I appear to be waging a one-woman ’See Something, Say Something’ campaign where I write to companies to register my displeasure when they use AI to enshittify customer service.
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@CiaraNi Here's my contribution for the day.
@jab01701mid Nice -
good for you, making the point to them
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@CiaraNi This whole problem would be solved if the acronym at issue was "ASS" instead of "AI".
"AI" as an acronym is wrong on both counts. It's not Artificial, it's real. And it's not Intelligence, it's a fucking database with a good search engine and SQL, and a warehouse full of GPUs.
Authoritarian Search System == ASS
Don't use ASS.
@jab01701mid I think those nuances are only specific to people with insider knowledge of the IT industry. I know AI has previous and other meanings, but in practice these days, non-tech people like myself just say AI in context when we're complaining about companies using generative AI and LLMs to fire answer-shaped guesses at customers.
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@kimlockhartga @Tattooed_Mummy @CiaraNi @RegGuy I'm in my 40s and whilst I am comfortable with technology... there are somethings that require a human and one that can speak your language (not an overseas call centre!).
@missmelanieh This is so accurate. Objections to AI and GAI and LLMs being used in customer service (and other places) have nothing to do with fear of technology or an inability to navigate the digital world. Unlike the machines, a human customer service agent and a human customer can navigate tone, nuances, accents, context etc.
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@Nead @kimlockhartga @RealGene Excellent! I am planning what to order already
@CiaraNi @kimlockhartga @RealGene try the fried gummy bears. It's a crispy-chewy match made in heaven. Big hit at the county fair.
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@CiaraNi another cool thing you could do is to give a shout out to your insurance company over here so that other people know that it's a good company to work with.
@dannyman I did consider that. I've been praising them by name in 'real life'. I hesitated to name them here because this is the Fediverse, so someone will probably immediately tell me that there's something wrong with the company - like, it still uses Microsoft, or someone working there once dated someone who uses Substack, or whatever - and I'll get derailed into that conversation. I think it's clean, and it's not American, but I haven't deep-researched it.
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Customer service staff must be hit doubly hard by enshittification and AI. Companies use AI in a bid to replace their jobs. The AI is useless and wastes time, so even a placid customer with a benign query will become frustrated and fed-up as they try to battle their way through to a human who can actually help. Customer service was hard enough in advance. It must be harder still these days, when AI has made even the pleasant customers cross before they get through to the human.
@CiaraNi Had that experience with AAA when I had a flat tire.
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@CiaraNi I have done the same things you do, though I am not very systematic about it. But I do enjoy calling the customer service number for a business after having a particularly positive experience, telling a human in detail what impressed me so much, and thanking them. Recently, a person I spoke with told me they had never before received a phone call from a happy customer. My call seemed to make them quite happy.
@JosephMeyer Snap! I've done the exact same. Twice recently I did the same - I concluded a good person-to-person call with the member of staff by telling them they'd been really helpful and thanking them. In one case it was after they'd fixed an error their company had made, so they seemed surprised I was happy instead of cross. I still wrote afterwards, just to let their higher-ups know we appreciate good human staff.
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@CiaraNi I've been doubling down on the the positive reinforcement feedback over the last few years.
Goodness only knows if it does anything at the corporate level, but at least the CS person knows someone appreciates them.
@JD_Cunningham This is my thinking too. It feels too small, but at the same time, if more of us keep doing it, maybe some companies will register what customers want.
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@missmelanieh @kimlockhartga @Tattooed_Mummy @CiaraNi I ran tech support the final 15 years of my tech career. My favorite tech support call came the day before Thanksgiving. We had a small tech call team, and under 100 big customers. So we knew all of them. Sandy calls the support line, I gave the team off, so I answer it. She says "Joe, why are you answering? Is Jess there?" I explained I gave her time off. Sandy need help with her turkey and Jess had been helping her. I assured her that 1/2
@RegGuy I love this so much. Take that AI - absolutely! @missmelanieh @kimlockhartga @Tattooed_Mummy
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@missmelanieh @kimlockhartga @Tattooed_Mummy @CiaraNi
I could also help, as I was a wiz at baking turkeys. We got her settled down with Jess' recipe and I helped explain the steps. We heard back later that Sandy had success and Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch for her.
