Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well, you see, if youcan find me somebody who works at a
customer service call center, please eightsix six to Elliott eight six six two
three five five four six eight.Is there a specific customer you want them
to serve? No, you knowwhat, like and it's weird in my
(00:22):
head, I'm trying to think ofNo. I mean, I guess there's
not, although I do know ultimatelyif somebody works for like a medical call
center, like for like scheduling numbI don't even know if it would be
for scheduling as much as it wouldjust be like, yeah, like somebody
(00:43):
calls your clinic. I don't meanlike for a hospital. Well maybe it
is, but somebody calls in thatlike this hurts or that hurts, right,
this payment or that payment or thisbill or that bill. So maybe
it is almost like a like Aand again I don't know if they're part
of one, but like like theA Nova centers, I don't know if
they have a call service or not. I have no clue. I had
(01:07):
to call and schedule dermatology appointments formy kids, and I felt so bad
for the guy because you know,he's just going off of a script.
Oh sure, but it's so strangeto schedule one appointment and get all these
reassurances from him that we're gonna haveour best physicians on your child's Okay,
(01:29):
don't don't promise me that. Don'tdon't do that. Just just make the
appointment. No, listen, I'mfine with that. It's when he has
to say the same exact sentence forthe second appointment. The second appointment,
I was like, Oh, justdon't say it. You know, you
just did. Yeah, I know. But they're just doing their job.
They probably can't advance to whatever thatnext line is, either on the computer
(01:52):
screen or I don't know, ifit's in front of them. Idea,
memorize it. Memorize it like youknow what's common. Don't even say it,
just a click. But it maythere may be like voice cognition.
I don't know how it works thesedays. You well, no, no,
no, no, no, nono, were you talking to a
human? Yes? How do youknow? How do you know? I
(02:13):
just how do you know? Idon't know for sure, I guess,
but I do believe I had.He made the same mistake twice in reading
back my email address to me,which which sounded weird. It almost sounded
like a recording because I was like, how are we going through this part
again? The mistake being made onceit was already made. But I get
(02:38):
what you're saying. I don't knowfor sure, so well, and that
gets me this whole thing. Likeyesterday we talked about the Consumer Electronics show,
right, and obviously one of thebig things that you'll hear about,
in addition to all the TVs,the indoor smokers, the toilet went man
dump and like it knows what todo, is artificial intelligence AI. So
(03:00):
they said, you know who's reallygotten into the AI world and listen,
you know me, I don't wantto take one job away from a human,
right. They said that customer servicehas really embraced AI and maybe doing
it better than most people now,people that are losing their jobs, people
who really enjoy customer service and theyexist. Yeah, they hate it obviously
(03:23):
because they're like, you can't replacethe human. But they said that AI,
especially in customer service call centers,have gotten so good that AI will
even include ums and stammering in conversationwith the customer. It's full of them.
Yes, so is it possible thatand and wait, let me,
(03:46):
let me give you one more part. Let me give you one more part.
A lot of it is being donein the medical field because people don't
want to think that they're medical issues, be it making an appointment, following
up on a bill, an insurancequestion, but it deals with medical is
being done by a robot. Sothey wanted to sound as real as possible,
(04:09):
so you could be talking to AIand they could go, oh,
I found it. So in thiscase it would be medical bill instead of
local bill. Was bill programmed tomake the same mistake twice, well,
not the same mistake twice, butstumble on reading back the phonetic alphabet for
(04:33):
it was was the R in myname going to the M in my name?
And it was there. It wasodd to me. I was like,
this guy's like, we just wentover this, yeah, but almost
phrased it exactly the same, likeskipped to thinking it was an N instead
of an M right after the R. So we were like ours in Romeo
(04:57):
MS and it went to N Mas in Nancy And then said, excuse
me, sorry about that. Nowthat you're saying this, that would actually
make so much more sense. Theysaid, the medical medical community is killing
it. Wow, And they saidfor a number of reasons. Number One,
(05:19):
people for the most part, peopledon't like call center jobs, like
they get burned out because people whocall are dicks. They can be so.
Number One, and normally when theycall they're upset about something, they're
angry about something, they've already beentransferred. I hit the button, it
didn't work, and so you getthere zero yeah, no, and you
(05:40):
get there and by the time youget there, you're like, oh,
Jesus Christ, just give me agoddamn human. You don't even get the
human, but you think you do. And so to weed through the guy
who's like, oh, it's abouttime, you're not even yelling at somebody,
right, So they think that numberone that works. Also the sheer
volume, they said. One customerservice person can answer a call, an
(06:04):
AI customer service person can answer hundredsof calls all at the same time.
