Modernisation and the cost to society
I sit here on my mobile phone typing this blog,
musing at irony that I'm using one of the very modern things, which may lead
you to think I'm complaining about. Not at all, in fact as the adage goes
nothing is good or bad, apart from thinking it so. To this I would like to add
or not to think it so!
Therein lies my issue, when people who design or think about modernisation bring in potential improvements, is there any time that they actually think about the cost to society at all? Everything is being geared to the internet, I can see the benefit but there is also a loss. Does the gain always outweigh the loss?
Let's start with say customer services, over the phone. Any company you phone you will inevitably be faced with a faceless automated call system to direct call, this helps no body but the company as it gives them a little more time to keep you hanging on. Let's start with the scenarios press 1 for this or 2 for that sometimes up to 5. Only to realise none of the options actually apply. So you press a random number hoping they'll put you through to the right department (which I could have just asked from the beginning if you had a person answering the phone). One of my worst bear bugs is the “do you know we have got most of the answers on our website." My brain usually at this stage is shouting do you really think I didn’t look and I’m calling to wait in a queue for half hour for fun. If I could have found it I wouldn’t be ringing.
The others are the messages your call is important to us or this is a very busy time for us. Well if it’s that important why am I still waiting 15 minutes later and why is anytime I ring always busy. Yes I know 8 o'clock in the morning is a quiet time for you, but I also know that's when you have the least staff on.
Eventually you get through, speak to someone finally, usually someone who has been barely trained for a few, weeks to answer standard questions. Or you get someone from a different country and it gets lost in translation... here's an example. I phoned my multimedia provider as I had inadvertently (in my wheelchair gone over) the remote control. I end up talking to someone on the sub-continent. If you've read my name you realise my name itself shows that though I was born in Britain I do have some Indian heritage, which luckily means I am fluent in a few Indian dialects, you'd think great for me right. But no I'm told they must communicate in English. So I sit here and explain what’s happened and I’m told obviously via a pre scripted response can I see the red button, after trying to explain, smashed broken, kaput, dead she insists on going through the script. In the end ask for a supervisor before I get to her, the advisor having spoken to her supervisor on explaining why tells me “It’ll be in the post”.
On another call trying to discuss my billing I get exasperated and I say fine you talk in English and I'll explain in Hindi that seem to work!
The amount of time wasted on calls waiting in queues is just not good for any business nor does it help society. It just makes people irate. The sheer cost of peoples wasted time must truly be staggering. The actual cost of this, must be huge.Not just a personal cost but an actual financial monetary loss to business. Have you tried getting through to HMRC?
Therein lies my issue, when people who design or think about modernisation bring in potential improvements, is there any time that they actually think about the cost to society at all? Everything is being geared to the internet, I can see the benefit but there is also a loss. Does the gain always outweigh the loss?
Let's start with say customer services, over the phone. Any company you phone you will inevitably be faced with a faceless automated call system to direct call, this helps no body but the company as it gives them a little more time to keep you hanging on. Let's start with the scenarios press 1 for this or 2 for that sometimes up to 5. Only to realise none of the options actually apply. So you press a random number hoping they'll put you through to the right department (which I could have just asked from the beginning if you had a person answering the phone). One of my worst bear bugs is the “do you know we have got most of the answers on our website." My brain usually at this stage is shouting do you really think I didn’t look and I’m calling to wait in a queue for half hour for fun. If I could have found it I wouldn’t be ringing.
The others are the messages your call is important to us or this is a very busy time for us. Well if it’s that important why am I still waiting 15 minutes later and why is anytime I ring always busy. Yes I know 8 o'clock in the morning is a quiet time for you, but I also know that's when you have the least staff on.
Eventually you get through, speak to someone finally, usually someone who has been barely trained for a few, weeks to answer standard questions. Or you get someone from a different country and it gets lost in translation... here's an example. I phoned my multimedia provider as I had inadvertently (in my wheelchair gone over) the remote control. I end up talking to someone on the sub-continent. If you've read my name you realise my name itself shows that though I was born in Britain I do have some Indian heritage, which luckily means I am fluent in a few Indian dialects, you'd think great for me right. But no I'm told they must communicate in English. So I sit here and explain what’s happened and I’m told obviously via a pre scripted response can I see the red button, after trying to explain, smashed broken, kaput, dead she insists on going through the script. In the end ask for a supervisor before I get to her, the advisor having spoken to her supervisor on explaining why tells me “It’ll be in the post”.
On another call trying to discuss my billing I get exasperated and I say fine you talk in English and I'll explain in Hindi that seem to work!
The amount of time wasted on calls waiting in queues is just not good for any business nor does it help society. It just makes people irate. The sheer cost of peoples wasted time must truly be staggering. The actual cost of this, must be huge.Not just a personal cost but an actual financial monetary loss to business. Have you tried getting through to HMRC?
It's the same with our supermarkets where getting rid of the human touch and introducing self-service. Sorry I'm buying the stuff, please don’t expect me to ring it through as well. Here the cost with modernisation is our potential loss of human connection. For some people this may be there only interaction. Yes it'll save you a bit of money increase the profits, for the company but is it a good thing?
Part of being human is our interconnections with each other, part of that is necessary for our wellbeing. We are social animals, in the need to make more money let's not forget our need to speak and meet each other.
It's also important when it comes to being human, that we are all customers of each other and customer service, which seems to me to be in decline, needs reinvesting and visiting. So a plea to those who design or implement new procedures keep the needs of your customers in mind. Please think whether what you are implementing, has an ethical impact on society.
Also finally remember that not everyone is geared
up for life on the net, or multimedia savvy. A lot of people, the elderly and disabled,
those in rural areas still do not have access to online services and need to
still be connected. Though improvements are being made in these areas, we still
have a long way to go. In the end remember the slogan that was actually coined
by the communications industry. I still think it stands today in fact is probably
even more important. “Remember it’s good to talk”.
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