Humans, unlike machines, easily use something called case-based reasoning. We consider the current set of circumstances, compare them with situations that occurred in the past, and determine what we can take from those experiences. This is a kind of flexibility that's very hard to teach a machine.
- Jeffrey Kluger (Simplexity, p. 121)
Although in the 21st century, we are living in a technologically dependent world, humans are still an integral part in communicating any business' mission, vision, and product/service. Customers and shareholders are major players in whether or not a business will survive, and they need to be fully taken care of to solidify their loyalty to a business. Throughout the years of innovation, businesses have found ways to provide customers with situational responses using technology. This includes computerized phone survey questions based on consumer responses, as well as Internet surveys that alter the questions that follow based on responses.
Based on my experience, the most utilized technology providing customers with situational responses are self-service machines like ATMs and self check-out counters in grocery stores. To withdraw cash and to check out at a grocery store for oneself is considered a convenience to many citizens of the 21st century working class. To maximize the availability of time is a goal that many workers representing other times and places could only wish to have. These machines do just that but at the cost of personalization. Numerically, these machines can do the calculations and provide the services needed; but the machines are not capable of case-based reasoning. They do not have the ability to be flexible in their responses based on situations that have occurred in the past.
Businesses have recognized that these technological solutions are useful, but are not a sufficient way of communicating with customers. Humans need an actual person to listen to them, to personalize their experiences, and to see and feel even a little bit of empathy. It seems that this quality that Jeffrey Kluger, the author of Simplexity, calls "case-based reasoning" is an important difference that is present and palpable when humans engage one another. Unfortunately, many large corporations have submitted themselves to utilizing technology instead of human labor due to its theoretical lower long-run cost.
In terms of business processes, the cost of substituting technology for human labor is supposedly less than paying salaries and hourly labor costs. Recently, a major hotel chain on Oahu let go of most of their parking attendants and replaced them with parking ticket machines. When this major change occurred, there were many aggravated customers. No one knew how to use the machine. Now, this machine walks you through the whole process of paying for parking, but the monotonous, robotic voice can get a little irritating.
By the time one reaches a parking exit, drivers just want to leave. We expect what we know. Driving up to the parking attendant, handing over a ticket, being told a price, and paying the cost is what we know as normal today. Human interaction is what we are accustomed to. When a machine takes that away, this service becomes impersonal. What if we want to question the cost of the ticket? What if we don't know how to use the machine because we can't follow a machines direction? What if we just want to have a short conversation or hear a parking attendant say, "Thank you" and "Have a good day"? Even the smallest "Thank you" being voiced can make a person's day.
With this change in technology taking over human labor, we lose a part of communication with our customer. Only a human being should do marketing and personal selling because humans still have the corner on the ability to adapt responses and behaviors based on context, complex and nuanced interactions emerging in real-time with endless permutations. Based on previous experiences, if the customer seems to want everything done for them, then we can make that happen. If the customer seems to want to figure everything out for him or herself, then we can leave them alone. This adaptability to case-by-case scenarios is something that no technology can replace.
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