And a lot of the questions,Yes, there are some very very specific
questions, and I'll get to thatin a second, but they were saying
that most of the questions are thesame thing, I can't find my bill,
what is your account like, orwhatever it is that they can do.
(06:25):
And then if AI can't help you, then they pass you on to
their manager. Right and when listen, we've all been there. You will
scream at, cuss at, talkdown, to belittle, argue with the
first person who answers that phone.But when they go, oh, I'm
(06:47):
going to give you my manager,all of a sudden you turn into an
angel. I feel important the yeah, well thank you. Now somebody obviously
you can help me. So iteliminates the getting yelled a part, and
so that when the person does geton the phone, you get an angel.
Wow. Now there are people whoare call service attendants or employees in
(07:11):
the medical field who hate this,and they go, we do this job
because we want to help people.We're not doing this job because you know,
like we want to listen to somebodybitch, but we want We're in
the business of helping people, andno, no robot can do that.
I bet a lot of them like, like take it as a great sense
of pride when they can disarm somebody, you know what I mean? Yeah,
(07:33):
I guess so. I mean alot of them feel like once they
get to the point, like somebodywill call and go, hey, what
does it mean? I mean,you know how people are I mean webmdet
gets searched millions of millions and millionsof times a day. People are also
calling and going, I got aboil in my neck. But like,
if they feel like they're helping them, then they're helping them. And they're
(07:55):
like, you know, you gethypochondriacs, you get all kinds. I
am dying to call back thermatologist.I have to know if that was fake.
And by the way, they saidthat the people hate talking to a
customer service agent. The only peoplethat hate that interaction more for the most
(08:16):
part, are customer service agents becausethey got to listen to people yell at
them. Yeah, how about that? And they said they said medical is
killing it. And by the way, it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
medical facilities in hospital like groups.They even kept me on hold. It
(08:39):
was all part of the charine.Oh you're one hundred. If you called
a customer service line and somebody answeredlike that, you would think something's wrong.
You got to hold, even ifit's brief. Then give me the
robot. And when the robot getson, let them stumble stumble a little
bit him sorry a nova. Andis that the importance of going over pertinent
(09:03):
information with the phonetic alphabet, becausenot every customer service line does that.
It could be could be. Tobe honest, I thought the guy had
military experience. I was gonna thankhim for his service, and it was
a robot TEA is in Tyler,Hy is in Yes, l is in
(09:24):
Larry. I don't know. No. He was like, I don't know
what the phonetic alphabet. I knowRomeo was are what is what is n
alpha? I thought it was Nancyis n Nancy? No, Diane,
That's who was on the phone.That's what the robot called me. This
says it's Neptune November. Oh youknow what. That's the updated And it
(09:48):
was like and in November. I'msorry about that. M as in Mike
And I was like, yeah,dude, it was the same as the
last email I gave it, Butcould I appreciate all the tours of duty?
Hi Elliott in the morning. Hello, Hello Elliott? Yeah, Hi,
who's this all right? This isSean came on from New Jersey.
(10:11):
Hey Sean, what's going on?Dude? I'm a customer service manager.
Oh god, yeah, I'm actuallyhere right now calling you from my desk.
We're looking into implementing AI, butwe haven't yet, but it is
on you. We're actually shopping forit right now. My company deals with
(10:33):
high end coffee machines, so wedo troubleshooting, tech support, we take
orders, we set up repairs,so on and so forth. When you
say high end coffee machines, doyou mean like corporate or residential? Residential?
Oh god, I am sorry,I am sorry minus espresso yet.
Oh I can hear it. Ican hear it? Oh my god,
(11:00):
Yeah, it's it's you can imaginethe type of call we get. And
so as we speak, I gotwe have ten calls in Q and I
have a let me conference me andgive me give me some out of control
yenta from like Upper Saddle River.You're right out, We're right, we're
right by the we're in mopped out. Oh wait, did I lose you?
(11:24):
Sure? Are you there? Areyou there? No? Oh them
here? Yeah? I got you? But you're But but your company is
looking into uh into AI for thatreason, right, most of it can
probably get solved by by without reallyneeding a person who could just kind of
go through it. Correct. That'sthat's what we're we're looking to implement it
(11:46):
for you know, if they wantto call, they want their tracking number,
they want to check their order status. So right now we don't have
that, so you can imagine thetype of call volume we get. So
we're well, but we get aboutany from four thousand to five thousand calls
per week with again with a crewof fourteen. And even worse is our
(12:07):
phone system, which unfortunately we're inthe contract for for another four years.
