Does Technology Make Customer Care More Or Less Human?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwincunningham/2016/04/11/does-technology-make-customer-care-more-or-less-human/#658579671f75


In the video above, AKQA’s Ben Jones makes the argument that technology should give brands the ability to get closer to their customers and provide them deeper, more human service, but that often it is the opposite that happens. Instead of talking to a person, consumers end up talking to a website.

So, how did we get here?

Social media and service

In the early years of Facebook and Twitter, it quickly became clear to brands that social media was creating a totally new relationship between companies and their customers.



The shift started because for the first time, consumers could speak to brands in a public space visible to other people. The openness meant that brands had a different and new pressure to respond to complaints or frustrations before they became amplified by others who felt the same. In other words, there was a power shift to the consumer.

A decade later, brands may still be figuring out the best ways to talk to customers via social media, but it is a default assumption that it is one of the key channels through which any company has to communicate with customers.

AI & the Automation Of Customer Care

Early on in the project’s life, the founders of AI platform DigitalGenius spent a few days shadowing employees of a major corporate call & digital response center. They found that the employees were frustrated and listless because they spent most of their time typing answers to the same questions over and over.