Automation at what cost to service?

I read a recent article from John Timpson, Chairman of High Street retailer Timpson in the Telegraph this week on the decline of customer service in the UK.  I have long admired Timpson and had the pleasure of seeing John speak a number of years ago now, which led to me writing a post on Self Management, are you ready to start firing highlighting the similarities between Timpson and Netflix in their approach to getting the best from your workforce, something John learnt over 25 years ago and has stayed true to ever since…

back to the Telegraph article…

John writes how during the last 12 months, ‘whilst customer service declines, bosses in big offices are more obsessed with their service performance than ever before’ and how readers were contacting John to tell him ‘about their experiences of being hung out to dry by big firms whose digital contact centres offered no chance to speak to a real person’.

John goes on to say that ‘with an increasing need to comply with government regulations, risk averse managers seem happier to trust AI to care for their customers rather than real people. But they have yet to prove that chat services, automatic replies, voice recognition and FAQ (“frequently asked questions”) pages do the job better than a person-to-person conversation’.

Over the past 16 months customers may well have been happy to tolerate a lower level of service than they are used too, but for how long?   

Whilst many organisations have been happy to hide behind the pandemic as a reason for poor service and increased wait times, for disjointed multi-channel propositions, others have been engaging their employees and customers, creating an opportunity to accelerate their market proposition, with many aspirational businesses planning the diversification of their offerings, so they will soon, if they are not already be launching into new areas creating even more competition.

Timpson discovered ‘the way to deliver great service is to trust colleagues on the front line, with the freedom to look after customers in the way they know best.’, yet many organisations and senior executives see automation, efficiencies and a reduction in headcount as the holy grail.

Estimates show that 80% of a business’ market-value is accounted for by ‘off-balance sheet’ assets. ie, its people.  

Whilst automation and bots are getting better, brands continue to misuse them and seem to forget that all the research and our experience indicate that leaders have the most significant impact on employee engagement, and therefore performance.

Whilst automation is here to stay and will no doubt enhance and improve our business’ and lives it is our leaders and their effective leadership of our people who will truly set us apart.

If you would like a copy of the full Telegraph article, please let me know and I will send it to you. It would be great to get your thoughts, do let me know.