It’s reassuring to read about your recent CSR experience. I’ve had several similar experiences this week with other essential service suppliers. The phone tree and AI online chat experiences can be absolutely maddening. It’s as though the corporate decision makers don’t give a rip how their customers perceive the lack of basic consideration shown by the company service department’s communication protocols. I too appreciate when I encounter a human CSR who appears to care and have a soul. Thanks for shining a bright light on this and for your notes of optimism.
In the past few weeks I have had lovely and useful conversations with the AZ Motor Vehicle Dept. and with 2 US Postal Service employees. All were polite, patient and helpful and it was a pleasure to talk with them.
Of course, I could not get to them without going thru bot hell.
That's good to hear. It's funny how sometimes you can get the nicest, most helpful people in government roles you don't expect it from.
When I was doing the 990 tax stuff for FCA, the IRS incorrectly marked one of our returns "late" when it wasn't, and that cascaded for four years with the IRS claiming FCA owed thousands in fines. V frustrating. But when I finally got some agents on the phone, they were the most helpful and pleasant people--got the problem sorted quickly, too. I hate the IRS obviously, but the staff I've dealt with have been great.
Great story, and such an infrequent occurrence. I live in southern California, a place not known for friendliness or competence from clerks and other corporate representatives. My eyes have welled up and almost spilled tears on rare occasions when some employee has been expert at his or her job, all while being cheerful and friendly. When this happens, I send positive emails to their employers, hoping the praise will go in their employee files and perhaps help them in some way.
I know exactly the company you were dealing with and always have the same damn problem with them. In fact we went away from them for 5 years because of their crappy customer service. We’re back with them now after we moved last year and things haven’t changed. Yet, they always manage to raise rates in every conceivable way possible, blaming the networks or whatever. Funny, the networks blame the cable operators the same way. Welcome to America 2025 - no responsibility, no accountability. It’s everyone else’s fault !
I had a totally unexpected pleasant experience a few weeks ago with an employee of our local waste management company. Usually, I put my bins out the night before pick up day, but I had forgotten to do so. It had snowed with ice underneath the rather long stretch from my garage door to the curb. I was hurrying to get my bins to the curb before the truck, which was at the address next door, arrived at my place. One of the guys noticed me hustling to bring the second bin to the curb, jumped out of the truck and met me at the garage to take the second one for me, plus a large empty box that I wasn't even going to try to take out. He was so polite and friendly I was taken aback and probably embarrassed him by my gushing exclamations of gratitude. Honestly, that experience made my day and several there after.
Happy Valentine's Day, Mr. Friendly Garbage Man, and to all the good people out there who give us hope that chivalry, kindness and helpfulness does exist.
Corporations needs to get away from the AI shit. Customer service used to be two people talking about the day while they sorted out a problem. Then the problem got fixed to everyone's satisfaction.
Careful, Josh. You will give engineers an idea. "We've got to program a module for complaining about AI in our 'human operator' modes. Commiserate with and placate the livestock..."
Such interactions, though rare as rocking horse shit, have become much needed small mercies today. In an era of mechanical, passive acceptance of man's inhumanity to man, this instance of genuine human connection and fellow feeling is heartening. Thank you, Josh.
I was so happy when the only (hyper) local internet provider, Burlington Telecom, opened in my neighborhood. Their office was about 5 blocks away from my house, and I could pop over and chat with them in person. I mean, really face to face. Or they were equally as easy to talk to on the phone.
But the behemoths??? Yikes. I'm stuck with one now in NY State. Again, lucky for me, I only have to drive 20 minutes to get to one of their main retail outlets where I can hand the phone or paperwork over to one of the staff and say, "fix this please."
I also always make sure to befriend my bank managers, the butcher, the cashiers at the grocery store, the trash pickup guys, and so on. You never know when you will need help. In my case, it's rather often, I'm afraid.
Maybe it helps that I'm a dimpled, white haired old lady.
It's great to have those experiences, when you really need them.
I had a similar one with a hotel chain where 2.5 years again I had to cancel reservation totaling about $300, because my mom flipped the script, the day prior to the travel (it was more her trepidation of a neurology appointment and dementia than being a pain). Long story short even though their policy for credits was 1 year, the CS rep took into account the reason for the trip and stay at their property (funeral) and worked it all out.
I am a pessimist and pragmatist to the core, so idealism is not my strong suit, but I've often thought that if people en masse demanded human being back in these roles - through either boycotts or just mass feedback efforts, we might be able to return to the days of understanding humans who find ways to help and at the same time re-job those who are being made redundant by just one of the shiny toys that was pulled out of Pandora's box.
