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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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 Bingo!
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This grumpy thought is brought to you by the fact that I have 3 mails to write after abysmal AI customer experiences this week. On the plus side though, I had a quick & good experience with hands-on human help at my insurance company. I didn’t even have to battle through a phone tree or ’we have a website!' messages to speak to the human in the first place. I want to say something when I see something good, too. To compliment their corporate choices. So I will write a mail of praise to them too.
@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.
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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 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.
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@virtuosew Reward the good behaviour - yes. The enshittification has become so bad and so all-encompassing that I really notice the good behaviour these days. Even though it's really just what used to be considered normal behaviour. Like a human member of staff answering the phone and dealing with a specific customer question in a quick and friendly way. I want to let them know that this is great, that this is what customers (well, this customer, at least) want. That it's a sales parameter.
@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.
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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 @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
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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 customers also complain with AI which often hallucinating laws or rights causing further frustration and wasted time for both parties
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@CiaraNi Here's my contribution for the day.
@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.
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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
@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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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 @bluegreenandfree Think of the shareholders though. <sarcasm>
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J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
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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 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.
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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 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...
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@CiaraNi @kimlockhartga @RegGuy
Opensource and attribution-free. Use where appropriate.
@mmiasma @kimlockhartga @RegGuy Ha - thanks, I will definitely be using it
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@CiaraNi @kimlockhartga @RealGene You get 15% off of your first order for that! I'll DM you a QR code.
@Nead @kimlockhartga @RealGene Excellent! I am planning what to order already
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@kimlockhartga @CiaraNi @RegGuy my husband doesn't have a smart phone. Old people are being left behind
@Tattooed_Mummy @kimlockhartga @RegGuy Yes. An important point. Many people being excluded. Older people. People with cognitive impairment through illness or stress. Young people who don't want or haven't been allowed have a smartphone. Anyone whose phone is broken, or lost, or was forgotten at home. So much exclusion from standard civic and social and health services.
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@CiaraNi Here's my contribution for the day.
@jab01701mid Nice -
good for you, making the point to them -
@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.
