Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: The Big Story
Episode: Why don't companies let you talk to an actual human anymore?
Description: It's one thing when companies that exist entirely online—like Facebook and Instagram—use chatbots and emails instead of a real person as a customer service solution. That's annoying, but understandable. It's another when business like appliance vendors, airlines and shipping companies have no way to connect a customer with a problem to an actual human who can help them.But this trend has been gathering steam for years now, and the problems it creates are worth examining. What happens when business-customer exchanges are entirely impersonal? What's the cost-benefit decision the company is making here? How does an a...