December 16, 2025 • 31 mins
What has been your overall customer service experience with various companies or organizations as of late? Do you feel like you’re stuck spending way too much time trying to resolve an issue that shouldn’t take as long as it does? Amas Tenumah, MBA, author of the new book, HOLD: The Suffering Economy of Customer Service joined us to discuss customer service failures, the real reasons behind long hold times, dead-end chatbots, disempowered agents, and why it's all designed NOT to solve your problems. Amas took listeners’ calls about customer service questions and stories!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's night side with Dan Ray. I'm WBS Boston's Meat Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
A couple of weeks ago, we had an interesting guest
during our eight o'clock hour, and I thought that it
would be important to have him join us for a
little bit of a longer conversation. He's an author. His
name is Amas Tanuma. He's written a book, Hold the
Suffering Economy of Customer Service, which is perfectly a perfect title,
(00:32):
and the Revolt That's long overdue. Amas. I am with
you on this. I have no idea what has happened
to customer service in America, but I know it's been bad.
It's been very bad. How are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
I'm doing great, Dan, thank you so much for having
me again. I've been looking forward to this conversation.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Well, i'll tell you it was funny. After our conversation,
I was recently at a I'm not going to mention
the name of the pharmacy, but a big pharmacy here
in New England. Everybody knows it by its three letters.
And I noticed that at the pharmacy. Now, when you
go up to be served whatever, you no longer just
(01:18):
tell the person behind the counter your name and birthdate.
You have to enter on a screen your name in,
birth date, and whatever other information they want, and then
there is no service person at the counter. All of
a sudden, the pharmacist who has been working filling prescriptions
(01:42):
behind a second counter has to walk down to interact
with you, as the customer who is there to pick
up your prescription. And it's the pharmacist who you would
like to think would be able to focus his or
her attention upon filling a prescription properly, meaning having the
(02:04):
right dosage, whether it's five megagrams or fifty megagrams, and
the number of pills that the doctor has ordered. But
now the pharmacist, at least on this day, was put
in the position the first come first comes the you know,
the human being, you know, customer service personnel. They disappear,
(02:28):
and these little computers are up there, these little laptop
computers that you have to somehow figure out how to use.
Whether I'm conversing with computers with laptops, so that's fine,
but a lot of people aren't. And then the poor
pharmacist is now doing double duty, not only actually doing
here's or her job as a pharmacist, but they also
(02:49):
now have to do their job as a customer service personnel.
When does it end of us?
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Listen, you're you're getting at one of the big themes
that I think people miss that back customer service is fact,
it's they are turning us into unpaid laborers of these
giant corporations. Like we are a bag in our own
groceres not made.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
We're also we're going I insist on going through the
service line so that I actually can interact with a
human being. And so if all of a sudden something
is miss is wrung up incorrectly. I'm also told I've
read some surveys which say that these stores that have
(03:39):
the self service kiosks, right, they're willing to lose a
lot of money and prose to pill for it.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Well, of course, because here's the map. The map says,
when you hire human beings at these counters, by law,
you've got to pay them, You've got to give them benefits,
You've got to do all that. But if there is
a let's call it a point five percent increase in theft, right,
if you imagine you are a multi billion dollar it
(04:10):
still pay pills in comparison to paying those workers. Because
guess who is working and not getting paid. You and me,
It sounds like Dan isn't one of the suckers who
is going to bag his own groceries and go through
the deal. But most of us are. We are unpaid
laborers at these places.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
You know what I do?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
You know what I do. I'm standing Obviously, you've got
to stand in line. Then it's sometimes you stand in
line to use the self service kiosks. But right, but
I'll stand in line and I'll take out my cell
phone and I'll return some text messages, I'll go through
my email. I will use that time while I'm standing
(04:52):
in line for my own personal benefit. And then when
I get up there, I bag my own groceries. Okay, yes,
I like to know that the heavy items go at
the bottom of the bag. And in an earlier my
first job, amas paid job as a fifteen year old
was I was a grocery store bagger, and I learned
(05:18):
how to be a bagger. And I want to keep
in shape because they might come and day when I'm
going to need to get another job after radio and television.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
And I don't think so, Dan.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So let's talk about your book. Hold, Yeah, and what
are you seeing? I just had to get the conversation going.
But I know you know more about this than I
do because you've made a study of it. What the
hell is going on with this country right now?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah, so listen. It took me three years to write
this book. The book starts in seventeen fifty BC, and.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
They have automatic Kiosk.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Then they did not.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
They did not.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
There was a guide and who was so angry at
the customer service he received. He carved four hundred and
ninety wards into Iraq and he complained about the service,
how long the quality? It read like an Amazon review
from twenty twenty five. This has been going on.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Is that a true story or you're pulling my lab.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
No, it's the first. It's literally how I start the book.
It's people can go look it up. There's a there's
a tablet almost two thousand years before Jesus Christ, right,
And so this has been going on. So I did
the research through the nineteenth century all the way, so
you don't have to because I wanted to know make
(06:46):
sure that when we're saying customer service used to be good,
it's not something we're making up. And what I've learned
is there was a golden age of customer service. And
there was a time when customer service was great, and
it was because, like in the seventeen fifty BC and
times before, this, customer service was all you had. There
(07:08):
was no marketing, there was no slick ads, there was
none of that. You created a good product and you
treated people well and people told other people about it.
And that's how commerce was all over the world and
in our country for many years until marketing came. And
the next thing that happened is we got into the
short termism, which is corporations and companies and even smaller
(07:32):
ones are trying to maximize profit and squeeze every dollar out.
