Yes! We have started living that age of technology which we used to witness in cartoons and sci-fi movies 15-20 years back and now technology is surrounding humanity more than ever. It’s all pervasive and growing at the fastest pace ever. A large part of credit of early spread of technology goes to COVID which made us to do so in order to keep the business running. We all are quite fortunate to witness this as we lived on the cusp of diminishing non-tech things and rising tech based activities. We for sure will have a lot of stories to tell our coming generations.
But.one thing which keeps bothering me is not the use of technology in business but the obsession for technology to run the business. Here, I am not from that school of thoughts which says that technology eat jobs, it has never happened and probably it will never. What is going wrong in this overall technological shift is that business owners have started considering it over and above the core product. The current community is more concerned about the delivery rather than the quality. Technology is being expected to everything by making the parameters more digital than ever. For instance some HR software talks about tech based performance appraisal which is letting computer decide over the data.
Another example comes from the entire customer care segment, the AI based program will keep asking you same question until your response does not match its programmed command. Getting good information from a bank’s customer care has become a hell of task if not round the world but at least in India. Most of the companies are doing it to reduce cost engaged in physical infrastructure and to get better bottom line. The product has taken a backseat and selling it online is the new normal. I was literally irritated few days back while coordinating with Goibibo for a small refund of my air ticket where they ask me to fill 10 forms rather than allowing me to speak to some customer care or reverting over email. Of course some part of the problem was pertaining to lockdown issues but even after lockdown it became the new normal.
In order to become a good business we must focus on the deliverables first and the mode of delivery should always play second fiddle to it. We are expecting a lot from computers and large part of it is due to lure of cost reduction. I still remember working for a company which was engaged in electronic gadgets’ business. Rather than paying attention to gadgets and servicing we kept on working on software, data management, technological implementation etc etc. at the end of the day we just had the data with us and no customers. Yes, tech is and amazing helper but it’s not the product for non-tech companies.
