Published on 12, July, 2020
I thought I would share my thoughts on dealing with modern life.In the 21st Century we have email.I love email however for myself with Autism and OCD I can quickly have issues.
Does anyone else out there find that co operate business public and private has this appalling attitude of blanking emails.You wait a few days and now it has become less efficient than post.
You re send and then you either get an unsatisfactory reply or are told you hassling and be patient.It drives me mad ,when email is used correctly it should be like a tennis rally ping pong back forth quick efficient.
So you have tried the email you think lets got back to the old way and pick up the phone.First of all half an hour latter after using search engines you find a number.You ring and spend half an hour going through option this that option.You pass that are in the queue you get through to a human.You then spend half an hour talking and being passed from pillar to post and have got now where so back to email.By now my anxiety and stress is through the roof.
I then have a plan there is this thing called live chat, that sounds fun you get in and speak to a bot who you have to spend half and hour convincing him he cannot help and you need a person.
You get the person who is clearly reading of a script and is much use as an inflatable darts board.An hour later you give up and try email again.
I have found hours even half a day is wasted getting nowhere.i have actually worked out on some days I am more productive staying in bed and hoping life's problems will sort themselves out.
The annoying thing is I am good at battles and dealing with admin but it drives me mad.
I look forward to any thoughts or advice to make modern day life fun again
I think big business is using tech to obfuscate and confuse people into acceptance of Kafkaesque customer [dis]service, it should be easy but it's not, bots on websites refer you to frequently asked questions that make you feel stupid and wonder if it was a ot that came up with these FAQ's.
I think you need to remember though that someone in a business probably has pages and pages of emails a day to get through, they also have to do things like eat and sleep.
TheCatWoman said:I think big business is using tech to obfuscate and confuse people into acceptance of Kafkaesque customer [dis]service, it should be easy but it's not
Speaking as someone who has worked on customer service for corporations for decades, the fact that this is such a poor experience in general is down to lack of investment because the companies do not want to spend money on stuff that does not make a profit.
I've been recruited time and again to come into a service department that was falling apart to restructure and rejuvinate it and it all stems from poor management, largely brought about by lack of investment.
If becomes a self fulfillng prophecy - don't invest, loose your staff who can do a good job, service plummets, customers get fed up waiting and stop calling and eventually the workload drops to the point your struggling team can manage it.
It does a lot of reputational damage to the companies and that was where I would come in - fix the team, cut off the management from interfering, return the levels of service and start to advertise the new quality of service.
Then leave as the contract was over - time for the same somewhere else and watch from a distance as the same olf rubbish managers get their hands on the team and destroy it all over again.
Luckily I never had to deal with the big service companies like broadband, utilities or banking - they have too many managers to keep at arms length while their mess gets sorted.
Clearly, given your wealth of practical experience, you are better placed than most to see what needs to get done, which can only be addressed by strong and draconian legislation and changes to law, with the relevant regulatory bodies being given far greater and far more far reaching draconian legal enforcement powers to correct the issues involved and to robustly challenge these companies through the courts - I would suggest lobbying the House of Lords on this issue, as well as your local MP’s once they get elected, as clearly, laws need to get changed
Now your idea I love as you say some screening and also make sure it is cross representative but ordinary people on the ground know what is happening