America Trends Podcast

America Trends Podcast


EP 829 The New Customer Experience: Please Hold and an Automated Attendant Will Be Right with You

January 20, 2025

 


 Bad customer experiences are costing businesses more than ever, according to new research by experience management company Qualtrics.  Its work projects global losses of $3.7 trillion annually–a staggering 19 percent increase from last year’s $3.1 trillion projection.  You don’t need to see the macro picture when daily you suffer the frustrating indignities of calls to businesses not answered by a person on the other end who knows what they are talking about or the inability to ever get to that ill-informed person in the first place because the automated attendant won’t let you through.  It can be maddening as a consumer.  Michael Levine, the author of the influential business book “Broken Windows, Broken Business” saw this trend developing almost 20 years ago and has been writing about it ever since.  The smallest things he notes can make the biggest difference in the success of a company.  For example, if the cabin of an airplane is dirty, it makes you wonder whether the mechanical part of the plane is actually being attended to with care.  Yikes!  It’s the basis for a fun and wide- ranging discussion today.