In Ten years will there any Customer Service Jobs at all?

www.yahoo.com...

A fast-food franchisee says she's turning to automated drive-thrus to solve her labor shortage, rather than offering a $15 hourly wage to attract new staff. Shana Gonzales, a Checkers franchisee who owns four restaurants in the Atlanta area, told The New York Times that she wanted to hire more workers, but that it wouldn't be profitable. She said raising wages to $14 or $15 would allow her to fully staff her restaurants - but that she'd have to raise menu prices, which could deter customers. Instead, she's turning to automated technology, such as voice-recognition drive-thrus, to keep business booming, she said.

I think we’ve all seen where we are headed.
First self checkout grocery stores, then no checkout grocery.
McDonald’s and other fast food places started implementing self ordering kiosks.
Pretty soon I don’t think that will even be an option.

Here’s my theory. I think we are literally waiting on the Baby boomers to go and then we are going to have a tech revolution like we’ve never seen.
Checks will go away, regular ordering will go away. Facial recognition will come into play a lot more.
Predictive programming. Back to those baby boomers, I’ve had a theory on Covid, and it was that tptb wanted to speed things up.


I don’t see it in a bad light. I do think there will be a time where it is very painful.
I clearly remember when debit cards first came out. I remember how som many people, (mostly) old people were so against them.

I have a feeling almost all lower level customer service jobs will be automated. We are talking grocery, gas station, hotels, and probably most
Fast food.

So that painful part. No customer service, what happens to all those workers……?

a reply to: JAGStorm

No customer service, what happens to all those workers……?

Government subsidies.

I just finished watching ‘The Expanse’ a few weeks ago, thanks to DB’s recommendation. That’s how they portray our future. Along with many other futuristic SciFi flics.

It started with convid and won’t end there.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: JAGStorm

No customer service, what happens to all those workers……?

Government subsidies.

I just finished watching ‘The Expanse’ a few weeks ago, thanks to DB’s recommendation. That’s how they portray our future. Along with many other futuristic SciFi flics.

It started with convid and won’t end there.

Ok I’ll have to check that out.

I fear we are quickly approaching a time where the movie WALL-E is our future. Slowly but surely “progress” is raping this planet. CoNViD has vastly increased the call for socialist welfare and a UBI. Our food we regularly drink through straws, exercise is a thing of the past even bicycles peddle themselves. We’re so caught up in the world of technology we can pass face to face without interacting but text to say I just seen ya, 30 seconds later.

A system where we just literally float through life with government backing, no ambition to succeed or do a damn thing. And the more jobs that disappear, the more things automated, the more we rapidly change the way things were. The faster I see the decline of the system.

I would love to think this is all done because they know something we don’t. But I alas I feel they look at us as useless feeders that once disenfranchised we will fall inline to the whims of our all powerful and knowledgeable leaders.

A bleak prospect for the future if viewed through my kaleidoscope 🤷‍♂️

SaneThinking

a reply to: JAGStorm

They've been trying to force a $15 minimum for a long time. Since they couldn't get it passed (and with good reason, it kills jobs and businesses wherever it's happened), they went the other route with COVID and subsidized people not to take those jobs unless they paid that much.

Ask yourself ... people are literally sitting around doing nothing because the government is using our tax dollars to pay them not to work. These are people who wouldn't lift a finger more than they absolutely had to in order to support themselves in the normal course of things. They lack ambition for anything better, and yet they're the ones bitching about how they never have enough.

Why do they deserve more? What have they done for more?

They literally just want it given to them for the bare minimum effort and nothing else. That's not how you make more money and get more stuff, or at least it didn't used to be. If you wanted more, you did more, you went out and learned how to do more difficult and valuable things.

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: JAGStorm

No customer service, what happens to all those workers……?

Government subsidies.

I just finished watching ‘The Expanse’ a few weeks ago, thanks to DB’s recommendation. That’s how they portray our future. Along with many other futuristic SciFi flics.

It started with convid and won’t end there.

Ok I’ll have to check that out.

I'll give you the idea in the nutshell.

Most everyone received what was called "basic". It was the basic package you needed to live: basic housing, basic food, etc. It was bare bones.

If you wanted more than basic for your life, then you had to go out and work a job, and you started with a crap job like waitressing or some other service job, and you worked your butt off for a period of 3 to 5 years to prove you had the ambition and work ethic to deserve more, and then you were moved up the ladder to more and better things from there, including better than basic.

And once you were "in" the government could always threaten to bust you back down to basic again if you went too far against what they wanted.

Of course, in today speak, the people on basic would all be angry because the "greedy" people who put in the effort to have more and better wouldn't pay them their fair share and give them more so that basic would be more comfortable.

So it wouldn't actually work without some severe "social engineering".

a reply to: ketsuko

The people you describe are the ones who like socialism and communism.

I have a friend who moved to Canada so the socialist system would take good care of him.

Turns out he has more talent in music than he thought, so now he's moving back to America where they will not keep half of his income.... Not yet anyway, unless Democrats keep winning National and State elections.

a reply to: carewemust

Yes. We had a friend like that. He did a booming business in real estate and memorabilia. I won't go into it, but he made really, really good money at it.

