The Customer Service Survey
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Book Recommendation: It's Better to be a Good Machine than a Bad Person
Wednesday - May 09, 2007 02:26 PM in
Several months ago, Bruce Ballentine of EIG, whom I respect very much for his common sense and expertise in designing IVR and speech recognition interfaces, sent me a manuscript for a book he was finishing up called It's Better to be a Good Machine than a Bad Person.
In it, Bruce lays out his basic thesis that the best design for a voice user interface is the most efficient, not the most human. This simple notion has at times gotten lost in the crosscurrents of persona design, customer-hostile policies, and efforts to be overly ambitious in automating customer service.
It's a well-written (if long) book, easy to read and amply illustrated with short comic strips. I was able to get through all 400+ pages in the duration of a cross country flight, and came out of it with a lot of ideas about how to efficiently serve customers.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in good design for phone service. You might not agree with the underlying philosophy, but you'll have a hard time not conceding many of Bruce's excellent points.
He also quotes me in several places, so you know the book has to be good.
Posted by Peter Leppik
It's a well-written (if long) book, easy to read and amply illustrated with short comic strips. I was able to get through all 400+ pages in the duration of a cross country flight, and came out of it with a lot of ideas about how to efficiently serve customers.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in good design for phone service. You might not agree with the underlying philosophy, but you'll have a hard time not conceding many of Bruce's excellent points.
He also quotes me in several places, so you know the book has to be good.
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 02:26 PM by | | | |