Last week I attended a HCI webinar entitled Business Unusual: Non-stop innovation sponsored by Bernard Hodes. One of the guest speakers were
William Taylorof Fast Company and Co-author of
Mavericks at Work. During Taylor’s presentation he mentioned that companies can standout if they actually talk and listen to their customers. Voice Automation and IVR systems are so popular in today’s world that we barely ever speak to an actual person anymore. Taylor specifically referenced a website
www.gethuman.com which outlines, for the general public, the secrets to actually speaking to a real person within a customer service or related department within 500 major corporations
- Astounding. Personally, I can not tell you how many times I have found myself slamming the telephone on my desk with frustration because the automated system is not providing me with the information I need and I can’t bypass the system to speak to a human. So I began to think of this evolution. The evolution of where human contact within the workplace is fading away and becoming the exception rather than the rule. Why?
1 }' R- e8 S# T7 HAfter some consideration these are the factors I feel are aiding this evolution, not necessarily in order or limited to:
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- Technology
- Generational Differences
- Cost
- Flexibility
- Globalization
Overall, I feel technology has had the greatest impact regarding this shift within our everyday work practice. Maybe it is my Generation X influence but I prefer face to face or voice to voice interaction. A lot of very important non-verbal and verbal communication is lost when we rely on email, IVR, virtual interaction and text messaging. Last week I read an article about the rising popularity of Virtual Job Fairs. The article mentioned the finesse of the end user coupled with the enhanced technology has assisted with the increasing popularity of companies sponsoring Virtual Job Fairs. However, there is still some shortcomings associated with this type of recruiting terminal. End users new to VJF don’t necessarily execute proper business etiquette. For instance an avatar instead of handing the recruiter their resume accidentally handed the recruiter a beer. Funny, I know, I laughed too -but professionally unacceptable. In a face to face interview, if a candidate had handed the wrong information to a recruiter, it would have left a negative impression with the recruiter. However, in the virtual world it was excusable. Utilizing slang or abbreviations within our virtual communication is also acceptable whereas face to face it would not be. We are all human and make mistakes however, if we continue the current trend perhaps computers soon will be speaking to us rather than our colleagues.
