Human communication and human decision. Do we need them?

True story following.

I want to open a new business account at a bank I already work with. I know I need to make an appointment for service at a branch.

I go to the bank’s website and after selecting the branch I work with, I see that the first appointment offered is in a week, while in neighboring branches there is an appointment in 1-2 days.

I decide to call “my” branch to talk to a person, to see if maybe something better can be done. An answering machine answers.

“If you want to make an appointment, press "1", for anything else, please wait.”

Good, I thought, they have a separate line for appointments! I press "1" and prepare to say good morning in a polite voice to preempt the mood of the call.

Immediate disappointment. An answering machine answers, again. The “poem” begins. “What job do you want an appointment for?” “Are you an individual or a company?”

On the third question, it started “I didn’t understand your answer”…three times in a row!

Obviously, I was so irritated that my words were not really coming out clearly! I hung up without continuing.

I call the branch again. This time I don’t press "1". I wait.

A tired human voice answers. “I’m a customer of your branch and I’d like to make an appointment earlier than the next week that your automated system offers, is that possible?” I ask expectantly.

“You know,” she says, “I only see the same system, too. If you want something special, send an email to the branch and we'll reply to you.” The phone falls out of my hand. I pick it up. “Thank you,” I say and hang up.

This morning odyssey is called “customer experience.” It has nothing to do with this particular bank. You find similar “service” in many large organizations with thousands of customers.

Most of these systems aren’t really smart, they’re coming from a previous generation of automation with programmed scenarios.

AI will soon make all of that obsolete. The “dialogue” will not be programmed but truly “spontaneous” and customized. The AI ​​will understand the request and “decide” its response.

But will the gap in human communication and collaboration be filled?

The whole process for me that day took a whole lot longer than if a person in the store had solved my issue. And my issue was not solved. I also sent an email and did not receive a response for three days. And all this to book an appointment…to start processing my issue.

What was my wish as a customer? I wanted a person to serve me outside of procedures and scenarios. I wanted them to understand not only the request, but also my personal anguish behind the request. To create a “solution” for me outside of the scenarios. To give me a personal answer to my problem. How nice it would be if the bank understood me and made my life easier, with solutions, quickly and politely!

The efficiency of operations is important for businesses. The savings in order to have a business profit are also very important. More important than these though, are customer service, customer experience and communication. That is, the customer. That is, strategic marketing.

We live in an era when in businesses we idolize “personalized services”, but without persons. We try to address certain customer personas, but the business does not have human faces. Businesses respond to human customers, always in a supposedly “personalized” fashion, through social media, messengers and chatbots. Customers receive answers and offers “just for you”, but they do not see a face to them. Sometimes they respond “thank you” and somehow feel stupid for talking to a digital "being".

Marketers today must find solutions to this gap, for the good of the brands they serve. “Personalized” marketing without persons will not be enough. Automation yesterday, and AI today and tomorrow, provide tremendous technological tools for stronger brands. However, the challenge is to put AI truly in the service of people and brands and not to lose the “humanity” from communication.