Where Have All the Humans Gone?In November of 2020 I filled out the Alberta grazing lease on-line stock return form and was pretty confident I’d done it right, until January came along and I got a call asking why I hadn’t filed it yet. Somehow I had failed to push the “send” button. In 2021 I hit a snag when I came to a question requiring a yes or no answer and my response was kinda-sorta. Now what? There was no space, as there was in the old hand written form, for an explanation of my yes but no response. You can’t talk to a computer (even though many seem to try). The form would not go through with the question unanswered. I needed to speak to a human. This year the stock return form showed up in email and then disappeared a few days later. Just gone, I didn’t delete it. So, I put on my computer hat and began to search the Alberta Government website to find the form. I don’t know who they get to design government websites, but I’ve yet to find one that is user friendly. I couldn’t remember the exact name of the form and without that I was getting nowhere. I resorted to the phone and after talking to several agricultural departments I reached a human who could tell me exactly what to do. User name and password entered I finally was able to file.
The propane dealer we use put a gizmo on our main tank that sends data to the office letting them know when it needs filling. With a cold spell on the way, being old school, we checked the level anyhow and tried to order by phone. Waiting to reach a person got longer and longer and a disembodied computer voice kept suggesting we order on line, so we did. Great, seemed like all was well. They sent us an email to confirm and gave us a delivery date. The date came and went with no propane delivery. We phoned again and this time waited for a human. The human seemed surprised that we had 3 tanks to fill, said the order was just for one. (They only provide one sensor per household and put it on the tank with the most usage.) She changed the order to 3 tanks and 2 days later we got our fuel.
The other day we tried to contact Telus to report a problem. I fished around the Telus web site, nothing there that would address the issue. So we had to phone. Finding the right phone number to call was the first challenge. There were pages and pages of Telus contact information in the phone book. In the end we hit zero and it worked. When the “operator” answered my husband said, “Are you a computer?”
“Yes,” it said, “but I can answer many of your questions.” Wait time to talk to a human - one hour - the first time. Should be up and running no later than tomorrow she said. It wasn’t. Two days later, second call, one hour wait, the problem finally did get solved. The humans we did interact with were friendly and did their best to help us. I have to give them credit considering the fact that we were super grumpy from waiting so long, though we tried not to let it show.
Now to tackle the on line Canadian Biannual Livestock Survey. It’s mandatory they say……….
I’m not computer ignorant, I’ve been using them since the days you had to enter data on punch cards, but I still spend hours trying to access information that is supposed to be easily accessible. What about people who have no computer literacy? Or those who have no computer at all, or a cell phone, or WIFI?
Like it or not, more and more companies are buying into non-human interactions with their customers. They think it improves customer service. I think it boosts their profits. They hire fewer and fewer people and those of us who need to conduct business through human interaction are doomed to wait for hours on the phone.
We are in the midst of a digital transformation/transition, one which we cannot easily avoid. Maybe someday computers will become so human-like they’ll be able to answer out-of-the-ballpark questions. Maybe websites will become more user friendly. Until then, if you can’t cope (or find help), plan on being frustrated. Maybe ask a young person - they have grown up in the digital age and seem to fly through actions less savvy folks find mind boggling.
They say if you wait long enough the science fiction of the past becomes the reality of the present. I’ve seen numerous examples of this in my lifetime. The idea that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will one day take over plays a big role in that genre….
Leaving you with that thought.
https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/,
November 29, 2022
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