March 3, 2010 by MSI
For some Baby Boomers, technology driven processes, particularly around customer service, immediately inspire a negative head shake, as was evidenced in a lively dinner discussion I was recently engaged in with a group of friends. As we asked ourselves why that is, we came to the consensus that there seems to be an innate reluctance of our generation to surrender control to technology.
Baby boomers, who are identified with ideals of strong social change, are followed by two generations, Gen X and Gen Y, accustomed to and expectant of immediate gratification in relation to communication. Mind you, this realization caused many in our group to cringe at the thought that our minds could actually be closed off to keeping up with the times. We recognize that, in today's business environment, of which we are all active professionals, technology improvements and process streamlining are the catalysts for not just efficiency, but also consistency of service. They are also becoming more and more of a standard expectation from the end customer. And to a large extent, we all benefit from the daily joys of technology (email, web etc.), so we asked, "Where is our reluctance coming from?"
After some initial discussion, we determined that our reticence comes from simply wanting the reassurance that customer service never loses the human touch. It's the recognition that a successful customer experience is a combination of both technology and a live person at the other end of the line: to be assured that there is a 'voice' that will listen when a need or situation cannot be dissected by a link, an email, or a 'please press 3' self-service option. For the baby boomers around the table that evening, our realization was the confirmation that technology and touch need to work together, and we all would hazard a guess that even the millenials would agree.
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