Underground Construction - September 2018 - 2

EDITOR'S LOG
Robert Carpenter | Editor-in-Chief

Loss of the Human Touch

I've spent some frustrating times
both calling companies and getting on their websites the past few
years. Now, I'm getting downright
infuriated - and that goes for both
general markets and underground
infrastructure companies. Quick,
responsive customer service has almost ceased to exist. Just getting a
phone number is nearly impossible.
I can understand the lure of
everything digital - it's supposedly fast and effective. But when it
comes to dealing with people's specific needs, the digital universe is
failing in an essential part of good
business. Admittedly, I'm getting a
bit long-in-the-tooth, perhaps making some of my observations dated.
But common sense never gets old.
My business perspectives are
carved from experience with my
father and his retail businesses.
Being self-employed, it didn't take
him long to realize business was
about relationships. We lived in rural western Oklahoma, but people
came to his store from more than
100 miles away for specific reasons:
everyone knew Bob Carpenter; everyone liked the way Bob and his
employees treated them; and everyone trusted Bob to do the right
thing. Dad rarely had only one-time
customers. He had families and
friends for customers. His business
success began and ended with customer service.
Since the Internet took off in the
'90s and websites became shopping centers, retail has been forever
changed. Online ordering has forced
the closure of many small-town
American businesses. It's the new,
digital way of doing business. But
sometimes with great change comes
great ignorance of common sense.
We've reached the point now
where companies really don't want
anyone calling them. Rather, they

SEPTEMBER 2018 | UConOnline.com

want you to go to their website.
Even for complaints, they push you
to a section of their website where,
of course, there still isn't anybody
to talk to - you must fill in a digital
message. I'm sure there are studies
that show if people must go to that
much trouble, they probably won't.
That means a company can spend
less time dealing directly with customers, so no need to hire customer service reps anymore. A win-win
for the business.
Remember when companies
started shipping their tech support,
complaints and all sorts of queries
to offshore call centers? India became the call support center of the
world. However, that industry has
since cratered. One of the two biggest companies in India completely shut down a year or so ago and
the other centers probably won't
last long. American business went
to offshore tech support/service to
save money. Now, the trend is to
save even more money by letting a
machine be your point of contact.
We're forced to spend our own
time wading and waiting through
an automated process that's time
consuming, rarely accurate and seldom solves our needs. Generally, if
I'd simply been connected to a "live"
person in the first place, my needs
could have been clearly stated and
the situation resolved in an expeditious manner.
That's if you can even get a phone
number. I challenge you to find a
customer service number on websites. Even the original telephone
company, AT&T, has effectively
eliminated phone numbers from its
own website. Unfortunately, when
checking out contractor and manufacturer websites for the underground infrastructure, far too many
have fallen into the trap of letting a
machine be their first contact with

current or even potential customers.
Now I haven't run the financial
numbers; maybe some of these
manufacturers or contractors
can't afford someone answering
customer inquiries over the phone
or responding to email. But I have
heard customer complaints. They
are very loud and clear: if they can't
talk to someone, then maybe they
shouldn't talk to them at all.
We've lost the personal touch
in much of our business operations. Having digital products and
services should be an aid for customers, not a cost-savings ploy by
companies that don't want to be
bothered with customer complaints
or questions. Opportunities are lost
to convert a problem into a success,
a disgruntled customer into a satisfied one, and that query into new or
enhanced business. That may make
me a dinosaur in the digital age, but
I believe great customer service is
the difference between just another
company and a stand-out firm that
keeps customers happy - and coming back for more business.
Dad passed away long before
the Internet took over the world
of business. He would have been
disappointed with what has happened to face-to-face and ear-to-ear
methods of supporting your customers. With that in mind, I have a
direct phone number and my email
is publicized. It's also why I go to as
many industry events as possible
for personal interaction. If you can't
listen to and meet your readers,
how can you possibly know what's
on their minds? It matters to me as
an editor; I hope it matters to you
as a reader and customer.

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Underground Construction - September 2018

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