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How Tech Failed Customer Service
The misuse of technology in customer service has created a mess for consumers. What does the future hold?
In Toronto recently, police were desperately trying to find a child accidentally left behind in an Uber vehicle. As the police queried Uber, they were told to fill out a form, that Uber could not do anything otherwise. The child was found by police using traditional tactics safe and sound. Uber? Customer service fail at scale.
Yet this is more than just a customer service failure; it’s a the logical end of a decades-long retreat by corporations from human connection, disguised as technological progress. Chatbots, FAQs, customer driven forums. These aren’t really tools to help you, the customer. They’re built to keep customers at a profitable distance.
We may be entering peak customer/brand distancing and a cliff of technological failure. And ultimately? This may be good for the customer. How did this all happen and what’s next?
How Technology Hurt Customer Service
Customer service can be expensive and it’s logical for a business to try and manage those costs as best they can. Yet in someways, that drive to cut costs has benefitted the shareholder and actually cost the brand more. The overuse and misuse of technology in customer service has turned managing…
