Inspired by Maddy’s post on Mental Load and the power of permissive brands, I wrote this reply based on recent experiences.
I do wonder if sometimes the simplest thing a brand can do to ease the mental load is to make it easy to do business with them. Our lives are rarely linear so actually being able to get hold of somebody to cancel an order, change it, ask a question is increasingly rare. Chatbots are AI-enabled echo chambers and websites seem determined to avoid you wanting to speak to an actual human. Emails are sent from ‘no reply’ addresses. With an elderly parent-in-law, this lack of human touch becomes increasingly obvious. A curt text message from EE was received about cutting off mobile services because the device hadn’t been used. She is on PAYG and uses the phone for emergencies with a healthy credit on it. After 20 minutes of trying to get through to a person via the endless options, none of which actually related to the problem we were facing, a very kind gentleman helped us out. In less than 2 minutes. Be more human please brands.
