I recently attended an Improv show featuring Orny Adams, and he joked about calling a company, tediously entering your lengthy account number, only to have a person pick up the phone a couple minutes later and say, “What’s your account number?”

This happens all the time! On numerous occasions, I’ve entered my account number, then goofed up a number and had to start again, and then I have someone answer the phone and do the very thing that Orny talked about. He said, “This is the future?!” And he’s absolutely right! With all the technology we have today, taking care of a customer’s problem should be quick, easy, and painless—both for the customer and for the representative on the other end. There should be no overlapping of information or waiting on hold for minutes.

Instead of things getting easier because of technology, people are getting lazy and letting the technology do things for them, which leads customers in circles and makes things more difficult for everyone. Perhaps it’s time to live in the future that we foresaw 20 years ago—a world where technology is only used when necessary, where it eases the problem at hand, and where it quickens the process.

 
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