In modern times, many people choose to do things from the privacy of their own home—they use Netflix instead of going into Blockbuster to rent a movie, they buy their airline tickets online, they order clothes, furniture, gifts, books, and practically anything and everything else they could think of online. Other things are becoming more automated as well. There’s the handy self-check out at grocery stores, machines that dispense movie tickets, cash, DVDs, etc. While these things can be fabulous conveniences and major time savers, it’s hard to imagine any down side. But the advent of automation has had some casualties…human interaction and customer service are, sad to say, two prime examples. There’s less and less human interaction, and less and less customer service. At a self-check out at a grocery store, there’s no person there smiling and wishing you a good evening.

Perhaps the time when the absence of these is most noticeable is when you have a problem with, or even a simple question about, your computer, cell phone, credit card, etc., and you call in to get some help, there are no people there to answer the phone! There’s an automated person telling you what to say or which buttons to press. Who wants to talk to robots and go through a seemingly endless string of commandments before getting to speak to a real person? What ends up happening, is that you waste ridiculous amounts of your time dealing with machines instead of speaking directly to a representative and getting the same result.

Shouldn’t things be getting easier instead of harder? There has to be some way to balance the obvious benefits of automation without suffering major time loss and annoyance at the lack of customer service. Companies that are taking on these new automated systems need to be responsible for analyzing the whole customer experience and trouble shoot for any possible difficulties they may encounter. Only then will we all truly become more comfortable in the world of automation and feel less adrift on a sea of uncaring technology.

 
Want to see more? Follow us on Twitter or join our LinkedIn group.