After fifteen minutes, if they thought, well, if they're on hold after
fifteen minutes, it forces them intovoice them. So voice we get.
Yeah, I've been on hold andI got put in voice you son of
a bitch. That's exactly the typeof calls we get. That's that's that's
(12:35):
that's part of the course here.Hey, is it hard? Is it
hard to hold on? I knowyou said you're a crew of fourteen.
Is it hard to hold on toall fourteen employees at all times? Be
honest with you. Since I've beena manager, it has not, it
has not. Yeah, I've beenin this pose. I've been. I
was working here, I was asupervisor, so I was also on the
floor prior to this. But I'vebeen a manager since the summer. So
(12:58):
I'm no longer, you know,on the floor. I just keep an
eye on you know, I'm sendingyou office next over. I have huge
windows, so I keep an eyeon my crew there, and I keep
an eye in a queue. Butbut no, since I've been in there
has not been any turnover. Soyou know what I love? Fourteen people
right now are being told to ftheir mother and how stupid they are.
(13:18):
And el hefe looking through the window. Uh, he's talking to a radio
station. I think that's exactly what'shappening right now. Hey, is there
a I don't know if I don'tknow if you want to or you should.
I'm dying to know what the whatis the high end coffee thing?
(13:39):
I don't want to say the nameof the company. That's fine, just
because but yeah, well we're upthere with with with the with the big
ones. So just put it thisway, h the price of the machines
could range anywhere from a thousand upto eight thousand dollars. Eight thousand dollars,
eight dollars. You better come overand chew the grinds with your teeth
(14:03):
and then do that. That's crazy, dude, heyst let me let me
do this well, yeah, Diane, that's where that's where I work,
or it's in the back of thecar that I get limoed in on.
Hey, hold tight one second,let me get your let me get a
number from you in case I needa call center manager. I like you
hold on one second, please,you got it, Eli, Thank you.
(14:26):
Hey, if you're on for holdfor more than fifteen minutes, you'll
go to voicemail. Hold on onesecond. Thanks to Kristin the I love
it Kristin real because like a cappuccinomaker, I'm steaming because she's been doing
some research for me over there,Chris. I didn't ask for it.
She's just doing it on her own. And you asked Kristen in a message
(14:50):
to me, you said there's noway a small office can afford because she
was getting some into afford a systemlike this, right unless it's an network,
a large network, right right,Sure is one hundred and sixty offices
nationwide large. I was talking toa computer. Probably, I will sit
(15:18):
through the fifteen minute hold today whenwe're done, just to I remember when
Diane had to talk to chat GBTand her first question was, how's it
hanging. I am going to upfront, right, I'm going to confront the
almost an employee, confront the voiceright with you don't think that's one word
(15:43):
with a question mark after it.They'll go, sir, that's that's oh
no, robot. Yeah that's whatI thought too. Yeah, I thought
you're really going to try to likethrow them for a loop. The no.
By the way, I bet theAI is trained to go no,
how can I help you? Ormaybe not even say no, just say
sir, how can I help you? Oh my god. It even stumbled
(16:07):
that's you had read their program todo that. No, it says in
there that it is programmed to insertarms and ANNs and stammer so that people
think it's real because it's medical.People don't want to think that in medical
they're talking to a robot. Oh, I explained so much. Because also
for the confirmations em is amancy,both appointments had the same name. And
(16:33):
I said to Lindsay, I said, I get that this guy is a
veteran and something may have happened onthe battlefield. But I spent enough time
explaining I had two children. Whyis it the same name for both slots?
Yeah, well, there you go. Robots say is robot do line
(16:56):
one? Hi, Elliot in themorning. But this may be the first
time that I don't want to saythat. I may be four AI,
but I get it. Like mostof the time, it's just and I
mean, listen, this is amoney saver, it's a time saver.
I get all of that. Butthis actually allows the people that want to
(17:17):
do the job. They can't keepemployees. I mean that guy obviously is
keeping his fourteen. But if yougo to these call centers, they said,
the average life expectancy at work,not their entire life, right is
eighteen months. And if ten peoplequit at the end of eighteen months,
only seven come in. Like theirretention is low, and getting people to
do it is low. So it'sa it's a it's I mean, it's
(17:38):
cannibalizing itself. But you know betterthan anyone else. You install artificial intelligence
here and it works there. Thenthey start trying, Oh, absolutely,
absolutely a slippery slope. We're allready. No, we're slipping, We're
sliding. I hate it. Hi. Who's this Hi with me? Yeah,
yes it is? How are youI I'm fellows, how are you
(18:02):
guys doing? Class? Good?Good? Good? What can I do
for you. So I've actually workedin two separate call centers. I've worked
in a technological call center for theparent company of one of those satellite dishes
a long time ago, and I'vealso worked in the medical field call centers,
which one was worse the technology thetech field. So was that just
(18:26):
because my god damn satellites not working? Absolutely right, I've both with these
football games and it's not working.Well, sir, you live in Denver
and it's knowing to see the snowright now, you're not going to get
any service the Yeah, well that'strue. You know who got service?
