Re:Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs
by jgust on Monday May 13, 2019 @02:02PM
(#19901936)
Piling on to this, customer service isn't just an interaction with an [entity] when something goes wrong. I would fairly categorize the initial shopping & fulfillment experience in the context of Amazon's e-commerce product as "customer service". If it solves your problem correctly & reliably, I'd call that "good customer service".
Re:Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs
by tomc1985 on Monday May 13, 2019 @01:43PM
(#19901720)
On the flipside, I hate nearly every non-human interaction introduced in the last few years that I have to make. With the exception of withdrawing money from an ATM (later edit- and some kinds of online shopping), automated customer service experiences have always been worse, mostly because they always seem to be programmed with a very narrow and optimistic set of goals in mind. Life would be even more of a hell if I couldn't mash 0 to speak to an operator in a lot of cases; as it is that option is already hidden.
There isn't a lot of good reason to be optimistic about the future either; chatbots and fast food kiosks were a flop (and rightfully so) and most of these other styles of interaction feel forced and constricting.
Humans may have their flaws but you can't beat the fact that they're what other humans are comfortable around.
+ Lots of empathy
+ The willingness to learn and be wrong
+ A ton of training
Even then, human-based customer service is still subjected to the whims of:
+ Gut checks
+ Power trips
+ Misinformation/misinterpretation of policy (whether intentional or not)
+ Lots of emotion on both sides of the interaction
Not every single customer service interaction requires a human behind it. At some point, there are simpler and more efficient ways of solving a problem besides throwing another human's time at it. Robots can easily process replacements without requiring a human being hear about why it needs to happen. They can quickly identify when something is late and proactively issue a credit.