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As a (sometime) economist, if no one ever used the phone tree, companies would stop deploying them.
by sib 1y ago
As a (sometime) economist, if no one ever used the phone tree, companies would stop deploying them.
- toomuchtodo 1y agoPeople use the phone tree not because they want to, but because they have limited alternatives. Companies deploy them for line goes up ("how can we provide as little value as possible for as much profit as possible without the customer leaving"), not for the benefit of the customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=enshittification&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- sib 1y agoYes - and the point is, if everyone availed themselves of the alternative (e.g., escaping the phone tree), as previous post implied, then "line wouldn't go up" and companies would stop.
- burnte 1y agoActually what happens is companies just make it harder and harder to escape the phone tree.
- Spivak 1y agoYou haven't backwards, the user of the phone tree software is the company deploying it. It exists for their benefit, not the customer's.
- sib 1y agoThat would be the customer of the phone tree software... Of course it exists for their benefit. But, if all customers escaped from it, then it would be pointless and companies would stop - why spend money on something the doesn't reduce costs? So, since companies do, in fact, implement and retain phone trees, they are undoubtedly benefitting from doing so. And, to loop back to the start of this branch, if AI-driven "phone trees" do a better job than traditional ones (and there's no reason to suspect that they won't, over time), then fewer customers would opt out and it would be more beneficial to companies.