"We have all been there. You've got a problem with your car or your internet or your flight, so you call customer service. And then you get routed, rerouted, and then re-rerouted - for hours. The call gets dropped, and after a few minutes of screaming into the void, you start the whole thing all over again. Or you get a virtual assistant that, no matter how many times you yell "operator!", will not connect you to a real person."
"After enduring his own customer service ordeal, reporter Chris Colin started to wonder if these headaches and frustrations of customer care are by design. In a recent article for The Atlantic, Chris says, a lot of times they are. Roman speaks with Chris about those obstacles baked into customer service, and some strategies for surviving the worst aspects of modern day customer care."
People routinely face prolonged, circular interactions with customer service: repeated routing, dropped calls, and unresponsive automated assistants that prevent access to human agents. Such design choices frequently amplify frustration, dissipate customers' motivation, and make problem resolution more difficult. Investigations indicate that many of these obstacles are intentional features of modern customer-care systems. Practical approaches and survival strategies can help customers navigate automated menus, reduce time wasted, and increase chances of reaching effective human support. Additional material presents concrete examples and tactics to mitigate the worst effects of contemporary customer-service design.
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