The best customer experience I've had in years came from a small café in North Portugal where nobody worked in customer service. One coffee spot in a tiny village, average age about 70. Lari, Jazz and I walked in and every head turned. Two minutes later the whole room was talking to us, and Jazz was working the tables like he owned the place. Nobody had a script. Nobody had a policy. They just paid attention.
The same week, we rented a camper van. A simple problem with our booking, no useful answer from support. So I went to the top: the CEO, the COO and the head of support, one business owner to another. The CEO didn't reply. The COO sent one line a day later: "We've handed this over to the relevant person. Good luck."
The support team wasn't the problem. Three executives, and not one of them owned it. The café had no reason to care about us, and did. The company was paid to care, passed us along, and hid behind its terms and conditions.
Most companies now treat every message the same way and send it to a bot. But someone asking a question about your business is not the same as someone stuck with a problem your business caused. Customers already know the difference. In a Gartner survey of 3,566 customers this year, 87% said any company using AI for support must offer a way to reach a human. They're happy to let AI answer questions, but they still come to the company when they need something resolved.
Klarna learned this the expensive way. It boasted its AI assistant did the work of 700 agents, then started hiring people again. Its CEO put it plainly: "We focused too much on cost. The result was lower quality."
So as I launch my own product this month, the rule is simple. Email that reaches a human, and my number if it's urgent. A question needs an answer. A problem needs a person.
🎵 Caterina Valente — Samba de Uma Nota Só The village café, set to music. Full playlist and archive at niccjohnson.com/drop.