would personally manage the case until it was resolved.

And do you know what?

He did.

The issue wasn't fixed in five minutes. It required several conversations and a number of technical investigations.

But every time I called, I spoke to the same person.

He knew the history.

He knew what had already been tried.

I didn't have to explain everything from the beginning.

It was almost like stepping into a time machine and discovering customer service as it used to exist.

The experience confirmed something many of us have suspected for years.

Technology is wonderful.

Automation is useful.

Artificial intelligence has enormous potential.

But none of them should replace the simple act of one human taking responsibility for helping another.

Somewhere along the way, companies convinced themselves that customers wanted fewer humans and more menus.

I don't believe they ever asked the customers.

Real service isn't measured by how effectively you can keep people away from your staff.

It's measured by how effectively your staff solve people's problems.

Perhaps the greatest innovation awaiting corporate Australia isn't another chatbot, another automated menu, or another AI assistant.

Perhaps it's the revolutionary idea of answering the phone.

Now that would be a genuine customer service breakthrough.