Anti-Social Behaviour
When I speak of A.S.B, I think of the numerous times a day I pick up the telephone, dial a number, and, low and behold, I鈥檓 talking to an automated voice in a call centre.
Press one for this, two for that, and if you鈥檙e lucky, press zero to talk to one of our operators. I can never get in touch with the particular person I need to handle my enquiry.
I am one of the people who represent the residents in the high rise block where I live.
The complaints procedure although not complicated, is at times damn frustrating.
We have a housing office whose premises are situated in the same building as our community centre. This, in theory should give instant access to the relevant members of staff to deal with the day to day problems which can arise.
Not So. You ring the local office, and hey presto, you are put straight through to the call centre.
Why does this constitute Anti Social Behaviour? In my opinion, there is no substitute for personal contact.
I am in favour of modern technology. Heaven knows, it鈥檚 given me a new lease of life.
In a recent meeting with staff members of our housing association, we were informed by one of the line managers that the system used by them to handle reports, repairs or complaints was 鈥渇lawless鈥.
How I wish that this were true. Why waste thousands of pounds on a brand new building, supposedly to deal with local issues, when it is impossible to dial the appropriate number, and converse with someone close at hand, instead of waiting in a queue only to be told by an operator at the other end that the information you have provided will be dealt with in the next 24 hours or so.
I would like to know how you feel about this subject. Anti Social Behaviour isn鈥檛 just about Violent Crime, Noisy Neighbours Etc. Surely it is also about the Unwillingness on the part of businesses, housing Associations and other organizations who use those abominable call centres, and totally throw away the personal touch to wake up to the fact that we are all human beings, some of whom, through no fault of their own, because of age, illness or inability to use technology of any description do not wish to converse with robots. No matter which way you look at progress, a thought should be spared for anyone who thinks that automatic is not diplomatic.
I agree entirely.
We humans are getting to clever for our boots! We seem to have a great capacity to learn new skills and knowledge and apply it but are not so smart in the emotional needs of communication and caring.
Watch any kid absorbed in their pc games or even TV for that matter and their politeness and ability to listen and respond goes out of the window.
I guess answering systems are an organisations way to 'streamline' to 'cut costs' but the real cost is loss of humanity and the sooner we learn this the better. I am sure there is some clever person out there that has a nifty little technique to get around this issue - something we callers can do to screw up the system and at the same time teach everyone a valuable lesson.
The only people who get anything out of these automated calls are the phone companys, who will gladly have you hanging on for hours generating them a fortune.
Why is an engaged tone so bad ?
Writing letters and getting a reply is more efficient.
Perhaps you need a block judge, some kind of instant justice police guy, like in judge dredd ?
Thank you guys for taking an interest in what I wrote: I think you all contributed a lot of wisdom, and wish our landlords would read what you had to say: