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Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”

#131

Post by tedunangst »

rmbyrro wrote: post #102
PaulKeeble wrote: post #16

I think its important to recognise that quite a lot of modern web based companies are running their business on the 0 cents model. That is they take the marginal cost of a customer and push it down to zero and rely on scale to make a profit from it. They can't add anything to their business that would scale with the number of their customers that has any real cost, computing resources even are heavily optimised for l…

I bet 99.99% of people who complain about not having a human to talk don't want to pay a single dollar for that human.

Supporting evidence: you could hire a virtual (human) assistant to drive the ticket email process forward for you. "Nobody" does.

Re: Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”

#132

Post by blisterpeanuts »

As AI and human-like synthetic voice tech improve, the whole "speak with a human" thing becomes more nuanced. In ten years or so, we might be saying "I'd like to speak with an irritable, marginally competent call center employee in South America or south Asia" in order to get an actual, identifiable human. The rest of the time, you'll get this pleasant, cheerful generated voice that pretty much understands your questions and answers competently and patiently. For some reason, this scares the daylights out of me.

Re: Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”

#133

Post by selectronics »

ss108 wrote: post #4

I agree. You mentioned email, but to me the main issue is when one calls a support number. I absolutely despise calling a customer support number and having to listen to the "automated" response that gives one menu options that one navigates via numbers on the telephone (it's only automated for them, not the for the end-user, who has to manually chug through this process, with menu items that don't even necessarily c…

Very frustrating dealing with these systems, as it's known ahead of time that the experience is going to be a fruitless slog. Perhaps this increased friction is by design, to reduce the incoming support call volume?

Fortunately, for some of these systems, ignoring the menu and stating "Operator" over and over does lead to a human, when there appears to be no path through the menus to otherwise reach one. I've heard that cursing at the automated system also leads to a redirect to a human, too.

The results of this are that delivery companies still occasionally "lose" my address and tell me it's invalid and cannot be reached, despite having previously done so numerous times! I have no way to get through to the proper resources to fix their system after over a year.

Re: Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”

#134

Post by wutbrodo »

The bar for "rights" isn't "I wish this was more common". Should there be a right to avocado on your burger, or a fifteen-second response time from waiters, or boiling-water taps in every home?

Does it sound ridiculous to push those costs into prices for things that are unnecessary? What makes phone support so different?

Re: Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”

#136

Post by tomrod »

inetknght wrote: post #49
tomrod wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst is when they won't accept new calls in queue, and just hang up.

Aflac has recently (past year) 100% stopped their phone support. Calling their phone support tells you to log in to their website. I hope you don't have trouble with their website! I was able to get my issue sort-of resolved by making a complaint to a regulator -- I now have a direct line to someone capable of taking my phone call. But that's not an option for every company.

The IRS dumps you after navigating their call tree if you need less popular options that aren't clear.

Me: I want to comply with tax laws but have a question.

IRS: Oh, you submitted paperwork and want to follow up on a letter we responded with? Hey, good luck. Maybe get an opinion from a tax attorney or CPA on what we mean in our comms.

Re: Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”

#137

Post by dustingetz »

Msw242 wrote: post #76
dustingetz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is fundamentally about not being undercut by competition which means the costs a business can absorb are fundamentally relative to competitors' costs (especially so in high margin SAAS businesses). If everyone has to offer support and there's no way to cheat, the market will find a way to meet demand efficiently under new circumstances

At a higher price level! It's important to write out and acknowledge that people cost money.

This is an assumption that a cost increase must certainly be reflected in increased price. Companies price based on customer perceived value, not costs. Particularly in venture funded SAAS, where the profit margin between cost and price is large. And companies have made little effort to invest in live support; if such an investment was necessary we would expect to see live support costs streamline as the industry of live support sees sudden increase in demand and investment.

Re: Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”

#138

Post by kingcharles »

I have to agree. When I got dead-ended on a ticket with my bank (Square/Block) I looked up numbers for their directors and called them. One seemed very empathetic and helpful. Then I got an email saying my bank account was terminated for contacting their staff outside the support system. LOL.

Re: Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”

#139

Post by mrfusion »

On the flip side, put common operations on your website and let customers do it themselves.

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to call a company and the employee easily clicks a button to do what I needed. Why not have that button on your website?

(You could even set up a queue to have employees approve the action in the background if it’s a risky action.)

Re: Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”

#140

Post by majani »

PaulKeeble wrote: post #16

I think its important to recognise that quite a lot of modern web based companies are running their business on the 0 cents model. That is they take the marginal cost of a customer and push it down to zero and rely on scale to make a profit from it. They can't add anything to their business that would scale with the number of their customers that has any real cost, computing resources even are heavily optimised for l…

The line that support would render billion dollar multinationals penniless is so tired at this point. Google made 257 BILLION dollars last year and has a 2 TRILLION dollar market cap. There's enough compensation in there to pay for the greatest support team the world has ever seen. There is simply no will to do it
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