And once they realized that, they decided the best way
to do it is, let's eliminate all the parts of
customer service that cost money. And most of those things
involved you and I talk into other human beings. And
(07:54):
so they leaned into the press one, press two on
the phone system. Then they leaned into the online, leaned
into apps. Now it's AI. It's the same, it's the
same trick. And their calculation, Dan is when you buy
something and you pay ten dollars for it, inside of
that ten dollars is the cost of service. So the
companies figure if I can spend as little as possible
(08:18):
service in you, I get to keep more for myself
and my shareholders. And that fundamentally I mean a as
you know, it's a hardcore cover book. There's five hundred pages,
but that's the thesis of it. And then I also
get into what can we do about it and how
we can resolve it. But at the end of the day,
you have already started the fight Dan, long before you
(08:39):
ran into me, which is it can't be just Dan
who is refusing to be an unpaid laborer for these companies.
It has to be all of us. And if it's
not a collective action, it's not going to change.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Well. I have done this issue here on Nightside many
times over the last few years. It just boggles my
mind idea that we have to spend our time waiting
on hold because it's impossible to talk to a human being.
And even when we used to know the tricks that
(09:11):
you press zero and that would shortcut you, they've eliminated
that trick, so now you can press zero one hundred
times and you'll still get the same Unfortunately, I don't
understand what you're looking for. Could you please tell me
into the phone of who you would like to Who
would you like to speak with? I want to speak
with a human being. As soon as you say the
(09:33):
word human being, why don't you try dealing with our
bot system here? Oh my god, Oh my god, and
you end up screaming into the wilderness. I feel like
that guy from seventeen fifty. He probably had no one
to complain to, which is why he wrote it in
a rock. It must have taken him days to do that.
(09:56):
All you could do is scream. And we're going to
open up phone lines. We're going to try, maybe tonight
to find out some of the companies that have provided
horrible customer service. And feel free to join the conversation
if you want to. You don't have to be like
specific and name the company, but I think we'll know
(10:19):
what you're talking about. For example, I used to really
love a company. It was a big what they called
the big box stores where the people have orange aprons.
If you know what I'm saying. I haven't identified the company.
And the first time that I ever went into one
of those stores many years ago, many years ago, in
(10:40):
the nineteen nineties, I was so impressed with the service
that you were given because there were people there who
would walk you down to the aisle to get what
you wanted. I went home and invested ten thousand dollars
of stock. I just said, look, this is a company.
And it tripled in about three months, and I took
(11:02):
my profits and I was happy. So my trip to
that particular store, now you know, basically I turned ten
thousand dollars into thirty thousand dollars in the stock market
in a relatively short period of time. And you can
probably go back and if you know the company, look
up in the nineteen nineties, his stock was growing. Well.
Now I don't go to that company anymore. Last time
(11:26):
I went to the company was I was trying to
return a five dollar item. This was a couple of
years ago. I saw how long the line was to
return an item of any type. You know what I
did as I took the five dollar item, I didn't
throw it on the floor. I walked out of the
building and I found someone who was working for that company,
(11:50):
who was collecting carts in the in the parking lot,
and I went over and I saw that he was
an employee of the company, and I gave him my
five dollars item and I gave him the receipt and
I said, this is my gift to you, and the
guy was appreciative. I said, when the line is shorter,
go get my money, and it's yours. I've never gone
(12:14):
back to that store since I now go to small,
family owned hardware stores. I pay a little bit more money,
but my blood pressure is much better.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Aborth it worth it?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Absolutely worth it. A let's take a quick break here.
I want some examples from you of the roads that
we are going down as a society. And if you're
listening to this program and you don't have a customer
service complaint, you're a fortunate human being. If you have
any sort of a customer service complaint, we'd love to
have you join the conversation. We need to start a
(12:48):
revolution in this country, and not a violent revolution, but
a revolution so that we stop going to the stores
that provide no customer service and basically go to the
stores that provide customer service. And I think that AMAS
would probably agree with me on that. We'll take a
break six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six
(13:10):
one seven, nine three one ten thirty feel free join
the conversation. Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
My guest is a Maas to Numa. First of all,
I assume your book is available through Amazon. Do you
have your own website as well or is it just
available through Amazon? I do.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
You can go to Waiting for Service dot com. You
can buy an autograph copy or an on autograph copy,
and you can almost obviously get an Amazon but go
to my site Waiting for Service dot com and you
can order it directly there and get a signed copy
if you want.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well, that's great, and I'd like to ask that question
because a lot of smart authors are now doing that.
Let's go to phone calls and see what people have
to say about the lack or the destruction of the
service industry in Massachusetts. It not only even even at stores.
I noticed today that. And by the way, here in Massachusetts,
(14:11):
I don't know what part of the country you're in,
the masque, but we have an outstanding supermarket chain which
has been in the news. It's called market Basket, and
people swear by it because there are no Kiosk self
paid piss. They have a lot of cashiers. You never
have to wait very long and the cashs are friendly.
(14:35):
It is one of the most successful supermarket chains in
the country.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I was at a supermarket today. I'm not going to
mention what it was. And there's a couple of the
cashiers there who I know really well. One is Corinne,
who is just delightful every time I chat with her.
But today I's with a different supermarket person. And while
she was waiting for me to pay and then to
(15:01):
retrieve my receipts from the register, she looked like she
was you know, She's just like tapping her hand back
and forth. It made me nervous watching her. It was like,
obviously the machine was not spitting out the receipt as
quickly as she wanted, but without any eye contact with me,
without any conversation, no, not so much as how are
(15:23):
you doing today or thank you? She's like tapping the
machine and I'm thinking, you're too young to be that anxious.
She looked like she was probably twenty two or twenty three.
