I recently had the pleasure of needing tech support a couple times. In my opinion, an online chat is the worst way to get help (for the customer). For the company, it may be the best because, it seems, each support person can handle multiple people at the same time, versus only one via telephone.
But I think it’s a waste of resources. I will bet the old, “Dollars to donuts” it takes more time to bounce between customers and their issues than to concentrate on one at a time. I now realize it’s best to call and talk to someone, especially since most firms allow you to enter your phone number for a call back while keeping your place in the queue. (I feel this way despite the fact that in our changing times many people prefer technology over the phone, a great example being recent studies showing 86% of millennials prefer to do job interviews by text.)
It’s why we must balance our client/customer load. One of my favorite questions to ask audiences is, “What’s worse, having the capacity to make one million widgets a year and only selling 250,000 (other than having the capacity to make two million)?” The answer is, selling one million and only having the capacity to make 250,000.
John Naisbett was right, the more we get high tech the more we’ll need high touch. At some point a sale has to be made, and we all can’t sell like Amazon because we don’t have simple products, we have value.
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” George S. Patton
