I just got a text from UPS. Some items we ordered are out for delivery today. I’ll also get another text mere minutes – sometimes seconds – after delivery of said item. I’m assuming there will soon be an app with a map and a blinking light representing the truck as it moves closer to us.
Forty-plus years ago, when Fred and I worked at a diploma manufacturing company, we would field panicky calls from school secretaries the week before graduation, the callers just sure they hadn’t received their diplomas. Our records (on paper and in a folder, of course) would indicate they’d been shipped, but once a package went on a truck, we had no idea what happened to it, and assumed that all was AOK until we’d get that panicky call. In those cases, we’d contact UPS for a proof of delivery receipt. The turnaround time was decent: Two days, maybe three, tops. It involved tracking down the original receipt and faxing a copy to us. The janitor signed for them nine times out of ten, and they’d often be found in the boiler room tucked behind boxes of cleaning supplies.
What a difference half a century makes! How many terrifying moments of the past might have been shrugged away with today’s digital tools? I appreciate what these tools provide, but sometimes I’m chagrinned and frustrated when they’re used to replace human-to-human interaction. As I fight my way through third party apps to make appointments, order food, and make reservations, I long for the sound of a human voice, even one that might sound cranky or bored, even one that might get my order wrong. If I owned a service-providing business today, I would take great care with overuse of these solutions. I would suggest owners regularly survey their customers about these solutions, but surveys are overused as well. No essay made me laugh harder last year than one in the New Yorker titled “A Survey on Our Recent Survey.” How did you like our survey? Please rank our survey. Would you tell your friends to take our survey? A little goes a long way, and when it comes to service, nothing replaces a human being and eye-to-eye contact.
I met a friend for lunch recently. We found a table and scanned a QR code for the menu. We placed our orders on an app, our phones buzzed when the orders were ready, and we picked them up at the counter.
I gave myself a 25% tip.
Cheers,
Pat Detmer
January 13, 2022