Let's go to phone calls. Pete, my old friend in
South Carolina, Pete customer Service. That's an oxymoron. Hi Pete,
(15:44):
how are you.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
I'm fine, Dan, I'm very well This goes back to
last week. I had a customer service problem with a
monster company that's based out in Seattle, and somehow my
credit card number got.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Does that company deal with footwear?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
No, No, it's it's every kind of where what's the company? Amazon?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Amazon? Okay, all right, I think of that. Look you're fine. Okay,
So tell us the story, and by the way, say
hello to my guests the mass to Numas.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
This is Pete in South Carolina. Dan and I talk Assam.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
And good to me. I can't wait to hear this.
Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
My credit card wouldn't work. I was trying to buy
a book on Audible and I called up and I
banged on the zeros and I got the customer service
person and he said, well, I can't help you with that. Well,
somebody call you right back. And I'm waiting an hour,
and then I called again, and then finally I found
(17:00):
a guy. I don't think he was based in America,
but he spent two hours on the phone with me
to resolve the problem. So on one hand I had
a bad guy, and on another hand, I got a
guy that worked two hours with me. Dan, And the
problem was one one of my accounts had an email
(17:25):
and the other account had a phone number, and they
could not figure out how to take the phone number
and delete it and add all of the stuff that
was on the phone number account to the email account.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
I think they would call that merging two accounts.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
It was thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Doesn't sound surgery, No it didn't.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
But it was just it was two hours and I
was just getting frustrated, and I was hoping that you
would have a program before Christmas that I could call
in and goodnight. You hit the nail right off.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Do you feel better.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
Better that? I feel better that I know it went
out over thirty eight states, And yes, I do love that.
And you know I only call when it when it
concerns an item that I feel. You know, I don't
call in for local Boston stuff because I don't want
to take away from most people. But when it's like this.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I got Amass's book. He said that he has some
tips in there how to get to a customer service person,
and well.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
Then I will have to buy the book.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
Yeah, I wish you a merry Christmas to the both
of you. Merry Christmas, however you celebrate the moss, But Dan,
you and I were still going to talk baseball one
of these days.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Absolutely, well, we we've talked. We've talked talking the last
couple of nights, girls hockey and also the demolition of
the Boston Arena.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
I listened to that the other night with Dan O'Shaughnessy
and great piece.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
I read it in the over the internet, and you
guys got some great writers up there.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
I'll tell you yes.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
The Globe writers in the Globe a in the sports department,
trust me on that.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
I just out it. All right, anyway, that was that
was my story, and it just was very aggravating, and
it just it's not the way business should be done.
It really should. I hate sports students. Get a person
on the line and then feed me somewhere. Don't say
(19:59):
maybe we can do this, maybe we can do that.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Now I'm your page.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
I agree.
Speaker 7 (20:07):
Listen.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
I'm just going to say telling you they're going to
call you back is like saying we're going to waste
your time later instead of right now. I mean, they
could they could staff. They could have the staff ready
to resolve whatever your issue is, which in this case
sounds like merging two accounts. The real question is, you
know callbacks aren't helping you. It helps them show that.
(20:30):
Oh you know, if we ask them now, what was
your way time, they'll say the way time is short,
when in fact they made you wait two hours. But
they're not counting that time because you know you're off
the line. They can tell Wall Street out. Great they're doing.
But again, a callback still waste your time. What we
want is put someone there who has the authority and
(20:51):
the skills to resolve your issue right then and there,
because your time is valuable. And that's what this movement
is about, and we're going to worse these organizations to
treat us better.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Well, when I read your book, I'll call Dan back
and then maybe you can start pushing stuff down to
South Carolina.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Okay, all right, people talk to him. Thanks, my friend,
we'll talk to you.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
And again, I have a merry Christmas, my friend.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Thank you very much. Right back at you, by way.
I just went on your website here, and this is
a very reasonable cost. This is not an expensive book,
so and it's got great reviews, so I think that
I'll be buying a book too. Let me tell you
this is going to be great. We'll take a very
quick break here on night Side. We're talking with my guest.
(21:46):
His name is Amas to Numa. His book holds the
suffering economy of customer service and the revolt that's long overdue.
A man who thinks like I think. I like that.
We're coming back with more calls right after the break.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
All right, let's get back to the phones. What my
guest is Amas to Numa. We're talking about uh an
oxymoron customer service. Let me go next to John and brookline. John,
we got full line, So I'm going to move everybody
a little quickly. You go right ahead.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, that's how I'm always quick anyway. But I want
to give ll Bean the number one customer service award.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Good.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
They are so polite and they and they resolve any
issue one way or the other with a smile on
their face constantly.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Well, let me ask Amas, am Amas, you are you
familiar with the company LL Bean.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
I am very familiar with LLL Bean.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
You can with John's writing.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Yeah, they are better than most. I would not say
they're terrific, but they're better than most.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Okay, Well, I think John thinks they're terrific, but I.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Think they're fantastic.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Good.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
And one other things, Dan, that you know that you
gave the five dollars too. And in the West Roxbury store,
I think it was the one the fellow that retrieved
the carriages over there. He was a friend of mine,
knew him very well. He died two years ago. He
started at home depot the first day. You don't want
(23:36):
to know what he had in the bank when he
passed away.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
No, No, this was a guy who was at a
home depot. Is a home depot in Watertown. It wasn't dumb.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
This was the one in West Roxbury. He did the
carriages from day one up until about two years ago.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Okay, well that was a different guy then. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Nice, but that well being, in my opinion, you've always
resolved everything that I've ever asked to kudos.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
You know what maybe we we'll do is in the
next hour we'll talk about bad, the good, the bad
and the ugly simple as said, thanks, John, that's a
great idea.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Merry Christmas, Dan.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Merry Christmas to you, John. Talk soon. Let me go
next to Carl in Groveland, Massachusetts. Carli row the masque
to Numa.
