You Lie When You Say “Hello”

You Lie When You Say “Hello”

Well, due to unanticipated volume, I may not be able to meet your request rapidly for me to advise you for $25,000 a month.

Imagine if professional services firms did that? Yet we hear it on call center lines every minute, every day. “Due to unanticipated (or unprecedented) volume….” Please stop telling me about worker shortages when call centers can be staffed remotely, from homes, and from overseas. This is merely another use of a crisis to lower standards and stop listening to customers.

We’ve seen the same thing with, “Since our menu options have changed please listen to the entire recording.” In other words don’t hit “0” or “#” or “*” to try to get a live person, and stop screaming “Agent! Agent” into your phone. We simply don’t want to talk to you, and we’ll use any excuse, even one we have to invent, to prevent it.

I don’t know what human resource wizard (I know, it’s an oxymoron) or consulting psychologists (themselves quite troubled) suggested these ruses, but they’re abominable and arrogant. And they’re lies.

Oh, and by the way, “an abundance of caution” really means “an abundance of fear.” That’s the political equivalent.