[Esophagus4]

Having written software used by call centers, you’d be surprised at how much call volume is the simple “happy path” like scheduling an appointment, paying a bill, or checking your balance.

We’re not trying to automate the edge cases… we’re automating the easy stuff so agents can spend time on the hard stuff that can’t be easily automated.

(I view customer service as a value add offering, but there are some companies that view it entirely as a cost center and will do everything possible to prevent you from speaking to someone who can help… looking at you, Uber / Airbnb...)

[chairmansteve]

I try and make it a rule to not use companies that don't have humans in the loop.

Hotels over AirBnb. Banks over Bitcoin. etc

Thinking about it... I need to move away from GMail....

[Esophagus4]

That's part of why I use the investment brokerage I do: their customer service is absolutely fantastic. I get a highly capable human agent with no hold time who is able to resolve my issue.

The ones who really drive me nuts are the call-to-cancel services where they try to retain you. I'm not sure why that triggers my moral outrage so much, but WSJ and NYT are definitely on my naughty list.

[keeganpoppen]

NYT is definitely very naighty in this regard. if you want to do a study of consumer-hostile anti-patterns, just try to cancel an NYT sub…

[RhysU]

Fidelity?