Time is a valuable commodity. And we don’t know about you, but we hate when our time is wasted. While technology has done much good in society, the disappearance of person-to-person interactions has caused a lot of wasted time. 

Texting and email is great on a personal level but if you have to make a call to your cable/internet provider, electric company, etc., you often have to spend several minutes on hold or answering 20 questions on your phone’s keypad before you’re rewarded the opportunity to speak with an actual human being.

Who would think you’d have to jump through hoops to speak to a member of your own species?

These automated service reps are well-spoken and very informative. But as former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt said, “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

And there’s nothing sincere about an automated recording. They often say, “you’re time is very important to us.”  Well forgive us, because we have our doubts. 

Having these filters does do some good for these companies, weeding out those who may not be in serious need of assistance, but for those who actually need help, what could be solved in a couple of seconds takes a matter of minutes – or sometimes days. And a lot of times you have to go on a scavenger hunt on the internet and/or threaten to cancel service before a customer service number is even provided.

It is insanely frustrating. Why can’t things be more personal?

On the flip side, one of the things we love about being a community newspaper is the ease of access to our readers. If you have a question about your subscription, want to talk to an advertising representative or have information for one of our reporters during our office hours, you’re immediately greeted by a member of our staff.

If you don’t believe us, please call 845-887-5200 right now. If it’s business hours we will pick up.

We take your time seriously and value our interactions with you.

For large companies who serve thousands across the country and world, we get that your clientele is extensive, but we’d appreciate if you were a little easier to reach.

Because at the end of the day, our needs come first.

But the advent of AI – Artificial Intelligence – and continued use of automation, things can only get worse, we fear.