Then one night, he woke up with horrific stomach pains. A trip to the ER and medical tests later, and it turned out he had ulcerative colitis. Not only was he absolutely incensed at the costs of the medical testing, but then, he proceeded to complain about how he couldn't get insurance because of the colitis so the system wasn't fair.

We asked him and he admitted that he could have easily afforded health insurance before, but he chose not to because he was young and healthy and didn't need it. When we pointed out that you started carrying it because you never knew when you would need it ... like he did ... he only got angry again and insisted that system wasn't fair because his treatment wasn't free.

He moved to Canada for the free care.

After he was there, we kept getting endless posts about how unfair it was that everything in Canada cost so much more - like a case of beer.

The people do not have to accept their machinations. But, we will have to come together en mass to do so. That is why they want us divided along racial lines. Divide and Conquer. People are idiots and they will find out when it is too late how oppressed they will become. We are 7+ billion people. The elitists that rule over us are less than 1%. We could straighten them all out in a day or two if we wanted.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Some customer service jobs would disappear, but there was a ton of backlash at self-checkouts and self service gas stations. I can't see CS jobs evaporating simply because things like HVAC, plumbing, electrical and more simply can't be automated. Even in Fast Food that equipment doesn't clean itself! By the time they can come up with a truly fully automated Fast Food Joint burgers will have to necessarily be $20 bucks just to cover the cost of the robotics!

I for a bit worked for a company that used Robotics on an assembly line & maintaining it was problematic. It could really only run for 3 hrs before needing "gone over" by Techs. Everyone keeps saying we're all going to get replaced by machines. Problem is I've been hearing it since the 70's an there are damn few places where it's been achieved successfully.

The bigger problem is despite all the jobs available no one want to work, an those that kinda wander in can't stay off their phones. There's absolutely no work-ethic anymore.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I think that this point is one that I still understand about the whole "smart grid" as well as universal basic income argument.

I do get the concerns about it, including totalitarianism and increased dependence on central governments.

On the other side, however, what will society do if a large percentage of jobs are eliminated and not a commensurate increase of other jobs? If you have a large swath of the population and no provision of basic needs, there will anarchy or revolt.

Well first, customer service jobs suck...Is there any that pay more than 15 bucks an hour? Not what I would suggest a career job, but a good starting point.

What is killing us mostly is the lack of trade skilled people that everyone seems to think they need a BA/BS to get a job and one could be a plumber apprentice out of HS and be making 100k within 5 years without a huge student loan to pay off.

How about being a pilot, best time in the last 50 years to become a pilot.

I remember a time when someone delivered your milk. Someone picked up your diapers. Someone pumped your gas, checked your oil, and cleaned your windshield.

When people owned record stores and Blockbuster was king.

Where did those jobs go? It's progress. Other opportunities come along when some disappear. Like coal changing to electric cars/wind power/and solar.

Jobs come and go. When I was a kid, there was no "tech", no computers. During the 90's, tons of new jobs in the computer and related fields showed up. I'm sure that switching to computers cost a few jobs.

And now private companies are starting to take the initiative and explore space on their own. I see lots of jobs there.

And why not let robots do most customer service jobs?

I like change. I like progress. I'm still waiting for the hologram revolution. Imagine how many jobs that will create.

And finally, let's not forget all those jobs created by the entrepreneurs who create new stuff that people need all the time. That's why we have a show like "Shark Tank".

a reply to: Caver78

This much is true.

The print side of our operation is largely machine based, but those machines do not run themselves and constantly screw up. It costs a lot of money to only find out after a full run that the machine was throwing giant magenta stripes down every third page, for example, and then go back and try again.

You need human eyes monitoring the automation or else you risk disaster.

originally posted by: MiddleInsite
I remember a time when someone delivered your milk. Someone picked up your diapers. Someone pumped your gas, checked your oil, and cleaned your windshield.

Well I would say there is 1000x more delivery drivers today than back when drivers delivered milk...lol Come live in OR where to pump your own gas is illegal and you are back in old days.

a reply to: MiddleInsite

There are services that will deliver your milk even today. There is a local dairy near where we live that offers a morning milk delivery a few times a week. It comes to your door, and they even have the old time glass bottles. You can choose to get local bacon and bread too.

a reply to: JAGStorm

5-10 years at the most I think based on what I've seen. The folks mentioning the self check kiosks failed to take into account one aspect of this, which is the generational divide.

Older folks like them less and are generally less capable of operating one themselves. Once the stigma is gone with the generational change of those that have been using a computer their entire life you'll see more widespread adoption.

Yes, yes there will. Except they will be highly technical and customer you service will be a machine.

No, those will be taken by other machines one day too.

George Jetson only worked three hours a day, three days a week at Spacely Sprokets. So nine hours a week and did well. So probably UBI with a little extra button mashing.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I have a feeling almost all lower level customer service jobs will be automated. We are talking grocery, gas station, hotels, and probably most
Fast food.

Let's look on the bright side. Perhaps it will be a blessing not to have arrogant, authoritarian, round headed people behind the counter with their "I don't give a sh!t" attitudes.

The wallmart near me is self checkout only most the time

The amount of theft that happens now I can't imagin they make profit