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Some Answers Require A Human Touch

Jul 26, 2016
by Caroline Miller
Amazon.com, Geoff Colvin, Knowing the Limits of Machines, Wall Street and the client, when a computer won't do
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Want  help from Amazon with a purchase or a product?  Here’s the customer service number: 1-888-280-4331.  May it do you some good.  Knowing the number did little for me when I called at the  behest of two of my book readers.  Both had written reviews for my latest novels, Ballet Noir and Heart Land.  Neither review had gotten posted on the Amazon website.  I dialed the number above and waited until an operator pulled me from the wait queue. She listened to my story then  transferred me to another department. The second operator assured me I’d have an answer to my query within two days.  I hung up,  satisfied.

An email soon arrived as promised: the  Q & A. from Amazon’s web page.  I’d looked there before making my call, so I felt my time on the phone had been a waste. I’d been given the  illusion of service without receiving any. 

frustrated computer user

Courtesy of blogmarketingacademy.com

Am I venting?  Sure.  But I also have a point to make and it comes from Wall Street.  Their computers have noticed a trend among  clients.   During times of peak emotions –  high or low swings in the stock market — customers who normally transact  business on  electronic devices chose to pick up the phone.  Whether the news is good or bad, they want to talk to their brokers.   (“Knowing the Limits of Machines,” by Geoff Colvin, Fortune, July 2016, pg 16.)

People react much the same on other occasions, I suspect.  A cancer diagnosis could  be sent by email, but I’m guessing most people prefer to talk with their doctors.  Ditto for an angry constituent.  Reading a congresswoman’s blog won’t cut it.  People want to vent to a staff member.

Knowing what can and can’t be automated will have impact on a company’s reputation.  True, some jobs a computer can do better than a human.  Some jobs can be done equally by a computer or a human.  But when emotions run high, a computer, no matter how competent won’t do.  Amazon take note.  

 

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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