Can I just talk to a human being, please?
Rough and tough labourers were sweating as computerized machines slowly replaced their jobs on the assembly line, but I bet call centre workers never would have thought that robots would one day take over their jobs.
Spent 20 minutes on the phone on Wednesday with Ticketmaster just to find out if I could walk up to the Bodies exhibit later that night and avoid the hassle of buying tickets online. Ten of those minutes were spent trying to navigate out of the myriad of options given by an automated system to find a way to talk to a human.
Ticketmaster must have sensed this and even gave the robot that was talking to me a name - Claire.
When I finally figured it all out and learned that it was indeed possible to speak with a human, I spent another 10 minutes on hold for said human being to answer.
All told, it took less than 30 seconds to get my answer when a women, whose name I forget, eventually answered.
Why have we allowed customer service to become so depersonalized? Why are we allowing ourselves to be served by robots who barely understand what we say and force us to repeat “WINNIPEG” five times before they understand where the hell we live?
It’s the same with any company, not just Ticketmaster. Our phone companies do it, schools are doing it now, even 411 when you’re trying to find a number but don’t have a copy of the Yellow Pages nearby.
Granted some companies are half decent by giving you an automatic out right off the bat - “.. or press 0 to speak to an operator…” - but to spent 10 minutes listening to a robot spout off options, none of which direct you to information you are seeking, is down right insulting and frustrating.
I can’t even remember what I did to get connected to a live human being using Ticketmaster’s system. But I imagine the poor lady who answered, and was the unfortunate victim of my frustration, is probably the only one left in the sprawling, windowless office where she works.
And she’s probably desperate to talk to a human being, too.