Josh,
It’s reassuring to read about your recent CSR experience. I’ve had several similar experiences this week with other essential service suppliers. The phone tree and AI online chat experiences can be absolutely maddening. It’s as though the corporate decision makers don’t give a rip how their customers perceive the lack of basic consideration shown by the company service department’s communication protocols. I too appreciate when I encounter a human CSR who appears to care and have a soul. Thanks for shining a bright light on this and for your notes of optimism.
In the past few weeks I have had lovely and useful conversations with the AZ Motor Vehicle Dept. and with 2 US Postal Service employees. All were polite, patient and helpful and it was a pleasure to talk with them.
Of course, I could not get to them without going thru bot hell.
That's good to hear. It's funny how sometimes you can get the nicest, most helpful people in government roles you don't expect it from.
When I was doing the 990 tax stuff for FCA, the IRS incorrectly marked one of our returns "late" when it wasn't, and that cascaded for four years with the IRS claiming FCA owed thousands in fines. V frustrating. But when I finally got some agents on the phone, they were the most helpful and pleasant people--got the problem sorted quickly, too. I hate the IRS obviously, but the staff I've dealt with have been great.
Great story, and such an infrequent occurrence. I live in southern California, a place not known for friendliness or competence from clerks and other corporate representatives. My eyes have welled up and almost spilled tears on rare occasions when some employee has been expert at his or her job, all while being cheerful and friendly. When this happens, I send positive emails to their employers, hoping the praise will go in their employee files and perhaps help them in some way.
I know exactly the company you were dealing with and always have the same damn problem with them. In fact we went away from them for 5 years because of their crappy customer service. We’re back with them now after we moved last year and things haven’t changed. Yet, they always manage to raise rates in every conceivable way possible, blaming the networks or whatever. Funny, the networks blame the cable operators the same way. Welcome to America 2025 - no responsibility, no accountability. It’s everyone else’s fault !
"Customer service" has become an oxymoron.
“Rest assured” is a form of abusive placating and that’s all I hear from scripted human CSRs.
I had a totally unexpected pleasant experience a few weeks ago with an employee of our local waste management company. Usually, I put my bins out the night before pick up day, but I had forgotten to do so. It had snowed with ice underneath the rather long stretch from my garage door to the curb. I was hurrying to get my bins to the curb before the truck, which was at the address next door, arrived at my place. One of the guys noticed me hustling to bring the second bin to the curb, jumped out of the truck and met me at the garage to take the second one for me, plus a large empty box that I wasn't even going to try to take out. He was so polite and friendly I was taken aback and probably embarrassed him by my gushing exclamations of gratitude. Honestly, that experience made my day and several there after.
Happy Valentine's Day, Mr. Friendly Garbage Man, and to all the good people out there who give us hope that chivalry, kindness and helpfulness does exist.
Corporations needs to get away from the AI shit. Customer service used to be two people talking about the day while they sorted out a problem. Then the problem got fixed to everyone's satisfaction.
AI can't do that and we aren't machines.
It's a beautiful thing when a human responds on the other end of the line.
Careful, Josh. You will give engineers an idea. "We've got to program a module for complaining about AI in our 'human operator' modes. Commiserate with and placate the livestock..."
Such interactions, though rare as rocking horse shit, have become much needed small mercies today. In an era of mechanical, passive acceptance of man's inhumanity to man, this instance of genuine human connection and fellow feeling is heartening. Thank you, Josh.
I know the company you mean. Feh.
I was so happy when the only (hyper) local internet provider, Burlington Telecom, opened in my neighborhood. Their office was about 5 blocks away from my house, and I could pop over and chat with them in person. I mean, really face to face. Or they were equally as easy to talk to on the phone.
But the behemoths??? Yikes. I'm stuck with one now in NY State. Again, lucky for me, I only have to drive 20 minutes to get to one of their main retail outlets where I can hand the phone or paperwork over to one of the staff and say, "fix this please."
I also always make sure to befriend my bank managers, the butcher, the cashiers at the grocery store, the trash pickup guys, and so on. You never know when you will need help. In my case, it's rather often, I'm afraid.
Maybe it helps that I'm a dimpled, white haired old lady.
Thats a great story. Heartening to hear.
It's great to have those experiences, when you really need them.
I had a similar one with a hotel chain where 2.5 years again I had to cancel reservation totaling about $300, because my mom flipped the script, the day prior to the travel (it was more her trepidation of a neurology appointment and dementia than being a pain). Long story short even though their policy for credits was 1 year, the CS rep took into account the reason for the trip and stay at their property (funeral) and worked it all out.
I am a pessimist and pragmatist to the core, so idealism is not my strong suit, but I've often thought that if people en masse demanded human being back in these roles - through either boycotts or just mass feedback efforts, we might be able to return to the days of understanding humans who find ways to help and at the same time re-job those who are being made redundant by just one of the shiny toys that was pulled out of Pandora's box.