It’s like living in the 21st century
Categories: entries
Had to call PG&E today to close my account because I’m moving out soon. Their account closing process is now fully automated. It gathers your account data from a provided phone number, asks when you want to stop service, and asks where you want the final bill sent to.
I guess my expectations of automated customer service systems are quite low, but I found that last bit quite impressive. It was able to understand a spoken address (zip code first) without any additional assistance.
Comments
That’s awesome. It’s funny because I had a warning for potential fraud on my credit card today, and I dealt with a real (outsourced) person and could not understand a thing she was saying. My money and my identity were concerned and the conversation wasn’t going anywhere. I think an AI would have done a much better job.
Is outsourcing outdated now?
I’ve read that programmer salaries in India have reached 70% of those salaries in the US, so it’s no longer worth it for companies to set up offices in India and to deal with the huge time difference. Salaries for call center staff might have reached the same point.