Take that AI!
2/2
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@CiaraNi customers also complain with AI which often hallucinating laws or rights causing further frustration and wasted time for both parties
@fooflington Great point. It's a common after-work complaint now from many I know in different jobs and industries - that customers are making life difficult by sending long, complex, AI-written submissions and queries, full of irrelvant information and points. The waste of human time on either end is incredible.
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@CiaraNi @bluegreenandfree Think of the shareholders though. <sarcasm>
@WTL @bluegreenandfree Indeed
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@JD_Cunningham This is my thinking too. It feels too small, but at the same time, if more of us keep doing it, maybe some companies will register what customers want.
@CiaraNi @JD_Cunningham Trust me: we like happy customers! They make me smile.
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@dannyman I did consider that. I've been praising them by name in 'real life'. I hesitated to name them here because this is the Fediverse, so someone will probably immediately tell me that there's something wrong with the company - like, it still uses Microsoft, or someone working there once dated someone who uses Substack, or whatever - and I'll get derailed into that conversation. I think it's clean, and it's not American, but I haven't deep-researched it.
@CiaraNi I use WordPress.
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Customer service staff must be hit doubly hard by enshittification and AI. Companies use AI in a bid to replace their jobs. The AI is useless and wastes time, so even a placid customer with a benign query will become frustrated and fed-up as they try to battle their way through to a human who can actually help. Customer service was hard enough in advance. It must be harder still these days, when AI has made even the pleasant customers cross before they get through to the human.
@CiaraNi we have it the other way around - the company I work for doesn't use AI (yet) but the clients all do. We provide support and consultancy for their websites but daily now have to wade through ai slop sent in by the client's to put on their webpages and blogs. It's awful - dull, mind numbingly repetitive, just lists, nothing thoughtful or original. I feel so utterly depressed by it all.
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@CiaraNi What kills me is the loss of confidence. I can never be 100% certain the answers I get are correct. Yes, I know humans make mistakes too but humans will always agree to double check with a colleague or supervisor when you ask.
@psneeze This bothers me too. So much AI-generated misinformation about everything from bus routes to what an insurance policy covers.
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@CiaraNi I use WordPress.
@CiaraNi Even worse: I'm a Democrat.
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@psneeze This bothers me too. So much AI-generated misinformation about everything from bus routes to what an insurance policy covers.
@CiaraNi Zakly. Then you hear the hoors talk about "when AI is rolled out in medicine".
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I appear to be waging a one-woman ’See Something, Say Something’ campaign where I write to companies to register my displeasure when they use AI to enshittify customer service. And when their app is only available to Google & Apple customers. Their AI wastes my time with useless ’customer service’. I take time to word constructive customer feedback. Their AI reads it. I spend time reading a useless AI reply. AI increases productivity my bollix. What a waste of human time.
@CiaraNi i did the same recently to a sports training app. They infused it with AI and it no longer worked well. So I left and told them why. And then I was surprised, lots of others did too. All their recent reviews on Google Play Store say the same, which made me take heart: others feel the same
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@CiaraNi No, seriously - research has shown repeatedly that customers who have a complaint & feel acknowledged by customer service are significantly more likely to shop again, *even if their problem wasn't solved!*
In other words, having bad customer service was already counterproductive to business & they're just making it so much worse with AI .
And yet despite this kind of idiocy, people are still taught at business school that business rationally optimizes itself for profit & growth...
@jwcph Great point. It's a positive experience to just be taken seriously as a customer, to have a problem handled competently without time-wasting. I absolutely have had that experience myself - genuinely praising a company because their staff quickly and happily fixed a serious error the company itself had made. If they'd dragged their feet or thrown AI at the problem, I would have had an entirely different attitude afterwards.
