Most YourLifeChoices readers will remember the year 1980 and its music. In Australia, the biggest songs of the 1980s covered many genres. Split Enz, the Village People, Lipps Inc. and Pink Floyd provided great diversity. One of my favourite songs of that year wasn’t even a single. It was Elvis Costello’s Human Touch.
As AI takes over our chats and machines handle our grocery purchases, it seems we are losing even more of the human touch.
In theory, these technologies are supposed to provide us with more time together. The dream we were promised was one of humans doing less work and having more leisure time. Machines and robots would be able to handle all that menial stuff.
Yet here we are more than 40 years later, many of us faced with having to defer retirement. Some of us are working more hours than ever. And when we go shopping, we’re encouraged to use self-checkouts, rather than engage with a fellow human.
And I haven’t even mentioned phone calls yet. I’m not talking about phone calls to friends – although even that concept is fast disappearing – I mean calls to businesses. I know I am not alone in needing to take a deep breath before ringing any of my ‘service’ providers.
‘Your call is important to us‘
Sure it is. There’s a reason the word ‘service’ appears in quotes in the previous paragraph. It’s true that those who provide us with our internet and phone connections are delivering a service, in one sense.
But the word has connotations that go beyond the one implied in the message. The word ‘service’ derives from ‘serve’. As in, ‘How can I serve you?’
Well one way you can serve us is by adopting a human touch. One that involves a chat as we hand over our groceries for scanning. Or eye contact, at least. Maybe even a smile.
Smiles and eye contact aren’t possible over a phone, of course. But a human being’s voice is. And by that, I mean a live human voice, not a recorded one. Not an AI one that tries to understand your requests using its so-called intelligence.
And look, in many cases it is actually possible to speak live with a real human over the phone. If you are prepared to wait, that is. And by that, I mean wait, and wait … and wait.
As Sunday Mail columnist Peter Goers pointed out recently, long wait times on the phone make a mockery of what we often hear when on hold: ‘Your call is important to us.’
So important that you will keep us on hold for 20 minutes, or half an hour. Maybe even an hour or more. Or, in the case of what Mr Goers claims is a world record, 15 hours, 40 minutes and 1 second!
Human touch vs profits
That ludicrous record belongs to a caller to Qantas, apparently. And yet, the latest Qantas ad, introduced in May this year, suggests the company provides great service.
The ad depicts a son flying home via Qantas to surprise his mum for her 60th birthday. It is a genuinely moving ad, with the focus very much on human touch.
This flies in the face of that world record holder’s experience and, indeed, of many others.
Through all this Qantas’s profits have soared. The big two supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, have also recorded rising profits despite the cost-of-living crisis.
This would not be a bad thing if the profits were flowing through to those who used to take Qantas phone calls and service the supermarket registers. If it were, they would now be basking in a life of shorter working hours and more time with friends.
That does not seem to be happening. Somehow, shareholder returns and CEO salaries are apparently more important than a bit of human touch.
What service experiences have you had lately? Are you finding it harder to get service from an actual human? Why not share your thoughts in the comments section below?
Also read: Customer service ratings take a nosedive, survey finds