Why is it difficult to contact customer service?

In communicating with authorities and companies, one often gets a little lost. It is not always easy to understand how to fill out documents and how to interpret rules, agreements and laws.

Admittedly, there is often a lot of information on websites that provide answers to the most common questions or provide suggestions for solutions to the most common problems. But it is not rare that the particular problem you encounter is more complex and angular. The answers and solutions are not really suggestive.

Then companies and authorities want to test their automated chat function. Sometimes it works, but only if you have a relatively simple case and you already have all the necessary facts. But you don't always get all the answers in chat either. If you are a little slow or need to search for information, it may happen that the chat ends and you have to start from the beginning again.

Sometimes, you simply long for someone to talk to. To whom you can ask questions. A person who can explain and advise how to fill it The Right Way model, which explains how the rule of law is actually interpreted, or which services best suit your particular needs. Someone you can ask those smart or a little weird questions to. Which one can reflect on and ask follow-up questions.

But it is becoming increasingly difficult to reach this person.

One reason for this is that phone numbers are often well hidden on websites. When you search for a physical customer service number, you often come back to a page with frequently asked questions or are offered to connect with a chatbot. That is, functions that you have already tested and have not received sufficient help from.

Once you find a number, you face the next challenge: the endless phone queue. “I put number 153 on hold. Estimated wait time is 2 hours and 43 minutes.”

Sometimes there's a job you can call when it's your turn, but that job doesn't always work – no one calls you. It is also not always beneficial to wait patiently in line. When the call is connected, it happens The connection is disconnected.

I've wondered more than once whether there shouldn't be a medical term for the rage that ensues.

But it's not just customer services that are becoming more difficult to reach by phone. Sweden has long been a country where contact information for employees in authorities and companies is easy to find. Nowadays, they are increasingly being removed.

For some professions, it's about safety. But not for most people. Rather, it is about cultural change. You are no longer available for creti and pleti. It has also become difficult for journalists, for example, to make direct contact with officials and experts. It is becoming increasingly common that you must first contact (preferably via email) the press or communications department that will approve the call or interview.

Of course, you can see all of this as a natural progression.

For example, many young people prefer texting rather than calling.

But there is also another side. Writing SMS does not require much from the writer. These are short and simple messages. Communicating with another person to explain a complex problem requires a lot of work, both from the person writing and reading. Understanding what someone else has written is not always easy.

Part of the failure of the Swedish school is that the numbers of so-called functional illiterate people are increasing. That is, people who have left primary school without being able to read, write or understand text dealing with everyday situations.

“Today, more than 20 percent of students leave elementary school functionally illiterate,” for example, three researchers recently stated in an article In We Are Teachers. This is despite the fact that, according to researchers, almost all students can learn to read 96 to 98 percent with evidence-based instruction and adequate support and training.

In a society that places increasingly high demands on everyone's ability to communicate through writing, the challenges facing this group are extremely great today.

But at the same time it seems to be a temporary problem.

Artificial intelligence is the ability of a machine to display human-like traits, such as thinking, learning, planning, and creativity. Development in the region is proceeding at lightning speed. It is already possible to download AI assistants that you can talk to and reason with. Helpers who pick up the right facts and compile them into a document if you want.

AI will Take on many jobs. At the top of the list are people who may have thought their jobs were secure, such as lawyers, business consultants, psychologists, and human resources professionals. But programmers, telemarketers, customer service people, and marketers are often mentioned in these contexts.

Therefore, we will soon be able, without major problems and delays, to contact a virtual person in the company or body who can answer all the difficult questions. Or our AI assistant will do it for us.

Emma Wang is the political editor at Eskilstuna-Koririn and Strängnas Tidenning (Liberal Independent)