Speaker 7 (24:19):
Yeah, Hey, Dan, I was on the phone with you
last week a couple of times the last couple of weeks. Yeah, yeah,
I got three or four really quick ones. Here s
one thing I've noticed is when you want to get
in to do business with the company, they have somebody
who speaks really good English and they know what you're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
That's a huge factory.
Speaker 7 (24:41):
Maybe a week later, if you have a complaint and
you call, you can't get somebody to speaks English and
they don't know.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
What you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
That's a problem. A lot of a lot of the
customer service reps are overseas as. I assume that does
can't help the company. They might save some money on that,
but they they occur a lot of aggravation.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
You are correct, sir, and that they be the best
service you're going to get is on the sales line.
They give you their very best and the cheaper service
you're going to get is on the service line. And
they don't outsource to these places because they want to
help these places. They do it because it's just cheaper labor.
So that I see that all of the time. So
(25:23):
you are you're a spot on. That's what needs to change.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
I don't want to interrupt, Carl, But just as a
follow up on Carl's point, oftentimes, when I get someone
who clearly as overseas and may have a trouble with
English as their first language, I will ask for an
onshore representative, and for a while that worked. But I
think now a lot of these companies say we can't
(25:46):
transfer you to an on shore representative. Is that a
new development that you're aware of.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
It is because a lot of people figure out to
figure out that hack, Dan, and then they blocked it.
That's what happened.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
They blocked it, Carl Gold, Go right ahead. Car didn't
mean to interrupt, Go ahead.
Speaker 7 (26:02):
Oh yeah, okay. The nice thing is can I mention
the name of a pharmacy?
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Sure?
Speaker 7 (26:09):
Yeah, CBS. Every time I get them on the phone,
I cannot get to talk with a live person.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
It is amazing.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
They're very tough. And first of all, you get put
on hold, and I've stood in line a lot of
times the phone is ringing in the pharmacy. They just
don't have enough people to be there. And if they
do pick it up and put you on hold, god
knows when they come back and talk to you. I
used to like CBS a lot, and I can't say
(26:43):
much that's positive at this point. Sorry, I mean the
prices on it's you know, again, I don't want to
trash a company per se, but that's kind of a
You've hit a nerve with me on that one, that's
for sure.
Speaker 7 (26:59):
Yeah. Yeah. On my medical I'm in with not Steward,
but read there medical now on hable and they have
two girls on two windows and you walk in, they
know right away it's just wonderful service. They know what
you're talking about. And the nice thing I want to
(27:22):
mention is AT and T. I was on the phone
with them for a weekend about a problem and I
I must have got transferred twenty times and I finally
get st up.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
It really is the amount of money that all those
companies spend with the you know, ted Dance and commercials,
and they just spending millions of dollars to try to
get you as a customer, and when you finally become
a customer, they treat you like you're a non entity.
It's a moss I assume you would agree with that.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Comment, correct, Because again they figured out that they can
just you know, use marketing to get new custom to me,
so I'll convince you to come back. Uh, and so
the best service you're going to get is when you're
making the purchase. Oh that's why I call up.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah, when I leave, I never come back. Carl, great
call as always.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Thank you, Fred.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
Just one more thing quirk I've been doing. I've been
doing a business with Super Roof for eight years and
they're wonderful on their service and they treat you real good.
They know what they know. I I just kudos.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
A good positive plug for super Thanks Carl. I got
to get one more in here before the break. Thank
you very much. Let me let me go to Alex. Alex,
you're next on night Side. I got a couple of
minutes for you. Got to go go ahead.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Hey Dan, Hey Cod, you mean I was gonna mention, uh,
the Big Buck store that's orange. I don't want to
mention their name. No, so uh lately they've become like
trying to get through to the White House. But in
the store there's sir. They're very hell so I don't
know what's going on with their phones. When I finally
(29:03):
get someone there there, I say, well, you know you're
not picking up the phone. They say, well, with other
people with customers. I say, yeah, but I'm a customer too.
I've spent like over ten thousand dollars there, you know,
and they say, well, I'm sorry, but they really could
care less.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
And I'm with you. I'm with you. I have not
had good experience with them in stores because a lot
of times I'll ask them, you know, where is this
and they look at you with that look of like
I had no idea what you're talking about. I had
someone in a pharmacy yesterday. I was looking for an
item and I could tell the way she responded it
(29:43):
was kind of very like, I don't know, I'm not
quite Maybe can you try Aisle three? I said, oh,
you're sure? Oh yeah, I'm sure. Guess what the product was?
In seven? You were close?
Speaker 5 (29:58):
I put it up.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, you want to put a plug in? Go ahead,
got to be quick though, Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Yeah. The pharmacy in Medfield, which is in Shaw's Shaws.
I switched over from CVS to Shaws.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Is that is that a change? That's Osco? Right?
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Well? Yeah, the pharmacy is a very personal I get
to right away and they have everything ready for me.
I don't have to go.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Okay, we got it. You got your plug in, but
I gotta go. Thanks Alex, thank you much. You have
a great night. Amas. Thank you. Let's do this again
after the first of the years. The book is Hold,
the Suffering Economy of Customer Service and the Revolt that's
long overdue, folks. I normally don't do this, but I
(30:41):
went to check out the book and it's on it.
It is on Amazon, and it's very relatively inexpensive A moss.
I don't know how you make it any money on
this book, but that's great. I hope some people get
a chance to read it, and if there's some tips
in it, all the better.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Thanks for having me, Dan, and we'll talk soon in
the new year.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I'd love to have you back. Thank you very much.
