The other night, my family had been out taking care of the last of our Christmas shopping, and stopped at a popular restaurant chain for dinner. The store was a recent build, and we were excited to have another option in the area.
While the food was good, and the ambiance as expected, we were a bit disappointed with the actual table service. We were seated by the hostess. Another employee arrived to list specials and get our drink orders, and then another employee stopped by to take our food order. Soon, one of us needed a drink refill, but struggled to identify the person to ask, because we weren't really sure who we "belonged" to. About 10 minutes later, two runners (who were also new faces) brought out 3 of our 4 plates of food, and acknowledged our need for drink refills and assured us the 4th plate was on the way. Well, the 4th plate never showed up, and while we could see the hostess, the persons who took our drink and food orders, and one of the two runners, we couldn't seem to make eye contact with any of them. It wasn't because they were standing around doing nothing, or being "lazy" employees...they were all focused on other work. But it left us feeling as if we didn't "belong" -- not to mention left me feeling hungry, as my plate still hadn't arrived!
I'm firmly middle-aged, and I don't want to sound like a grouch, but I miss the days when customer service was more personal and managed end to end by a single person. However, as a business professional, I do understand the THEORY of the restaurant's approach. How many of us remember being taught in a classroom during our business undergrad or MBA programs how it's important to build systems that are not only efficient but easily scaled? Their system had been built in such a way that the seating, ordering, and food was done with clockwork precision.
The problem was, there had been no focus on how the system should react when the process steps got out of order. Just like in a programming environment when scripts not only need to be written to handle the task(s) at hand, a good script also must include checks throughout the process to ensure #1 - that the task is still on track, and #2 - there is good error handling to guide the process back on track when necessary.
As we all enjoy the ride in an unprecedented wave of AI capabilities, I think it's really important to remember that user experience should still reign supreme, and that while we are building processes to make, say, 80% of our customer service automated, that we remember that there is still a 20% out there. Maybe in your business, that 20% is determined to be an acceptable loss. And that's okay! But in my opinion, an important part of UX or operations planning is recognizing that this IS a decision you are making, whether you realize it or not.
Content Marketing & Coffee Fanatic ☕️ | Content Marketer @ Close
3moSold. Just subscribed. I want all the Desiree opinions I can get 😂 I expect the next issue to be all about why hot dogs can be considered sandwiches.