What Technology CAN’T Do

BY: Brett Nelson

The marvels of technology are outmatched only by our maddening overreliance on it.

In 2007 I toured a cavernous Ford Motor factory in Istanbul. It was filled with hundreds of arc-welding robots, all swinging, whirring and flashing in glorious, symphonic harmony. The floor was spotless. I was awestruck, and yet by modern manufacturing standards, that was fairly standard stuff.

Three years earlier I saw a smaller-scale, though no-less-astounding wonder: a “rapid-prototype” machine—or 3-D printer—made by a company called Stratasys, in Eden Prairie, Minn. These magic boxes turned digital drawings into life-size thermoplastic parts (up to 2-feet long and accurate to five-thousandths of an inch) withina few hours. 3-D printers are all the rage now, Stratasys shares have since doubled (to $51 a share) and the company has plenty of competition.

In 2009 I came upon a technology that still boggles my mind. Vextec, in leafy Brentwood, Tenn., married metallurgy and math to create modeling software that could predict with uncanny accuracy how and when products would fail—even before they’re made. Vextec aimed to accelerate the design of everything from engine parts to medical devices, while at the same time slashing R&D budgets and opening doors for new competitors (see “Breakpoint.”)

Technology has made us so productive it’s putting us out of work. We know this—and we know, in many respects, that it’s a good thing.

What it seems we don’t know—or refuse to ignore—is when technology just can’t cut it. I’m talking about the mundane yet mission-critical realm of customer service.

Stephen Moore, member of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, manned the bully pulpit today with a cathartic rant called “Press 9 For More Options.” Of his dealings with soulless virtual service “agents,” Moore writes: “This becomes an endurance test. If you rush to the bathroom, that is surely when the agent is going to come on and you’re going to have to start all over.”

Some facts of life have to be repeated over and over and over  for them to sink in. It’s why every article about interest rates reminds that they go up when bond prices go down. It’s why your doctor reminds you to drink water and get enough sleep. It’s why every gratuitous business text reminds you to “listen to your customers.”

In that spirit, then, I join Mr. Moore and the frazzled masses who curse their phones in the pursuit of satisfaction:

Real customers want to talk to real humans—and they will pay more for the privilege! If there are legitimate statistical studies to the contrary, I’d love to read them—formulas and all. Please send links.
But, then, never bring a complaint without a solution, right?

At least one entrepreneur is doing his best to lower everyone’s collective blood pressure—and, yes, he’s doing it with technology.

Kelly Conway, founder of ELoyalty, in Lake Forest, Il., spent $50 million and six years to develop software that can peg customers’ personalities  so that customer service reps know how best to handle them (see “Making Call Centers Really Hum”). Note there are still humans involved, but the idea is to make the whole service process more efficient with shorter, more productive calls. Wrote Christopher Steiner in Forbes in January 2011:

“The technology sniffs out 2 million speech patterns that categorize people into one of six personality types; other telltale phrases clue the algorithms into what the specific complaint might be. Eloyalty has analyzed 600 million conversations; its 1,000 servers store 600 terabytes of customer data (the Library of Congress’ print stash would require 10 terabytes). Based on all of that intelligence, callers are routed to the service rep best equipped to handle that combination of problem and personality.”

In March, Eloyalty sold its traditional call-center set-up and advisory business to TeleTech Holdings. That was the main side of the house, and Kelly had been plowing his free cash into perfecting his nifty personality-matching software, which now sits in a company (publicly held) called Mattersight, headquartered in Chicago. Gartner, the tech research firm, gave Mattersight props in its “Cool Vendors in Content Analytics, 2012” report, released on April 26.

Cool, indeed, if Conway can help get humans manning the customer service lines again.
Until then: Arrrggghhhh!

SOURCE: www.forbes.com