For those of you on the line, stay there. We
will continue talking about this. I want to talk about
customer service, the death of customer service. How can we
bring it back in Massachusetts. I've got some line six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten
thirty coming back on night Side
He's night side with Dan Ray. I'm WBS Boston's Meat Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
A couple of weeks ago, we had an interesting guest
during our eight o'clock hour, and I thought that it
would be important to have him join us for a
little bit of a longer conversation. He's an author. His
name is Amas Tanuma. He's written a book, Hold the
Suffering Economy of Customer Service, which is perfectly a perfect title,
(00:32):
and the Revolt That's long overdue. Amas. I am with
you on this. I have no idea what has happened
to customer service in America, but I know it's been bad.
It's been very bad. How are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
I'm doing great, Dan, thank you so much for having
me again. I've been looking forward to this conversation.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Well, i'll tell you it was funny. After our conversation,
I was recently at a I'm not going to mention
the name of the pharmacy, but a big pharmacy here
in New England. Everybody knows it by its three letters.
And I noticed that at the pharmacy. Now, when you
go up to be served whatever, you no longer just
(01:18):
tell the person behind the counter your name and birthdate.
You have to enter on a screen your name in,
birth date, and whatever other information they want, and then
there is no service person at the counter. All of
a sudden, the pharmacist who has been working filling prescriptions
(01:42):
behind a second counter has to walk down to interact
with you, as the customer who is there to pick
up your prescription. And it's the pharmacist who you would
like to think would be able to focus his or
her attention upon filling a prescription properly, meaning having the
(02:04):
right dosage, whether it's five megagrams or fifty megagrams, and
the number of pills that the doctor has ordered. But
now the pharmacist, at least on this day, was put
in the position the first come first comes the you know,
the human being, you know, customer service personnel. They disappear,
(02:28):
and these little computers are up there, these little laptop
computers that you have to somehow figure out how to use.
Whether I'm conversing with computers with laptops, so that's fine,
but a lot of people aren't. And then the poor
pharmacist is now doing double duty, not only actually doing
here's or her job as a pharmacist, but they also
(02:49):
now have to do their job as a customer service personnel.
When does it end of us?
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Listen, you're you're getting at one of the big themes
that I think people miss that back customer service is fact,
it's they are turning us into unpaid laborers of these
giant corporations. Like we are a bag in our own
groceres not made.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
We're also we're going I insist on going through the
service line so that I actually can interact with a
human being. And so if all of a sudden something
is miss is wrung up incorrectly. I'm also told I've
read some surveys which say that these stores that have
(03:39):
the self service kiosks, right, they're willing to lose a
lot of money and prose to pill for it.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Well, of course, because here's the map. The map says,
when you hire human beings at these counters, by law,
you've got to pay them, You've got to give them benefits,
You've got to do all that. But if there is
a let's call it a point five percent increase in theft, right,
if you imagine you are a multi billion dollar it
(04:10):
still pay pills in comparison to paying those workers. Because
guess who is working and not getting paid. You and me,
It sounds like Dan isn't one of the suckers who
is going to bag his own groceries and go through
the deal. But most of us are. We are unpaid
laborers at these places.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
You know what I do?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
You know what I do. I'm standing Obviously, you've got
to stand in line. Then it's sometimes you stand in
line to use the self service kiosks. But right, but
I'll stand in line and I'll take out my cell
phone and I'll return some text messages, I'll go through
my email. I will use that time while I'm standing
(04:52):
in line for my own personal benefit. And then when
I get up there, I bag my own groceries. Okay, yes,
I like to know that the heavy items go at
the bottom of the bag. And in an earlier my
first job, amas paid job as a fifteen year old
was I was a grocery store bagger, and I learned
(05:18):
how to be a bagger. And I want to keep
in shape because they might come and day when I'm
going to need to get another job after radio and television.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
And I don't think so, Dan.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So let's talk about your book. Hold, Yeah, and what
are you seeing? I just had to get the conversation going.
But I know you know more about this than I
do because you've made a study of it. What the
hell is going on with this country right now?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah, so listen. It took me three years to write
this book. The book starts in seventeen fifty BC, and.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
They have automatic Kiosk.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Then they did not.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
They did not.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
There was a guide and who was so angry at
the customer service he received. He carved four hundred and
ninety wards into Iraq and he complained about the service,
how long the quality? It read like an Amazon review
from twenty twenty five. This has been going on.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Is that a true story or you're pulling my lab.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
No, it's the first. It's literally how I start the book.
It's people can go look it up. There's a there's
a tablet almost two thousand years before Jesus Christ, right,
And so this has been going on. So I did
the research through the nineteenth century all the way, so
you don't have to because I wanted to know make
(06:46):
sure that when we're saying customer service used to be good,
it's not something we're making up. And what I've learned
is there was a golden age of customer service. And
there was a time when customer service was great, and
it was because, like in the seventeen fifty BC and
times before, this, customer service was all you had. There
(07:08):
was no marketing, there was no slick ads, there was
none of that. You created a good product and you
treated people well and people told other people about it.
And that's how commerce was all over the world and
in our country for many years until marketing came. And
the next thing that happened is we got into the
short termism, which is corporations and companies and even smaller
(07:32):
ones are trying to maximize profit and squeeze every dollar out.
