7 days ago
Verizon customers rejoice! Carrier admits you don't want to deal with this annoyance
Verizon has been the talk of the digital town recently, as the carrier has made some very unpopular decisions lately. However, the company has just published a very interesting report, which shows that it understands that customers don't want to deal with AI customer service.
AI has led to thousands of layoffs across multiple industries, as companies move to a human-free future. This future is cheaper and might make fewer mistakes, but it is also devoid of soul. Fortunately, Verizon understands that now, and will hopefully take steps to ensure that its customers don't have to deal with AI agents as much. The most important finding from the report is the fact that the biggest source of frustration for customers is when they're unable to get in touch with a human representative. Additionally, the study found that more people were satisfied with a solution to their problem when it was a human that had helped them.
After the study, Verizon claims that it understands that the future shouldn't be AI agents replacing human support reps, but allowing those representatives to enhance productivity using AI instead. Hopefully, this means that we won't be hearing about any mass layoffs over at Verizon any time soon.
Many people still prefer going to a physical store to get their problems resolved. | Image credit — Verizon
In addition, this report may even lead to Verizon easing off of its employees and not forcing them to use AI tools. Currently, there are certain AI solutions that add extras to a customer's bill in the background, and the representatives have to remain on the lookout, lest they have to deal with an angry user. Verizon ended loyalty discounts a few days back, and that has led to some really severe backlash. There have been dozens of instances of long-time customers loudly announcing that they are leaving the carrier for good. The company has actually backpedaled a bit, and is trying to win people back with new offers and promotions.
As such, I think that it's really nice to see that Verizon acknowledges at least one point of contention with customers, and is taking steps to remedy that. Fingers crossed that other companies can learn from this.
