The better your automated customer service options, the worse your customer service.

"The better your automated customer service options, the worse your customer service".

Rita McGrath

"The better your automated customer service options, the worse your customer service".

The unintended consequence of so much high-quality customer service automation is that by the time your customers get to a real person, they are already enraged and their problems are mercilessly complicated.

Rita McGrath

Companies treat customer service as a cost.

There is industry-speak for this – it’s called “containment.” It represents “the percentage of users who engage with an automated system and end their interaction without transferring to a voice or live chat agent.

Customers, of course, just hate having to fight their way past the robots to have their problems solved.

Rita McGrath

"The better your automated service options, the more customers will solve their simple problems for themselves.

By the time they need your help, they’ve tried everything, they’re enraged and – the thing companies don’t appreciate – the nature of their problems is so complex that an automated system can’t solve it".

Rita McGrath

"Rather than sympathy, customers want someone who can just get it done and get them out of there".

The robots aren’t going to help you.

Well trained, well paid, accessible humans just might.

Rita McGrath

https://thoughtsparks.substack.com/