And once they realized that, they decided the best way
to do it is, let's eliminate all the parts of
customer service that cost money. And most of those things
involved you and I talk into other human beings. And
(07:54):
so they leaned into the press one, press two on
the phone system. Then they leaned into the online, leaned
into apps. Now it's AI. It's the same, it's the
same trick. And their calculation, Dan is when you buy
something and you pay ten dollars for it, inside of
that ten dollars is the cost of service. So the
companies figure if I can spend as little as possible
(08:18):
service in you, I get to keep more for myself
and my shareholders. And that fundamentally I mean a as
you know, it's a hardcore cover book. There's five hundred pages,
but that's the thesis of it. And then I also
get into what can we do about it and how
we can resolve it. But at the end of the day,
you have already started the fight Dan, long before you
(08:39):
ran into me, which is it can't be just Dan
who is refusing to be an unpaid laborer for these companies.
It has to be all of us. And if it's
not a collective action, it's not going to change.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Well. I have done this issue here on Nightside many
times over the last few years. It just boggles my
mind idea that we have to spend our time waiting
on hold because it's impossible to talk to a human being.
And even when we used to know the tricks that
(09:11):
you press zero and that would shortcut you, they've eliminated
that trick, so now you can press zero one hundred
times and you'll still get the same Unfortunately, I don't
understand what you're looking for. Could you please tell me
into the phone of who you would like to Who
would you like to speak with? I want to speak
with a human being. As soon as you say the
(09:33):
word human being, why don't you try dealing with our
bot system here? Oh my god, Oh my god, and
you end up screaming into the wilderness. I feel like
that guy from seventeen fifty. He probably had no one
to complain to, which is why he wrote it in
a rock. It must have taken him days to do that.
(09:56):
All you could do is scream. And we're going to
open up phone lines. We're going to try, maybe tonight
to find out some of the companies that have provided
horrible customer service. And feel free to join the conversation
if you want to. You don't have to be like
specific and name the company, but I think we'll know
(10:19):
what you're talking about. For example, I used to really
love a company. It was a big what they called
the big box stores where the people have orange aprons.
If you know what I'm saying. I haven't identified the company.
And the first time that I ever went into one
of those stores many years ago, many years ago, in
(10:40):
the nineteen nineties, I was so impressed with the service
that you were given because there were people there who
would walk you down to the aisle to get what
you wanted. I went home and invested ten thousand dollars
of stock. I just said, look, this is a company.
And it tripled in about three months, and I took
(11:02):
my profits and I was happy. So my trip to
that particular store, now you know, basically I turned ten
thousand dollars into thirty thousand dollars in the stock market
in a relatively short period of time. And you can
probably go back and if you know the company, look
up in the nineteen nineties, his stock was growing. Well.
Now I don't go to that company anymore. Last time
(11:26):
I went to the company was I was trying to
return a five dollar item. This was a couple of
years ago. I saw how long the line was to
return an item of any type. You know what I
did as I took the five dollar item, I didn't
throw it on the floor. I walked out of the
building and I found someone who was working for that company,
(11:50):
who was collecting carts in the in the parking lot,
and I went over and I saw that he was
an employee of the company, and I gave him my
five dollars item and I gave him the receipt and
I said, this is my gift to you, and the
guy was appreciative. I said, when the line is shorter,
go get my money, and it's yours. I've never gone
(12:14):
back to that store since I now go to small,
family owned hardware stores. I pay a little bit more money,
but my blood pressure is much better.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Aborth it worth it?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Absolutely worth it. A let's take a quick break here.
I want some examples from you of the roads that
we are going down as a society. And if you're
listening to this program and you don't have a customer
service complaint, you're a fortunate human being. If you have
any sort of a customer service complaint, we'd love to
have you join the conversation. We need to start a
(12:48):
revolution in this country, and not a violent revolution, but
a revolution so that we stop going to the stores
that provide no customer service and basically go to the
stores that provide customer service. And I think that AMAS
would probably agree with me on that. We'll take a
break six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six
(13:10):
one seven, nine three one ten thirty feel free join
the conversation. Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
My guest is a Maas to Numa. First of all,
I assume your book is available through Amazon. Do you
have your own website as well or is it just
available through Amazon? I do.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
You can go to Waiting for Service dot com. You
can buy an autograph copy or an on autograph copy,
and you can almost obviously get an Amazon but go
to my site Waiting for Service dot com and you
can order it directly there and get a signed copy
if you want.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well, that's great, and I'd like to ask that question
because a lot of smart authors are now doing that.
Let's go to phone calls and see what people have
to say about the lack or the destruction of the
service industry in Massachusetts. It not only even even at stores.
I noticed today that. And by the way, here in Massachusetts,
(14:11):
I don't know what part of the country you're in,
the masque, but we have an outstanding supermarket chain which
has been in the news. It's called market Basket, and
people swear by it because there are no Kiosk self
paid piss. They have a lot of cashiers. You never
have to wait very long and the cashs are friendly.
(14:35):
It is one of the most successful supermarket chains in
the country.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I was at a supermarket today. I'm not going to
mention what it was. And there's a couple of the
cashiers there who I know really well. One is Corinne,
who is just delightful every time I chat with her.
But today I's with a different supermarket person. And while
she was waiting for me to pay and then to
(15:01):
retrieve my receipts from the register, she looked like she
was you know, She's just like tapping her hand back
and forth. It made me nervous watching her. It was like,
obviously the machine was not spitting out the receipt as
quickly as she wanted, but without any eye contact with me,
without any conversation, no, not so much as how are
(15:23):
you doing today or thank you? She's like tapping the
machine and I'm thinking, you're too young to be that anxious.
She looked like she was probably twenty two or twenty three.
