The Robot Is A Great Dance, Not So Great For Customer Service

November 17th, 2008 · No Comments

Technology is a wonderful thing…aaaaaaand that’s where the problem lays. Technology is a thing; technology is not a John or a Jane. In theory, I would love it if there was a machine that could give me a haircut every weekend for half the price and in half the time. In reality, I would hate it because machines have herpes. Haha, just kidding. Really though, there are things that machines do very well, such as make Crayons, and there are things that will always and forever need the touch of a human hand. Would you rather have a robot give you a massage or a pretty, nice, young lady? Exactly. I understand the convenience factor of technology. However, when convenience takes precedence over human interaction we’re headed for a society of button pushing, anti-social morons: De-evolution. We might as well pack up our laptops and head back to the caves.

E-Harmony tries to minimize the chances of rejection, MySpace completely ruined the concept of making friends, and Playstation encourages kids to sit in front of a TV all day playing sports. Ironically, this form of playing sports helps them become less healthy and more of a risk for obesity and diabetes. Ladies, I know you have some male “friends” that can talk up a storm via MySpace messages, but when you see them face to face they are more boring than a sheet of copy paper. E-Harmony??? Please, if it wasn’t for rejection half of you wouldn’t shave, do a push-up, or strive to better yourself. Technology is helpful, however, it can and is already ruining the way humans interact with each other.

Case in point: Jack In The Box self service kiosks.

So, me and my buddy decided to go for a late night heart attack snack at our local Jack In The Box located off of Aero Drive in San Diego. Expecting to be greeted with a cheerful (or non-cheerful) “Hello, welcome to Jack In The Box”, we were surprised to be greeted with the same noise reserved for a library…silence. In front of our face was a touch screen machine designed for us to order and pay for the meals ourselves. Being that it was a new toy for us to play with, we were initially excited. Then, after we realized ordering on this machine was more time consuming and less helpful than ordering through a person, our excitement quickly turned into “WTF?”. Did technology digress the situation it was suppose to progress? Hmmmmmm, why yes it did.

I know in today’s society it’s hard to believe that technology can actually make things worse. Especially when you can put all 13 Beatles albums on one device, order an anchovy pizza, go all-in with pocket Aces against a person in Italy, pay your electricity bill, and rant on a stupid cooking website named RamenDays.com all without leaving the comforts of your $20 computer chair that you found in the dumpster.

Sometimes a smile, a hello, exchange of currency, and a thank you is all it takes for me to realize that I love interacting with people. Even though some people don’t know how to control their liquor and try to fight every single time they have two Long Island ice teas. I love that person just the same. Just makes for a more entertaining night. I’d take my annoyingly drunk friend over 5 hours of playing World of Warcraft any day.

SHARE THIS POST WITH A FRIEND