Robot or human?

Well, just got a good sample about organization to human communication. This was an e-mail of me to Smart and I was hoping for a little bit more than the reply I got: But nobody said it would be easy.

Attn. Ms. Rome

Dear Ms. Rome,

This morning, without any internet, I was thinking what to do next
related to the problems with my internet connectivity. And that large
organizations like Smart are not always easy to deal with when things go
really wrong.

Often you end up talking to different people where no one has the full
picture of what is going on.

Then I realized that related to this feedback reference number you have
been replying to my e-mails, so I do have a contact person. Then I
realized that I haven’t made life easier for the people within Smart
either as I have sent quite some complaints, recently not even giving
proper reference numbers and such.

So here I found myself this morning, without internet. And then I
realized that you have been trying to help me very well, probably
talking to your boss or other people within Smart to find solutions for
me. And that I had been e-mailing with one person, so I do have a
contact person, a human being, within Smart. And then I realized that
wanting to make organizations like Smart more human again, serve people
again, my behavior has not served that cause very well, that I have not
been a good example as I partly have just behaved like a complaining
customer instead of a human being needing help.

And then I realized that if I want large organizations to be more human
again, serve humans in a human way, that I would need to change the
customer side as well, meaning I also would have act as a human and
introduce myself properly for example. And while writing this just maybe
tell you that I am desperate as I don”t know where to go or what to do
to have proper internet again, as I depend so heavily upon it. And that
it wouldn’t be easy to move my computers as I have setup quite some
stuff like e-mail accounts and ftp accounts that I can”t just move to
another computer without an awful lot of hassle and time. And that I now
have to go down to the city to do my work and some private things in an
internet cafe. And that yesterday I forgot to put some important files
to my USB so I couldn’t finish my work, my promises to people while
using the internet in an internet cafe.

So well, what I actually wanted to do with this e-mail is to tell you
that I am Guus Ellenkamp, fifty years old, of Dutch origin, that I moved
around ten years ago to The Philippines as my partner is from here. So
that I am a human being and not only, not just just a customer. And
maybe tell you that I am kind of a computer and internet person and
depend very much on the internet. And that many Filipinos tell me that I
am complaining a lot and that that may be true, but that my intentions,
just as the intentions of every human being, are good. And that I seem
to talk a lot and write a lot, as this e-mail is now much longer than I
intended. And much more to tell, but I guess this is not the right time
and place.

Maybe you can tell me a bit about you, about your side?

And yes, of course it would be nice if Smart or actually the people
within Smart, can provide me proper internet again. But that’s not my
point with this e-mail right now.

Looking forward to your reply,

Guus

And some information related to my account which will hopefully make
your life easier:
Account number: 0124554160
Service Reference Number: 1010128432
Address: “The Malasag House”, Malasag, Cugman, 9000 Cagayan de Oro City
Phone: 0917 596 14 55
FeedbackReferenceNo. 000041306

And this was the reply:

Dear Guus,

We appreciate you for taking the time to let us know of your situation.

Please be assured that we are continuously coordinating with our support
group to expedite handling of your concern.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Sincerely,

Rome/llp
Customer Care

Sounds like an organizational reply, not a human reply. This means that Ms. Rome didn’t get my point or can’t bypass the procedures and policies of Smart. Or maybe this is just how she thinks, but I doubt it.

Is this kind of communication really what we want?

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