You Get a Person: Why We Haven't Automated Our Customers Away

Technology should make it easier to do business with a company. So why does it increasingly feel like the opposite?

You've encountered the scenario. You have a problem with a software product or service, so you contact support.

First, you're greeted by a chatbot. It asks you to describe your issue, then offers several solutions that have little to do with your problem. You explain again. It provides another variation of the same answers. Eventually, you request a human representative.

The chatbot apologizes and directs you to a knowledge base.

You try again.

After several rounds of increasingly unproductive conversation, you discover that getting an actual person involved requires submitting a ticket, navigating another automated system, or waiting for an escalation that may or may not happen.

Meanwhile, the company is probably celebrating its investment in artificial intelligence and its improved customer service efficiency.

But whose efficiency are we talking about?

When Customer Service Becomes Customer Labor

There's an important distinction between making customer support more efficient and making customers do more of the work.

Increasingly, technology companies seem to be confusing the two.

Customers are expected to diagnose problems, search documentation, collect evidence, reproduce errors, navigate automated systems, and repeatedly explain issues to different support channels.

In some cases, they're even responsible for initiating and following up on their own escalations.

The vendor has effectively shifted much of the support work onto the person paying for it.

And because that work doesn't appear on the vendor's balance sheet, it can look remarkably efficient.

The customer, of course, might see it differently.

AI Isn't the Problem. What We Choose to Do With It Is.

At Complete Paperless Solutions (CPS), we're enthusiastic about technology that eliminates unnecessary work. Like Laserfiche, for example. 

We help organizations automate processes, manage information, improve access to records, and reduce the administrative burdens that prevent employees from doing more valuable work.

We're hardly opposed to automation.

And AI has enormous potential to improve technical support. It can help technicians find relevant documentation, spot patterns across support cases, troubleshoot problems, and find answers faster.

Those are meaningful improvements.

But there's a difference between using AI to help a knowledgeable employee solve a customer's problem and using AI to prevent the customer from reaching that employee.

One makes service better. The other makes service cheaper to deliver, at least on paper.

The distinction matters.

Automating a process is not the same thing as automating responsibility.

The Curious Disappearance of the Human Being

One of the stranger developments in modern customer service is how difficult companies have made it to reach the people who actually work for them.

You can interact with a chatbot at any hour. You can search hundreds of knowledge-base articles. You can submit forms, open tickets, and receive automated acknowledgments confirming that your issue is very important.

But try to have a conversation with someone who understands the product and can take ownership of the problem.

Suddenly, human interaction is scarce.

Unless, of course, you're interested in purchasing something.

Then a person often becomes remarkably easy to find.

It's an odd message to send customers: we're delighted to talk to you when you're buying our product, but considerably less enthusiastic once you need help using it.

For organizations that depend on technology to perform essential business functions, that isn't merely irritating. It can have operational consequences.

A records management system, for example, isn't an optional convenience for a public agency trying to meet retention requirements, respond to public records requests, or maintain access to critical information.

When something goes wrong, the organization needs more than a cheerful automated acknowledgment.

It needs someone who understands the problem and is accountable for helping resolve it.

At CPS, You Get a Person

It's a simple promise, and one we've deliberately held onto.

When you contact CPS, you get a person.

Not an endless conversation with a chatbot. Not an automated obstacle course designed to exhaust your patience. A real person who can listen, ask questions, and help determine what needs to happen next.

That doesn't mean we can solve every problem immediately. Complex technical issues sometimes require investigation, collaboration with software manufacturers, or additional troubleshooting.

But there is a fundamental difference between waiting for a resolution while someone is actively working on your behalf and waiting because you can't find anyone willing to take responsibility.

We believe our customers deserve the former.

And we believe the relationships we build with customers are part of the value we provide, not an expense to be engineered out of existence.

The Real Measure of Efficiency

There's nothing inherently wrong with using automation to answer routine questions or complete simple tasks. When it works well, it can save everyone time.

But organizations should be asking more meaningful questions about their support operations.

Are problems actually getting resolved? Are customers spending less time seeking assistance? Can complicated issues reach knowledgeable people without unnecessary obstacles? And does someone remain accountable when an automated system reaches the limits of what it can do?

Those are better measures of service quality than how many interactions a chatbot handles without human involvement.

After all, a customer who abandons a support request out of frustration hasn't necessarily had their problem resolved.

They may simply have given up.

Some Things Shouldn't Be Automated Away

Technology companies spend a great deal of time explaining how their products improve productivity, collaboration, and the customer experience.

Those promises should apply to their own operations, too.

We believe technology is at its best when it removes obstacles between people and the work they need to accomplish.

That includes the obstacles between customers and the companies they depend on.

At CPS, we'll continue embracing technologies that make our work and our customers' work easier.

But we're keeping the people.

Because if your customers need technical support, making it harder to reach technical support isn't innovation.

And sometimes the most reassuring words a technology company can offer are also the simplest:

You get a person.