Let's go to phone calls. Pete, my old friend in
South Carolina, Pete customer Service. That's an oxymoron. Hi Pete,
(15:44):
how are you.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
I'm fine, Dan, I'm very well This goes back to
last week. I had a customer service problem with a
monster company that's based out in Seattle, and somehow my
credit card number got.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Does that company deal with footwear?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
No, No, it's it's every kind of where what's the company? Amazon?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Amazon? Okay, all right, I think of that. Look you're fine. Okay,
So tell us the story, and by the way, say
hello to my guests the mass to Numas.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
This is Pete in South Carolina. Dan and I talk Assam.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
And good to me. I can't wait to hear this.
Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
My credit card wouldn't work. I was trying to buy
a book on Audible and I called up and I
banged on the zeros and I got the customer service
person and he said, well, I can't help you with that. Well,
somebody call you right back. And I'm waiting an hour,
and then I called again, and then finally I found
(17:00):
a guy. I don't think he was based in America,
but he spent two hours on the phone with me
to resolve the problem. So on one hand I had
a bad guy, and on another hand, I got a
guy that worked two hours with me. Dan, And the
problem was one one of my accounts had an email
(17:25):
and the other account had a phone number, and they
could not figure out how to take the phone number
and delete it and add all of the stuff that
was on the phone number account to the email account.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
I think they would call that merging two accounts.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
It was thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Doesn't sound surgery, No it didn't.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
But it was just it was two hours and I
was just getting frustrated, and I was hoping that you
would have a program before Christmas that I could call
in and goodnight. You hit the nail right off.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Do you feel better.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
Better that? I feel better that I know it went
out over thirty eight states, And yes, I do love that.
And you know I only call when it when it
concerns an item that I feel. You know, I don't
call in for local Boston stuff because I don't want
to take away from most people. But when it's like this.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I got Amass's book. He said that he has some
tips in there how to get to a customer service person,
and well.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
Then I will have to buy the book.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
Yeah, I wish you a merry Christmas to the both
of you. Merry Christmas, however you celebrate the moss, But Dan,
you and I were still going to talk baseball one
of these days.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Absolutely, well, we we've talked. We've talked talking the last
couple of nights, girls hockey and also the demolition of
the Boston Arena.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
I listened to that the other night with Dan O'Shaughnessy
and great piece.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
I read it in the over the internet, and you
guys got some great writers up there.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
I'll tell you yes.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
The Globe writers in the Globe a in the sports department,
trust me on that.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
I just out it. All right, anyway, that was that
was my story, and it just was very aggravating, and
it just it's not the way business should be done.
It really should. I hate sports students. Get a person
on the line and then feed me somewhere. Don't say
(19:59):
maybe we can do this, maybe we can do that.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Now I'm your page.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
I agree.
Speaker 7 (20:07):
Listen.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
I'm just going to say telling you they're going to
call you back is like saying we're going to waste
your time later instead of right now. I mean, they
could they could staff. They could have the staff ready
to resolve whatever your issue is, which in this case
sounds like merging two accounts. The real question is, you
know callbacks aren't helping you. It helps them show that.
(20:30):
Oh you know, if we ask them now, what was
your way time, they'll say the way time is short,
when in fact they made you wait two hours. But
they're not counting that time because you know you're off
the line. They can tell Wall Street out. Great they're doing.
But again, a callback still waste your time. What we
want is put someone there who has the authority and
(20:51):
the skills to resolve your issue right then and there,
because your time is valuable. And that's what this movement
is about, and we're going to worse these organizations to
treat us better.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Well, when I read your book, I'll call Dan back
and then maybe you can start pushing stuff down to
South Carolina.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Okay, all right, people talk to him. Thanks, my friend,
we'll talk to you.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
And again, I have a merry Christmas, my friend.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Thank you very much. Right back at you, by way.
I just went on your website here, and this is
a very reasonable cost. This is not an expensive book,
so and it's got great reviews, so I think that
I'll be buying a book too. Let me tell you
this is going to be great. We'll take a very
quick break here on night Side. We're talking with my guest.
(21:46):
His name is Amas to Numa. His book holds the
suffering economy of customer service and the revolt that's long overdue.
A man who thinks like I think. I like that.
We're coming back with more calls right after the break.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
All right, let's get back to the phones. What my
guest is Amas to Numa. We're talking about uh an
oxymoron customer service. Let me go next to John and brookline. John,
we got full line, So I'm going to move everybody
a little quickly. You go right ahead.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, that's how I'm always quick anyway. But I want
to give ll Bean the number one customer service award.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Good.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
They are so polite and they and they resolve any
issue one way or the other with a smile on
their face constantly.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Well, let me ask Amas, am Amas, you are you
familiar with the company LL Bean.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
I am very familiar with LLL Bean.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
You can with John's writing.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Yeah, they are better than most. I would not say
they're terrific, but they're better than most.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Okay, Well, I think John thinks they're terrific, but I.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Think they're fantastic.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Good.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
And one other things, Dan, that you know that you
gave the five dollars too. And in the West Roxbury store,
I think it was the one the fellow that retrieved
the carriages over there. He was a friend of mine,
knew him very well. He died two years ago. He
started at home depot the first day. You don't want
(23:36):
to know what he had in the bank when he
passed away.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
No, No, this was a guy who was at a
home depot. Is a home depot in Watertown. It wasn't dumb.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
This was the one in West Roxbury. He did the
carriages from day one up until about two years ago.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Okay, well that was a different guy then. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Nice, but that well being, in my opinion, you've always
resolved everything that I've ever asked to kudos.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
You know what maybe we we'll do is in the
next hour we'll talk about bad, the good, the bad
and the ugly simple as said, thanks, John, that's a
great idea.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Merry Christmas, Dan.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Merry Christmas to you, John. Talk soon. Let me go
next to Carl in Groveland, Massachusetts. Carli row the masque
to Numa.
