Destroying Humanity Through "Process"

Today I googled "Xbox Live, Rock Band, Drum Pedal" to figure out who I needed to contact to replace our broken drum pedal .

I came to the XBox site and called them first. You probably already know that XBox is a Microsoft product, and so I was dealing with the Microsoft "process."

What this means is that through the automated phone system I could not find an option that would get me the help I needed, so I opted to speak to someone. The gentleman whose fate it was to help me today was obviously not in this country. I have no problem with outsourcing, except for one. Any part of a company that is outsourced has to have very specific processes in place in order to ensure quality and consistency. Imposing such strict processes on something that involves human interaction dehumanizes the people involved.

As an example, here is the tale of two companies.

Company 1

When the gentleman representing XBox answers the call, he cheerfully greeted me, asked me my name, asked permission to call me by my first name, listened to my situation, and repeated my situation back to  me - just like his script told him to do. He then assisted me in locating the serial number on the XBox, noticed that I had not registered it, took my information so that it was registered and then proceeded to check the database to find a solution to my problem. When the database informed him that I needed to contact the manufacturer, he cheerfully attempted to give me a long explanation of the situation. At this time his accent was starting to get a bit thick and I could barely understand him, so I asked him to simplify his answer, can they get the part for me, if not who do I need to call? The simple answer was no I needed to call the game manufacturer. Once we had the answer he wanted to provide me with a case number. I asked him not to, that already 15 minutes of my time had been spent to get a very simple answer. I explained to him that he was very nice, that I understood that I needed to call the manufacturer and that was not a problem, but my patience was already spent on the process it took to find out that they could not help me.

Company 2
I look at the box the game came in, notice the web address http://www.rockband.com. I visit the site, find a phone number and call. My call is  promptly answered by a kid who was probably in the middle of playing Rock Band. I explained the situation to him, he apologized in a tone that suggested he was thinking "bummer!" He then allows me the time to brag that it was my 7 year old son playing songs on the hard level that broke the pedal. He tells me about his nephew who is a video game genius. He takes my information and assures me a new pedal will arrive at my house in 7 business days. By this time I am driving to an appointment, which he realized and asked if I wanted to write down the confirmation number or just have it emailed. I told him to email it to me which he did.

In a nutshell - process kills humanity and it is human interaction that makes customers feel like they have been taken care of.

I have felt bad for the gentleman on the first call all day today. He is just doing a job, probably for less money than I made when I was 12 and picked strawberries over the summer, and he has to deal with people like me all day, every day and all he has is his script.