I do on my IP TV boxthe but now, But in medical you
(18:47):
have people that are genuinely concerned andsometimes sometimes they're emotional because it's their medicine.
It's medical. Yeah, I mean, that's that's that was difficult in
a lot of ways. I thinkon some ways I would agree with AI
for certain people, because you geta lot of elderly folks, for instance,
if it's like a Medicare plan,which is one of the things I
worked with. So some people aren'tgood at slowing down their speech, and
(19:11):
if you're an AI, you couldprobably adjust to be able to speak at
a louder tone or slower pace,if that's what they need. But the
emotional factor. Sometimes you get peoplewho are calling because they don't actually have
power of attorney that they know they'retrying to help their parent who has dementia
and just being able to work throughthose kinds of things. I don't personally
know that an AI would be ableto do that and be able to have
(19:33):
that emotional empathetic nature that you needto have for those kinds of situations.
Now let me speak on let mespeak just for Elliott Siegel. You're better
off having AI because if I gotto start repeating myself because Grahams can't hear
me, or I'm talking to factI know you're writing, or God forbid,
(19:53):
he's trying to type, Like Icould see where that would take a
long time power attorney. And Idon't care about Hippa. You know that
AI would be better than me,because I was just thinking of like Diane
called and like she can't find hertracking number, Kristen called. I didn't
think of Grandma and Grandpa calling whothey can't hear anyway. Oh, I
(20:15):
would be bad. I would bebad. But what I said, I
think a. I would help ina lot of the situations because they can,
you know, obviously, take therepetitiveness or the yelling or the crying
because the individual on the phone doesn'tunderstand. And Buttercup, you gotta hey,
let's man up a little bit here. You got him with the crying.
(20:40):
Easier for me to understand you ifyou ain't boohoo and let's go,
oh my god so much. Iappreciate, thank you, ma'am, thank
you. Oh and then the dementiapart would be rough. But I'm angry
and I on them on the phonewith them one are the FCS see rules
(21:00):
with telling a robot that they're onthe air? Do you have to let
them know ahead of time? Theyeah, you know what, that's a
good question. That's a good question. I'd say we give it a shot
live on this broadcast. I'll doit right now. The only problem would
be if it's not AI and Ihave to apologize for for questioning my guys.
(21:26):
Has stolen Valor Hi Elliott in themorning. Hello, Hi, Yeah,
Hi, who's this? Uh?Sway a long time listener friends,
first time caller? Hey, thankyou sir? What can I do for
you? Sway? So I wasa recruiter for a call center and I'm
(21:47):
pretty much bit by AI bug rightnow. And basically, you can train
an AI with all those recordings thatthey've had previously to make it sound more
natural because they've already been through allthe problems everybody through, right, And
you're right, the turnover rate inthe call centers are just dumb because they
told me to recruit between fifteen andtwenty a month because they expect it's five
(22:08):
to stay, five to stay.Yeah, And of course I get you
a problem like that. You couldbuild steps to get to the actual human
that already has gone through all this, and it's probably in with the programming
of the AI of the call centerpersons or robots, right, And I
will say this and the thing thatI was reading about where like especially in
(22:30):
the medical field, they were like, so, what's what's like so once
once word gets out that you're talkingto AI, and that's fine, it
will, but what's to and whenthey pass you off to a manager,
what's to prevent me from thinking thatthe manager isn't also a robot? And
they were like, because and andby the way, you may not be
able to convince some people right.You may not, you may not be
(22:52):
able to. But what they weresaying, thank you sir. What they
were saying is is that that personhopefully will be so helpful that it won't
matter. And you do you youfeel like a million bucks. Listen,
I would, whether it's the cablecompany, your internet goes down, my
dish isn't working, and it's snowing, and I just want to watch my
baseball games, whatever it is.The second you hear I'll put you through
(23:15):
to a manager. All of asudden, you become a Rhodes scholar man
because you know now you're talking,you're talking to management. I just feel
like a schmuck, to be honest, I love that. I'm just patting
myself on the back, like,look at me. I scheduled something for
(23:37):
our children, right, and Idid it with a vet support the troops
Well, you see, if youcan find me somebody who works at a
customer service call center, please eightsix six to Elliott eight six six two
three five five four six eight.Is there a specific customer you want them
to serve? No, you knowwhat, like and it's weird in my
(00:22):
head, I'm trying to think ofNo. I mean, I guess there's
not, although I do know ultimatelyif somebody works for like a medical call
center, like for like scheduling numbI don't even know if it would be
for scheduling as much as it wouldjust be like, yeah, like somebody
(00:43):
calls your clinic. I don't meanlike for a hospital. Well maybe it
is, but somebody calls in thatlike this hurts or that hurts, right,
this payment or that payment or thisbill or that bill. So maybe
it is almost like a like Aand again I don't know if they're part
of one, but like like theA Nova centers, I don't know if
they have a call service or not. I have no clue. I had
(01:07):
to call and schedule dermatology appointments formy kids, and I felt so bad
for the guy because you know,he's just going off of a script.