Speaker 7 (24:19):
Yeah, Hey, Dan, I was on the phone with you
last week a couple of times the last couple of weeks. Yeah, yeah,
I got three or four really quick ones. Here s
one thing I've noticed is when you want to get
in to do business with the company, they have somebody
who speaks really good English and they know what you're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
That's a huge factory.
Speaker 7 (24:41):
Maybe a week later, if you have a complaint and
you call, you can't get somebody to speaks English and
they don't know.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
What you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
That's a problem. A lot of a lot of the
customer service reps are overseas as. I assume that does
can't help the company. They might save some money on that,
but they they occur a lot of aggravation.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
You are correct, sir, and that they be the best
service you're going to get is on the sales line.
They give you their very best and the cheaper service
you're going to get is on the service line. And
they don't outsource to these places because they want to
help these places. They do it because it's just cheaper labor.
So that I see that all of the time. So
(25:23):
you are you're a spot on. That's what needs to change.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
I don't want to interrupt, Carl, But just as a
follow up on Carl's point, oftentimes, when I get someone
who clearly as overseas and may have a trouble with
English as their first language, I will ask for an
onshore representative, and for a while that worked. But I
think now a lot of these companies say we can't
(25:46):
transfer you to an on shore representative. Is that a
new development that you're aware of.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
It is because a lot of people figure out to
figure out that hack, Dan, and then they blocked it.
That's what happened.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
They blocked it, Carl Gold, Go right ahead. Car didn't
mean to interrupt, Go ahead.
Speaker 7 (26:02):
Oh yeah, okay. The nice thing is can I mention
the name of a pharmacy?
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Sure?
Speaker 7 (26:09):
Yeah, CBS. Every time I get them on the phone,
I cannot get to talk with a live person.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
It is amazing.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
They're very tough. And first of all, you get put
on hold, and I've stood in line a lot of
times the phone is ringing in the pharmacy. They just
don't have enough people to be there. And if they
do pick it up and put you on hold, god
knows when they come back and talk to you. I
used to like CBS a lot, and I can't say
(26:43):
much that's positive at this point. Sorry, I mean the
prices on it's you know, again, I don't want to
trash a company per se, but that's kind of a
You've hit a nerve with me on that one, that's
for sure.
Speaker 7 (26:59):
Yeah. Yeah. On my medical I'm in with not Steward,
but read there medical now on hable and they have
two girls on two windows and you walk in, they
know right away it's just wonderful service. They know what
you're talking about. And the nice thing I want to
(27:22):
mention is AT and T. I was on the phone
with them for a weekend about a problem and I
I must have got transferred twenty times and I finally
get st up.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
It really is the amount of money that all those
companies spend with the you know, ted Dance and commercials,
and they just spending millions of dollars to try to
get you as a customer, and when you finally become
a customer, they treat you like you're a non entity.
It's a moss I assume you would agree with that.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Comment, correct, Because again they figured out that they can
just you know, use marketing to get new custom to me,
so I'll convince you to come back. Uh, and so
the best service you're going to get is when you're
making the purchase. Oh that's why I call up.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah, when I leave, I never come back. Carl, great
call as always.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Thank you, Fred.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
Just one more thing quirk I've been doing. I've been
doing a business with Super Roof for eight years and
they're wonderful on their service and they treat you real good.
They know what they know. I I just kudos.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
A good positive plug for super Thanks Carl. I got
to get one more in here before the break. Thank
you very much. Let me let me go to Alex. Alex,
you're next on night Side. I got a couple of
minutes for you. Got to go go ahead.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Hey Dan, Hey Cod, you mean I was gonna mention, uh,
the Big Buck store that's orange. I don't want to
mention their name. No, so uh lately they've become like
trying to get through to the White House. But in
the store there's sir. They're very hell so I don't
know what's going on with their phones. When I finally
(29:03):
get someone there there, I say, well, you know you're
not picking up the phone. They say, well, with other
people with customers. I say, yeah, but I'm a customer too.
I've spent like over ten thousand dollars there, you know,
and they say, well, I'm sorry, but they really could
care less.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
And I'm with you. I'm with you. I have not
had good experience with them in stores because a lot
of times I'll ask them, you know, where is this
and they look at you with that look of like
I had no idea what you're talking about. I had
someone in a pharmacy yesterday. I was looking for an
item and I could tell the way she responded it
(29:43):
was kind of very like, I don't know, I'm not
quite Maybe can you try Aisle three? I said, oh,
you're sure? Oh yeah, I'm sure. Guess what the product was?
In seven? You were close?
Speaker 5 (29:58):
I put it up.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, you want to put a plug in? Go ahead,
got to be quick though, Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Yeah. The pharmacy in Medfield, which is in Shaw's Shaws.
I switched over from CVS to Shaws.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Is that is that a change? That's Osco? Right?
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Well? Yeah, the pharmacy is a very personal I get
to right away and they have everything ready for me.
I don't have to go.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Okay, we got it. You got your plug in, but
I gotta go. Thanks Alex, thank you much. You have
a great night. Amas. Thank you. Let's do this again
after the first of the years. The book is Hold,
the Suffering Economy of Customer Service and the Revolt that's
long overdue, folks. I normally don't do this, but I
(30:41):
went to check out the book and it's on it.
It is on Amazon, and it's very relatively inexpensive A moss.
I don't know how you make it any money on
this book, but that's great. I hope some people get
a chance to read it, and if there's some tips
in it, all the better.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Thanks for having me, Dan, and we'll talk soon in
the new year.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I'd love to have you back. Thank you very much.
For those of you on the line, stay there. We
will continue talking about this. I want to talk about
customer service, the death of customer service. How can we
bring it back in Massachusetts. I've got some line six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten
thirty coming back on night Side
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