As things get more automated and complicated, customer service is increasingly becoming a hot commodity. People want someone to sort it all out for them. If you can fix it, make it easier, do the work for them, they will pay more for it …and return if you do it well.

The problem is that too many businesses think that streamlined, push-button options are enough …but they’re not. When the buttons say “yes/no,” what do customers do if they need a “maybe” option? Humans need humans when human questions, the ones where answers land in the gap between 1 and 0, come up. 

But the urge to squeeze a few more shekels out of the system is great. Having humans on hand to handle the “maybe” questions or find that 0.5 answer comes at a cost. So, those few customers who want “maybe” or need something that’s between 0 and 1 will just have to deal with it. It has to be service on the terms of the business or it’s no service at all. Sadly, it would appear that “good enough” has become good enough.

This raises questions. What’s happened to the desire to truly help people? What’s happened to empathy for human problems? Or, at minimum, what’s happened to excellence?

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