Oh sure, but it's so strangeto schedule one appointment and get all these
reassurances from him that we're gonna haveour best physicians on your child's Okay,
(01:29):
don't don't promise me that. Don'tdon't do that. Just just make the
appointment. No, listen, I'mfine with that. It's when he has
to say the same exact sentence forthe second appointment. The second appointment,
I was like, Oh, justdon't say it. You know, you
just did. Yeah, I know. But they're just doing their job.
They probably can't advance to whatever thatnext line is, either on the computer
(01:52):
screen or I don't know, ifit's in front of them. Idea,
memorize it. Memorize it like youknow what's common. Don't even say it,
just a click. But it maythere may be like voice cognition.
I don't know how it works thesedays. You well, no, no,
no, no, no, nono, were you talking to a
human? Yes? How do youknow? How do you know? I
(02:13):
just how do you know? Idon't know for sure, I guess,
but I do believe I had.He made the same mistake twice in reading
back my email address to me,which which sounded weird. It almost sounded
like a recording because I was like, how are we going through this part
again? The mistake being made onceit was already made. But I get
(02:38):
what you're saying. I don't knowfor sure, so well, and that
gets me this whole thing. Likeyesterday we talked about the Consumer Electronics show,
right, and obviously one of thebig things that you'll hear about,
in addition to all the TVs,the indoor smokers, the toilet went man
dump and like it knows what todo, is artificial intelligence AI. So
(03:00):
they said, you know who's reallygotten into the AI world and listen,
you know me, I don't wantto take one job away from a human,
right. They said that customer servicehas really embraced AI and maybe doing
it better than most people now,people that are losing their jobs, people
who really enjoy customer service and theyexist. Yeah, they hate it obviously
(03:23):
because they're like, you can't replacethe human. But they said that AI,
especially in customer service call centers,have gotten so good that AI will
even include ums and stammering in conversationwith the customer. It's full of them.
Yes, so is it possible thatand and wait, let me,
(03:46):
let me give you one more part. Let me give you one more part.
A lot of it is being donein the medical field because people don't
want to think that they're medical issues, be it making an appointment, following
up on a bill, an insurancequestion, but it deals with medical is
being done by a robot. Sothey wanted to sound as real as possible,
(04:09):
so you could be talking to AIand they could go, oh,
I found it. So in thiscase it would be medical bill instead of
local bill. Was bill programmed tomake the same mistake twice, well,
not the same mistake twice, butstumble on reading back the phonetic alphabet for
(04:33):
it was was the R in myname going to the M in my name?
And it was there. It wasodd to me. I was like,
this guy's like, we just wentover this, yeah, but almost
phrased it exactly the same, likeskipped to thinking it was an N instead
of an M right after the R. So we were like ours in Romeo
(04:57):
MS and it went to N Mas in Nancy And then said, excuse
me, sorry about that. Nowthat you're saying this, that would actually
make so much more sense. Theysaid, the medical medical community is killing
it. Wow, And they saidfor a number of reasons. Number One,
(05:19):
people for the most part, peopledon't like call center jobs, like
they get burned out because people whocall are dicks. They can be so.
Number One, and normally when theycall they're upset about something, they're
angry about something, they've already beentransferred. I hit the button, it
didn't work, and so you getthere zero yeah, no, and you
(05:40):
get there and by the time youget there, you're like, oh,
Jesus Christ, just give me agoddamn human. You don't even get the
human, but you think you do. And so to weed through the guy
who's like, oh, it's abouttime, you're not even yelling at somebody,
right, So they think that numberone that works. Also the sheer
volume, they said. One customerservice person can answer a call, an
(06:04):
AI customer service person can answer hundredsof calls all at the same time.
