esrosedotblog

SERVICE ROBOTIX

I have been having my share of successes and failures with reaching Customer Service reps at companies I do business with. I guess everyone else has too. Look at this in the NYT today: Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human.

I have an alternative view. Humans are not always better. They can have major attitude and will even hang up on you and they can even be using a second language. They don't get the harried consumer's circumlocutions.

I had some trouble with Verizon land lines and the rep was a nasty bitch and would not even get her supervisor as she was 'not allowed to'. She could not and would not tell me anything that was not already discernible or manageable from the web site. She actually read the same screen I was looking at.

I got things worked out on the web site but also had gotten the name of the repair man and the local shop location and used that to leave a message for him to come back. It worked but it was the web site and message machine that did it; robots.

With Verizon Wireless, it is much easier to use the web. Same with a power outage problem at the electric company. The LA Times has a super 'no paper' report and the guy is calling in ten minutes. Let's not underestimate the design acuity of some of the phone system automation. It often works pretty well. There are exceptions. Our gas company still has live service people and they are nice and accurate and dependable. They will actually converse and you can call the same rep back if there is a problem.

You gotta pick and choose. No one company is the same. Using the consumer service email on a company's web site ain't a bad way to get attention. I have often scored this way. One must be patient.

Of course, patience is a virtue and a lot of us, mostly me, are a little short in that department so it is a good exercise in virtuosity, Sometimes the robotic service people are just the ticket. The live ones can be a real pain in the ass. The robots are always impersonal and even polite. Constant. No lip. And they are always there.