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Customer Service Information |
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Businesses Need to Rehumanise
Big companies and corporations have lost the human touch. The question is, when will humanity catch on, or like robotic sheep will we do whatever the business shepherds tell us, no matter how bad we are treated? I am talking from firsthand interaction here. Aren't you tired of having to talk to machines and sit waiting in queues that may not even really exist, while horrible music repeats itself over and over for eternity? How about having to talk to person after person as they try to find someone else who 'can' do the task that you need done? What about the machine that tells you to speak into the phone but can never properly interpret what you are saying? Or pushing buttons, how many numbers have you had to push before finally being told that the section you are looking for is vacant? Vacant, how about the humans you do finally get in contact with but for some strange reason know less about their job than you do? I may sound pessimistic but I truly believe that human society is meant to evolve differently from this path of customer numbers and automatically generated notices. We are intelligent creatures, well, in many ways, and I just wonder why we haven't created systems for our own society that are more conducive to making our community a happier place to live in. I am definitely not against technological, financial, and material progress, but I do question the intentions of our corporate institutional leaders. It seems that as long as the person at the top of the hierarchal food chain's paycheck keeps increasing at a steady rate, customer service is no longer a priority. But then again, I reckon if the CEO of an insurance company has problems with their telephone line, they'd probably have the problem fixed in no time, as they have a direct line to the telecommunication CEO from one of the card-swapping sessions at their $500-a-head luncheons. The thing that these leaders of society have forgotten is that without normal, average human customers, their empires would be quickly reduced to dust. I think one of the problems lies with us, those average people. The companies are so big and powerful that we have become apathetic, feeling that we are too small and insignificant to question their systems of interaction. We simply let them dictate how things work and go through all the rigmarole and red tape no matter how much it frustrates us. There was a time, and you can still find this in most small companies, when customers were treated with respect and as equals. "The customer is always right." This statement used to be very normal when discrepancies came up in our business practices. Now however, the customer is often treated as guilty before innocent, as if the average 'small' person is just a criminal who wants to leech off the righteous and just institutions. The truth is, if we all stand together on an issue, human beings have been known to move mountains. Why don't we speak out and get these companies who spend so many millions of dollars on commercials telling us how friendly and helpful they are to be accountable for their actions? They could take some of those same millions and put them into employing more human beings to act as communicators, as well as informed positions that solve problems quickly and easily. More jobs for the community in general, and a more enjoyable life for all coming in contact with the companies in question: this is a win/win situation people! Happier customers who are being respected as equals means people will tell each other of the quality of the business; of course this equates to more customers, which means more profit for all. The time has come to 'rehumanise' (cool word!) our social and business systems. Communication is always spouted as being the key to a positive relationship between family, friends, and lovers. We now need to adopt this model for how organizations and institutions relate to the wider community that actually created them with their investment, employment, and customer base. We all need to realize that we are all worthy and deserved of happy lives, lived via a construct of social systems that focuses on real human satisfaction. Jesse S. Somer
MORE RESOURCES: Pricing, AI, DPA, Customer Service Tools; Bill Emerson Interview; Training This Week; STRATMOR CD Workshop Mortgage News Daily AI Chatbots Are Ready to Talk to Customers. Sort of. The Wall Street Journal Samsung Electronics Canada Customer Service Wins Bronze in ‘Best Use of Omni Channel' at International CX Awards 2024 Yahoo Finance Qme secures $3M funding to streamline customer service across Africa Techpoint Africa Building Competitive Advantage in Customer Care Through AI The Business of Fashion 311 Customer Service Center City and County of San Francisco FTC Finalizes Order with H&R Block Requiring Them to Pay $7 Million and Overhaul Advertising and Customer Service Practices for 2025 and 2026 Tax Seasons Federal Trade Commission News Samsung Electronics Canada Customer Service Wins Bronze in ‘Best Use of Omni Channel' at International CX Awards 2024 Business Wire Ikea expands integration with assembly services platform Chain Store Age JEA is inviting bids for 19-story downtown tower that used to be its headquarters The Florida Times-Union American Lamprecht Enhances Visibility for Air and Ocean Shipments Using Descartes Solution Supply Chain Dive Women in Fintech: A Conversation About Loyalty Ecosystems in Financial Services with Becky Hill Finovate Neterra Enhances Its Customer Service Monitoring System Total Telecom Gladly Named a Leader in Constellation ShortList™ for Digital Customer Service and Support PR Newswire QueueKiosk™: Saving Thousands of Active-Duty Man Hours & Improving Customer Service at the MPF Office Kiosk Marketplace Finally, hard data on a real-world AI business use case: It’s huge for customer service Sherwood News Liverpool reinvents customer service through digital platform ComputerWeekly.com Firm to expand customer service in Yorkshire with new service centre Golf Business News CSPI & Nutrition Action Customer Service CSPI Newsroom Textron Aviation to Open New Service Facility at Essendon Fields Airport, Expanding Capabilities in Australia Pittsburg Morning Sun Help Department of Taxation and Finance Six Game-Changing AI Customer Service and CX Strategies Hospitality Net Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) New York State Department of Health Cigna's customer-centric strategy could ripple across the sector Modern Healthcare Major AI Success Story: Giftify Achieves 40% Faster Customer Response Times with Enterprise AI StockTitan Contact Us About Your Bill myclearwater.com Customer Service Center apps.tampagov.net 311 - Birmingham’s Customer Service Center City of Birmingham (.gov) DESCO's meeting held to enhance customer service and power reliability The Business Standard 70% of customer service to rely on AI by 2028: Gartner Outsource Accelerator Customer Service & Support Hillsborough County (.gov) My experience as a Customer Service and Sales Intern Toby Shapiro's Experience at A.D. Sutton and Sons Chapman University 3 Ways To Quickly Make $50 GOBankingRates Delta’s annual profit-sharing day spotlights ‘people first’ strategy The Atlanta Journal Constitution Welcome to Riverside Public Utilities City of Riverside (.gov) Celebrate Customer Service Week City of Riverside (.gov) Which companies have the best customer service? Amazon, Shein, Costco among top-rated brands USA TODAY Con Edison Proposes Investments to Meet Growing Demand for Clean Energy, Enhance Customer Support T&D World Fulton County Recognized as a 2024 National Customer Service All Star Fulton County Government Contact Reverb Support Reverb Charter Names Robyn Tolva Senior Vice President, Customer Service Reliability | Charter Charter Communications America's Best Customer Service 2025 Newsweek 8 strategies for using AI for customer service in 2025 Sprout Social Attorney General Bonta Demands Better Customer Service for Californians California Department of Justice AI for Customer Service Market worth $47.82 Billion by 2030 - Exclusive Report by MarketsandMarkets™ PR Newswire Can artificial intelligence rescue customer service? The Economist Permits–customer services King County Lifeline Support for Affordable Communications Federal Communications Commission Department of Transportation Governor Tom Wolf President Biden Announces New Customer Service Actions, Targets Subscriptions and ‘Doom Loops’ CX Today 11 key elements of excellent customer service Business.com Launch of New Districtwide Customer Service Platform The School District of Philadelphia Shep Hyken, HPU Customer Service Expert, Mentors Students and Staff High Point University Summer EBT | Department of Human Services Governor Tom Wolf How Intercom Achieves 86% Resolution Rates with Claude AI: A Customer Service Revolution - Anthropic |
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