Comments on: Customer Service Robots

By: Dennis Snow

Dennis Snow — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:22:28 +0000

This is in response to the question posted by Andrea DiVirgilio on April 1st. Andrea, in my experience it takes 3-5 to transform a culture – especially in a Fortune 400 company. That said, you should start seeing some behavioral changes along with some impact after about a year; but changing a culture takes a while. That’s why so many companies shift from one service initiative to another. After a few months they feel the initiative isn’t working and abandon it. Employees see future initiatives as a “flavor of the month.” It’s important to pick a lane and stay with it.

By: Andrea DiVirgilio

Andrea DiVirgilio — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:47:59 +0000

I was wondering if you could comment on how long it will take to see transformation in a corporate culture. I lead Customer Support Excellence for a 400 Fortune company and I have noted that after a year of following your roadmap to Customer Excellence Support, some executives are getting impatient and would like to see results in terms of customer satisfaction. What are your thoughts ?

By: Ruth Ann Lewis

Ruth Ann Lewis — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:38:11 +0000

I think you are just a little too sensitive. There is nothing wrong with asking the question: “Is there anything else I can do for you?” It just might remind me that there is something else, and besides it is a simple and polite thing to do. When we say Hello, how are you?, we don’t really want to know if they are sick, happy, nervous, scared,drunk, high, low etc., but it has simply become a nice thing to say, so it does convey caring.

By: Gary Stogner

Gary Stogner — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:56:42 +0000

Thank you for this observation. Robotic customer service has irritated me for years and interestingly, it seems the same scripts get passed from one company to another. Courtesy and caring is one thing and I prefer hearing it expresed with sincerity from an employee in their own words and not from some sterile script.