And a lot of the questions,Yes, there are some very very specific
questions, and I'll get to thatin a second, but they were saying
that most of the questions are thesame thing, I can't find my bill,
what is your account like, orwhatever it is that they can do.
(06:25):
And then if AI can't help you, then they pass you on to
their manager. Right and when listen, we've all been there. You will
scream at, cuss at, talkdown, to belittle, argue with the
first person who answers that phone.But when they go, oh, I'm
(06:47):
going to give you my manager,all of a sudden you turn into an
angel. I feel important the yeah, well thank you. Now somebody obviously
you can help me. So iteliminates the getting yelled a part, and
so that when the person does geton the phone, you get an angel.
Wow. Now there are people whoare call service attendants or employees in
(07:11):
the medical field who hate this,and they go, we do this job
because we want to help people.We're not doing this job because you know,
like we want to listen to somebodybitch, but we want We're in
the business of helping people, andno, no robot can do that.
I bet a lot of them like, like take it as a great sense
of pride when they can disarm somebody, you know what I mean? Yeah,
(07:33):
I guess so. I mean alot of them feel like once they
get to the point, like somebodywill call and go, hey, what
does it mean? I mean,you know how people are I mean webmdet
gets searched millions of millions and millionsof times a day. People are also
calling and going, I got aboil in my neck. But like,
if they feel like they're helping them, then they're helping them. And they're
(07:55):
like, you know, you gethypochondriacs, you get all kinds. I
am dying to call back thermatologist.I have to know if that was fake.
And by the way, they saidthat the people hate talking to a
customer service agent. The only peoplethat hate that interaction more for the most
(08:16):
part, are customer service agents becausethey got to listen to people yell at
them. Yeah, how about that? And they said they said medical is
killing it. And by the way, it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
medical facilities in hospital like groups.They even kept me on hold. It
(08:39):
was all part of the charine.Oh you're one hundred. If you called
a customer service line and somebody answeredlike that, you would think something's wrong.
You got to hold, even ifit's brief. Then give me the
robot. And when the robot getson, let them stumble stumble a little
bit him sorry a nova. Andis that the importance of going over pertinent
(09:03):
information with the phonetic alphabet, becausenot every customer service line does that.
It could be could be. Tobe honest, I thought the guy had
military experience. I was gonna thankhim for his service, and it was
a robot TEA is in Tyler,Hy is in Yes, l is in
(09:24):
Larry. I don't know. No. He was like, I don't know
what the phonetic alphabet. I knowRomeo was are what is what is n
alpha? I thought it was Nancyis n Nancy? No, Diane,
That's who was on the phone.That's what the robot called me. This
says it's Neptune November. Oh youknow what. That's the updated And it
(09:48):
was like and in November. I'msorry about that. M as in Mike
And I was like, yeah,dude, it was the same as the
last email I gave it, Butcould I appreciate all the tours of duty?
Hi Elliott in the morning. Hello, Hello Elliott? Yeah, Hi,
who's this all right? This isSean came on from New Jersey.
(10:11):
Hey Sean, what's going on?Dude? I'm a customer service manager.
Oh god, yeah, I'm actuallyhere right now calling you from my desk.
We're looking into implementing AI, butwe haven't yet, but it is
on you. We're actually shopping forit right now. My company deals with
(10:33):
high end coffee machines, so wedo troubleshooting, tech support, we take
orders, we set up repairs,so on and so forth. When you
say high end coffee machines, doyou mean like corporate or residential? Residential?
Oh god, I am sorry,I am sorry minus espresso yet.
Oh I can hear it. Ican hear it? Oh my god,
(11:00):
Yeah, it's it's you can imaginethe type of call we get. And
so as we speak, I gotwe have ten calls in Q and I
have a let me conference me andgive me give me some out of control
yenta from like Upper Saddle River.You're right out, We're right, we're
right by the we're in mopped out. Oh wait, did I lose you?
(11:24):
Sure? Are you there? Areyou there? No? Oh them
here? Yeah? I got you? But you're But but your company is
looking into uh into AI for thatreason, right, most of it can
probably get solved by by without reallyneeding a person who could just kind of
go through it. Correct. That'sthat's what we're we're looking to implement it
(11:46):
for you know, if they wantto call, they want their tracking number,
they want to check their order status. So right now we don't have
that, so you can imagine thetype of call volume we get. So
we're well, but we get aboutany from four thousand to five thousand calls
per week with again with a crewof fourteen. And even worse is our
(12:07):
phone system, which unfortunately we're inthe contract for for another four years.
