Ever read that EM Forster short story, The Machine Stops? I think utility companies and banks are taking us down that dangerous road!You can take cost out of your company, you can get rid of furniture, people, and phone systems, but the second you take away the human touch and consider that utopia is a machine that invites you to press 1 for this and 2 for that…….you are lost!
Audio computer systems that filter us into faceless call centres, clearly help companies to keep costs down by segmenting callers into neat groups, but what do they really do for the punter other than frustrate? All the PR people are lining up, right now, and shouting at the screen………….’they narrow the enquiry down’. I say ‘nonsense’! Keep your glib rhetoric for the foolish because half of the experts I talk to haven’t got a clue even after I have pressed the touch keypard half a dozen times. Bring back humans. Let me ring MY local bank in MY High Street. Allow me to walk in to my local utility shop and describe MY problem in MY house to someone who knows the street I live in. I don’t want to be around when the machine stops and we all sit in our IT towers wondering who the hell turned off the switch