Why You Should Eliminate Customer Service

Watch any movie set in the 60s, and you will notice a higher standard of service. The main character goes to the movies, and you see a smiling face handing tickets before the cheerful candy counter attendant throws in an extra sweet for the kid (usually with a wink). Today’s movies don’t even pretend the same expectation of service exists.

In the modern world, having a grocery store cashier listening to an AirPod, a TSA gate agent grumpily yelling instructions, or a Walmart cart returner shuffling down the aisle as you try to park is not atypical. The crazy thing is, we don’t even care. We shake our heads as we walk away from these interactions, but we understand this is the state of service in our world.

Contrast these interactions at a Chick-fil-A restaurant. The workers greet you multiple times. While eating in the dining room, you’re asked if the staff can get you a refill. Any request is met with the words we know so well: “My pleasure!” While the rest of the service industry suffers from poor engagement at the lowest level of employees, Chick-fil-A continues to present itself well with workers from all stations in life.

Now, think about how internal employees at your business interact during their “service” moments. Are employees enthusiastically interacting with customers? Are your internal stakeholders feeling supported? Are executives leading at the front by sharing smiles and happily engaging in service to their employees?

When the answer to these questions is “NO,” you’re left with two options:

I’m not qualified to discuss the intricacies of changing the company culture, but I can discuss eliminating negative customer interactions. Let’s talk about where automation fits into this arithmetic.

Businesses often only analyze automation as a cost-saving mechanism. Businesses measure the automation opportunity by looking at:

Then, an estimate is made of what percentage automation can replace (this number is usually around 85%). The final result for a new automated world cost is:

After reviewing this math, businesses recognize they can reduce costs by 60-90%, depending on the use cases. The best part is that this value can be found in any portion of the business that doesn’t contain complexity requiring human logic.

So now the math is straightforward. Should we automate everything? Well, not always.

In Chick-fil-A’s case, automating the entire experience would be detrimental to the overall experience. Since customer service is part of the value proposition, it makes more sense for them to retain the hands-on experience. It’s a different story at McDonald’s.

When your business processes deviate from the level of service your internal or external customers expect to receive, you should automate the process. Unless interactions leave the recipient delighted or in a better place than when the interaction began, a business risks having a negative perception of your company.

A great approach is to value-map customer interactions to understand those that are more likely to generate value. Automate the peripheral once you’ve found processes where happy customer service is additive.

For example, imagine you find that 90% of your customer service interactions are to handle over-the-phone inquiries on shipment statuses. By analyzing the data on a week’s worth of interactions, you find customer service is not additive to the experience. However, for the other 10%, having someone on the phone alleviates the customer’s concern. In this case, it would be prudent for the business to find a way to automate the sharing of shipment information while retaining the line of communication for other inquiries.

Suppose more business leaders outside of IT were to take the time to think about how automation could increase their staff’s productivity while positively affecting the company’s overall perception. In that case, automation would be more of a focus for businesses today. The technology needn’t be expensive either. If you are a Mac user, you can automate workloads with something as simple as a $36 purchase of Keyboard Maestro. Enterprise solutions vary in cost and complexity, but the consideration is the same.

Next time you have an unpleasant interaction, consider how the process could have been automated. During your next Chick-fil-A order, think about how much more pleasant your day is with their friendly customer service.