When outsourcing negatively affects you, just find the local guy.

My recent experience with AT&T has left me dumbfounded by how outsourcing can impact customer service. The reality is that the people in India (or across the Country, say Nevada) have no idea who to talk to locally. It is like them attempting to contact the other outsourced branch of service who probably outsources their communication as well. The solution: hunt down a local service guy.

Find the AT&T van on the side of the road and see if that guy will help you. Bob (and this is a legitimate Bob, not the person whose native name would be too long to tell you) is helping me and I think I will finally get somewhere. Part of the reason may be that I know where he is working tomorrow (and he can see the murder in my eyes). But, most likely, he is helping me because we have established a human connection, an element that is invaluable to improving how businesses treat their customers.

Without my local library, I would have been cyber space deficient for the last week. AT&T has been going to fix the problem everyday since July 21. I’m glad to see they are true to their word. Thank you for the digital tissue.

More important than my problem could be the future of the library and its patrons. I recently heard a fantastic speech about how the Amazon Kindle might affect book accessibility for those in society who can’t afford to buy their own. If paper books become obsolete, how will those that can’t purchase the four hundred dollar Kindle access books?

But when I mesh this idea with another speech regarding printed newspapers, I am not so sure the Kindle has so much power. Printed newspapers have been labeled as a thing of the past more than once. First with the advent of radio, then television, and now with the internet. Paper newspapers are decreasing in circulation, but we live in a market based on supply and demand.

I know too many people who value printed books and papers. Who would be devastated not to have the pleasure of cracking a new spine and anticipating what is on the next page. Or, unfolding the newspaper and kicking back with a cup of coffee. There is something encouraging about seeing ones bookmark move across the pages every night that I don’t think readers will allow to disappear.