After fifteen minutes, if they thought, well, if they're on hold after
fifteen minutes, it forces them intovoice them. So voice we get.
Yeah, I've been on hold andI got put in voice you son of
a bitch. That's exactly the typeof calls we get. That's that's that's
(12:35):
that's part of the course here.Hey, is it hard? Is it
hard to hold on? I knowyou said you're a crew of fourteen.
Is it hard to hold on toall fourteen employees at all times? Be
honest with you. Since I've beena manager, it has not, it
has not. Yeah, I've beenin this pose. I've been. I
was working here, I was asupervisor, so I was also on the
floor prior to this. But I'vebeen a manager since the summer. So
(12:58):
I'm no longer, you know,on the floor. I just keep an
eye on you know, I'm sendingyou office next over. I have huge
windows, so I keep an eyeon my crew there, and I keep
an eye in a queue. Butbut no, since I've been in there
has not been any turnover. Soyou know what I love? Fourteen people
right now are being told to ftheir mother and how stupid they are.
(13:18):
And el hefe looking through the window. Uh, he's talking to a radio
station. I think that's exactly what'shappening right now. Hey, is there
a I don't know if I don'tknow if you want to or you should.
I'm dying to know what the whatis the high end coffee thing?
(13:39):
I don't want to say the nameof the company. That's fine, just
because but yeah, well we're upthere with with with the with the big
ones. So just put it thisway, h the price of the machines
could range anywhere from a thousand upto eight thousand dollars. Eight thousand dollars,
eight dollars. You better come overand chew the grinds with your teeth
(14:03):
and then do that. That's crazy, dude, heyst let me let me
do this well, yeah, Diane, that's where that's where I work,
or it's in the back of thecar that I get limoed in on.
Hey, hold tight one second,let me get your let me get a
number from you in case I needa call center manager. I like you
hold on one second, please,you got it, Eli, Thank you.
(14:26):
Hey, if you're on for holdfor more than fifteen minutes, you'll
go to voicemail. Hold on onesecond. Thanks to Kristin the I love
it Kristin real because like a cappuccinomaker, I'm steaming because she's been doing
some research for me over there,Chris. I didn't ask for it.
She's just doing it on her own. And you asked Kristen in a message
(14:50):
to me, you said there's noway a small office can afford because she
was getting some into afford a systemlike this, right unless it's an network,
a large network, right right,Sure is one hundred and sixty offices
nationwide large. I was talking toa computer. Probably, I will sit
(15:18):
through the fifteen minute hold today whenwe're done, just to I remember when
Diane had to talk to chat GBTand her first question was, how's it
hanging. I am going to upfront, right, I'm going to confront the
almost an employee, confront the voiceright with you don't think that's one word
(15:43):
with a question mark after it.They'll go, sir, that's that's oh
no, robot. Yeah that's whatI thought too. Yeah, I thought
you're really going to try to likethrow them for a loop. The no.
By the way, I bet theAI is trained to go no,
how can I help you? Ormaybe not even say no, just say
sir, how can I help you? Oh my god. It even stumbled
(16:07):
that's you had read their program todo that. No, it says in
there that it is programmed to insertarms and ANNs and stammer so that people
think it's real because it's medical.People don't want to think that in medical
they're talking to a robot. Oh, I explained so much. Because also
for the confirmations em is amancy,both appointments had the same name. And
(16:33):
I said to Lindsay, I said, I get that this guy is a
veteran and something may have happened onthe battlefield. But I spent enough time
explaining I had two children. Whyis it the same name for both slots?
Yeah, well, there you go. Robots say is robot do line
(16:56):
one? Hi, Elliot in themorning. But this may be the first
time that I don't want to saythat. I may be four AI,
but I get it. Like mostof the time, it's just and I
mean, listen, this is amoney saver, it's a time saver.
I get all of that. Butthis actually allows the people that want to
(17:17):
do the job. They can't keepemployees. I mean that guy obviously is
keeping his fourteen. But if yougo to these call centers, they said,
the average life expectancy at work,not their entire life, right is
eighteen months. And if ten peoplequit at the end of eighteen months,
only seven come in. Like theirretention is low, and getting people to
do it is low. So it'sa it's a it's I mean, it's
(17:38):
cannibalizing itself. But you know betterthan anyone else. You install artificial intelligence
here and it works there. Thenthey start trying, Oh, absolutely,
absolutely a slippery slope. We're allready. No, we're slipping, We're
sliding. I hate it. Hi. Who's this Hi with me? Yeah,
yes it is? How are youI I'm fellows, how are you
(18:02):
guys doing? Class? Good?Good? Good? What can I do
for you. So I've actually workedin two separate call centers. I've worked
in a technological call center for theparent company of one of those satellite dishes
a long time ago, and I'vealso worked in the medical field call centers,
which one was worse the technology thetech field. So was that just
(18:26):
because my god damn satellites not working? Absolutely right, I've both with these
football games and it's not working.Well, sir, you live in Denver
and it's knowing to see the snowright now, you're not going to get
any service the Yeah, well that'strue. You know who got service?
I do on my IP TV boxthe but now, But in medical you
(18:47):
have people that are genuinely concerned andsometimes sometimes they're emotional because it's their medicine.
It's medical. Yeah, I mean, that's that's that was difficult in
a lot of ways. I thinkon some ways I would agree with AI
for certain people, because you geta lot of elderly folks, for instance,
if it's like a Medicare plan,which is one of the things I
worked with. So some people aren'tgood at slowing down their speech, and
(19:11):
if you're an AI, you couldprobably adjust to be able to speak at
a louder tone or slower pace,if that's what they need. But the
emotional factor. Sometimes you get peoplewho are calling because they don't actually have
power of attorney that they know they'retrying to help their parent who has dementia
and just being able to work throughthose kinds of things. I don't personally
know that an AI would be ableto do that and be able to have
(19:33):
that emotional empathetic nature that you needto have for those kinds of situations.
Now let me speak on let mespeak just for Elliott Siegel. You're better
off having AI because if I gotto start repeating myself because Grahams can't hear
me, or I'm talking to factI know you're writing, or God forbid,
(19:53):
he's trying to type, Like Icould see where that would take a
long time power attorney. And Idon't care about Hippa. You know that
AI would be better than me,because I was just thinking of like Diane
called and like she can't find hertracking number, Kristen called. I didn't
think of Grandma and Grandpa calling whothey can't hear anyway. Oh, I
(20:15):
would be bad. I would bebad. But what I said, I
think a. I would help ina lot of the situations because they can,
you know, obviously, take therepetitiveness or the yelling or the crying
because the individual on the phone doesn'tunderstand. And Buttercup, you gotta hey,
let's man up a little bit here. You got him with the crying.
(20:40):
Easier for me to understand you ifyou ain't boohoo and let's go,
oh my god so much. Iappreciate, thank you, ma'am, thank
you. Oh and then the dementiapart would be rough. But I'm angry
and I on them on the phonewith them one are the FCS see rules
(21:00):
with telling a robot that they're onthe air? Do you have to let
them know ahead of time? Theyeah, you know what, that's a
good question. That's a good question. I'd say we give it a shot
live on this broadcast. I'll doit right now. The only problem would
be if it's not AI and Ihave to apologize for for questioning my guys.
(21:26):
Has stolen Valor Hi Elliott in themorning. Hello, Hi, Yeah,
Hi, who's this? Uh?Sway a long time listener friends,
first time caller? Hey, thankyou sir? What can I do for
you? Sway? So I wasa recruiter for a call center and I'm
(21:47):
pretty much bit by AI bug rightnow. And basically, you can train
an AI with all those recordings thatthey've had previously to make it sound more
natural because they've already been through allthe problems everybody through, right, And
you're right, the turnover rate inthe call centers are just dumb because they
told me to recruit between fifteen andtwenty a month because they expect it's five
(22:08):
to stay, five to stay.Yeah, And of course I get you
a problem like that. You couldbuild steps to get to the actual human
that already has gone through all this, and it's probably in with the programming
of the AI of the call centerpersons or robots, right, And I
will say this and the thing thatI was reading about where like especially in
(22:30):
the medical field, they were like, so, what's what's like so once
once word gets out that you're talkingto AI, and that's fine, it
will, but what's to and whenthey pass you off to a manager,
what's to prevent me from thinking thatthe manager isn't also a robot? And
they were like, because and andby the way, you may not be
able to convince some people right.You may not, you may not be
(22:52):
able to. But what they weresaying, thank you sir. What they
were saying is is that that personhopefully will be so helpful that it won't
matter. And you do you youfeel like a million bucks. Listen,
I would, whether it's the cablecompany, your internet goes down, my
dish isn't working, and it's snowing, and I just want to watch my
baseball games, whatever it is.The second you hear I'll put you through
(23:15):
to a manager. All of asudden, you become a Rhodes scholar man
because you know now you're talking,you're talking to management. I just feel
like a schmuck, to be honest, I love that. I'm just patting
myself on the back, like,look at me. I scheduled something for
(23:37):
our children, right, and Idid it with a vet support the troops
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